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Arizona State Route 89A

State highway in Arizona, United States

State Route 89A (SR 89A) is an 83.85-mile (134.94 km) state highway that runs from Prescott north to Flagstaff in the U.S. state of Arizona. The highway begins at SR 89 in Yavapai County and heads northward from Prescott Valley, entering Jerome. From Jerome, the route then heads to Cottonwood and Clarkdale. The road then continues out to Sedona. The highway is notable for its scenic value as it winds over and through Mingus Mountain as well as passing through Sedona and the Oak Creek Canyon. The route then enters Coconino County soon after leaving Sedona. The highway proceeds to Flagstaff, where it crosses Interstate 17 (I-17) and I-40. The highway ends at I-40 Business in Flagstaff. What is now SR 89A became a state highway in the late 1920s as SR 79. The highway was extended and improved several times through 1938. SR 79 was renumbered to U.S. Route 89A (US 89A) in 1941 and then to SR 89A in the early 1990s. ## Route description SR 89A runs from its southern terminus in Prescott northward through the towns of Jerome, Cottonwood and Sedona to its northern terminus in Flagstaff. The highway is known for its scenic views as it passes through the Sedona area and Oak Creek Canyon. ### Prescott to Jerome SR 89A's southern terminus is at a junction with SR 89 north of Prescott near the Antelope Hills Golf Course and Ernest A. Love Field. The road heads east from the junction with SR 89 as the Pioneer Parkway, a four-lane divided highway with diamond interchanges at most intersections. It continues as a divided highway until it reaches Fain Road in Prescott Valley. The route continues beyond this intersection as a two-lane undivided highway. The only at-grade intersection in this stretch is a junction with Great Western Drive, near milepost 321. As SR 89A moves to the northeast, it begins to ascend the Black Hills mountain range. ADOT has designated this section of SR 89A as the Mingus Mountain Scenic Road by ADOT. The roadway follows the terrain through a series of hairpin turns as it climbs in elevation. Once SR 89A reaches passes over the mountains, it begins its descent into the Verde Valley. During its descent, SR 89A enters the town of Jerome. In Jerome, the highway provides access to the nearby Jerome State Historic Park. ### Jerome to Sedona Upon exiting Jerome, SR 89A heads northeast through the Verde Valley. The highway also picks up the Historic US 89A designation on the south end of Jerome. Officially named the Jerome-Clarkdale-Cottonwood Historic Road by the Arizona Department of Transportation, Historic US 89A is one of only four state designated historic routes in Arizona, the others being Historic Route 66, Historic U.S. Route 80 and the Apache Trail Historic Road. The historic route was designated on May 13, 1992 by ADOT and is about 10 miles long. After SR 89A and Historic US 89A enter the town of Clarkdale, SR 89A turns southeast at a roundabout with Clarkdale Parkway. The route continues toward the southeast through Clarkdale before entering the town of Cottonwood. There, the highway starts heading east at Cottonwood Street before reaching an intersection with Main Street. Historic US 89A, runs through the old downtown areas of both Clarkdale and Cottonwood. From the present day traffic circle between SR 89A and Clarkdale Parkway, Historic 89A continues north along Clarkdale Parkway, turning right at Main Street in Clarkdale, and then right again at Broadway. It continues past Tuzigoot National Monument, becoming Main Street in Cottonwood, and providing access to Dead Horse Ranch State Park. The route intersects Cottonwood Street, where the bypass route now intersects Main Street. Following the intersection with Cottonwood Street, the road follows Main Street to an intersection with SR 260, which heads to the south toward Camp Verde and I-17. SR 89A then moves northeastward towards Sedona. As the highway leaves Cottonwood, it again becomes a divided highway north of Rocking Chair Road, heading into desert. Before reaching Sedona, SR 89A provides access to Red Rock State Park. The route remains a divided highway until it reaches Sedona, an arts and resort community known for its red sandstone formations. As it enters the city of Sedona, the route is known as the Si Birch Memorial Highway. The route continues east through Sedona, providing access to the Sedona Airport. SR 89A continues toward the east through Sedona to an intersection with SR 179, which heads south from this intersection through the southern part of Sedona to provide access to I-17. ### Sedona to Flagstaff Upon leaving Sedona, SR 89A becomes the state designated Sedona–Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road. The highway heads northeast into a wooded area from Sedona and follows Oak Creek as it enters Oak Creek Canyon. SR 89A then curves to the north as it follows the creek and provides access to Slide Rock State Park along this portion of the highway. The roadway leaves the creek as it begins to ascend through the canyon. At the edge of the canyon, the Scenic Road designation ends. Upon ascending, the road goes through a series of hairpin turns (no trucks over 50 ft.) toward the Mogollon Rim. The roadway continues northward away from the canyon towards Flagstaff. It curves northeastward as it passes to the west of the Forest Highlands Golf Club. The route continues to the northeast towards I-17 near Flagstaff Pulliam Airport. SR 89A begins to run concurrently with I-17 as a freeway northward. The two highways continue north to an interchange with I-40, where I-17 terminates. The route continues north along Milton Road, to the west of Northern Arizona University before reaching its northern terminus at I-40 Business in Flagstaff. ## History The routing of SR 89A was first defined as a state highway in 1927 as SR 79 by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). At the time, only the portion from Prescott to Clarkdale was built, but the remaining portion to Flagstaff had been planned. By 1929, the highway had been extended north to Sedona, although the entire highway was not paved at this time. A graded dirt road was built the following year between Flagstaff and Sedona. The southern half of the section between Sedona and Flagstaff had been improved to a gravel road by 1934, with the northern half under construction. The next year, the construction on the northern section near Flagstaff was complete. The southern end of the highway near Prescott and the section between Jerome and Cottonwood had been paved by this time. By 1938, the entire route had been paved. By 1941, the highway was redesignated from SR 79 to US 89A. Before the establishment of the route for I-17, the only route to Flagstaff was through Prescott. There were two routes available: US 89A through Jerome, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon or north through Chino Valley via US 89 to US 66. The route was redesignated from US 89A to SR 89A in 1993. Before 2001, SR 89A had veered south into the granite dells near Watson Lake, but due to an aging Granite Creek bridge and increased traffic, Yavapai County acquired the necessary land to realign SR 89A away from the dells and near the airport. ## Junction list ## Spur route State Route 89A Spur (SR 89A Spur or SS 89A) is a 7.22-mile-long (11.62 km) unsigned highway routed along Fain Road in Prescott Valley. SR 89A Spur was originally established on July 16, 2004, over a small section of Fain Road immediately east of the intersection with SR 89A proper. The route was extended over the remainder of Fain Road to SR 69 on August 18, 2011. The road was originally two lanes wide but has since been widened to a four-lane divided highway. Its primary purpose is as an eastern bypass around Prescott. The Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization has planned a freeway to connect SR 169 and SR 89A via Fain Road/SR 89A Spur as part of their 2025 regional plan. ### Major intersections ## See also

DJ Hero

2009 video game

DJ Hero is a music video game, developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision as a rhythm game spin-off of the Guitar Hero franchise. It was released on October 27, 2009 in North America and on October 29, 2009 in Europe. The game is based on turntablism, the act of creating a new musical work from one or more previously recorded songs using record players and sound effect generators, and features 94 remixes of two different songs from a selection of over 100 different songs across numerous genres. To score points, the player must press buttons to activate accented beats, adjust their crossfade between the two songs, and "scratch" the turntable on the game's custom controller in time to marks that scroll on the screen to score points and perform well for the virtual crowd. The game features both a single player Career mode and cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. The game also features a mode for selected songs for a DJ player to play alongside another player using a Guitar Hero guitar controller. Many DJ and mix artists have contributed to the game both in the game's development, the creation of mixes, and in lending their images for playable avatars in the game; these including DJ Shadow, Z-Trip, DJ AM, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Daft Punk. DJ Hero was generally well received by game journalists, praising the departure from the Guitar Hero series–style of gameplay, the use of the turntable controller to simulate the motions of a DJ and how the game's difficulty curve helps the player to become skilled on it, and the game's soundtrack; several smaller issues were identified as potential improvements for a possible sequel. However, the game did not perform as strongly as expected by industry analysts, believed to be due to the waning interest in music games during 2009; regardless, DJ Hero is stated by NPD Group to be the highest-grossing new intellectual property of 2009 in North America. ## Gameplay DJ Hero primarily simulates turntablism, a musical style used by disc jockeys to create a new mashup song by incorporating one or more previously recorded songs played on record players along with sound effect generators. The game features score attack gameplay similar to the Guitar Hero games. The controller consists of a wireless deck consisting of a movable turntable that supports 3 "stream" buttons, an effects dial, a crossfader, and a "Euphoria" button; a hidden panel contains additional controller buttons to interact with the gaming console outside of the game. A portion of the controller can be detached and reattached to adapt the unit for left-handed players. Notes travel in an arc across a spinning record on screen, and the player holds down one of the 3 stream buttons to play notes; two buttons reflect the two songs used in that particular mix, and the third represents samples to add to the mix which can be adjusted with the effects dial. The player must also constantly adjust the crossfader to match onscreen symbols, which alters the relative volume of the songs as to bring one song to the forefront of the mix for a short time. Certain tracks are shown on screen as a series of up or down arrow, representing scratching sections, requiring the player to turn the turntable in the direction of the arrows while holding down the button to score points, mimicking the scratching of the record needle on vinyl albums. "Euphoria" is equivalent to Guitar Heros Star Power, collected by successfully completing specific phrases in the song mix, called Perfect Regions, and can be released by pressing the Euphoria button, doubling the player's current multiplier as well as automatic crossfading when active. There is also a "Rewind" meter that builds through consistent successful playing, and once full, allows the player to rewind the song to fix errors in their performance. The player must continue to perform well or their performance meter will drop and the music track will cut out. Failing the song is not possible, unlike in Guitar Hero games. A single player career mode is available, as well both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes ("DJ vs DJ"), playable locally or remotely. Ten songs have been specially mixed to also support gameplay with Guitar Hero and other compatible guitar controllers in a "DJ vs Guitar" mode. Players can also use a microphone for a non-scoring addition to the mix. A Party Play mode allows the game to automatically play the songs with the ability for a player to jump in and play at any time. ## Development Activision had initially applied for a trademark on the name DJ Hero in early 2008, leading to speculation that Activision was making plans to compete against Konami's Beatmania series of music video games with their own DJ game as a possible spinoff of their popular Guitar Hero series. FreeStyleGames, a small developer of music games, was employed to help produce localized downloadable content for Guitar Hero games and develop another yet-to-be announced music game. This game was later revealed to be DJ Hero. Activision CEO Robert Kotick confirmed the existence of DJ Hero in an interview with CNBC on January 20, 2009, revealing a release "later this year". Activision CFO Thomas Tippl stated that DJ Hero would be aimed at a broader audience than the Guitar Hero games primarily through the use of more contemporary music in its soundtrack. Producer Will Townsend stated they opted for a wide variety of music to "make sure that everybody has something in there that they want." DJ Hero was designed as a party game and to make the player "the life of the party", giving ways for them to be "in control of the music", according to Townsend. FreeStyleGames teamed up with London based music production company Crossfade Cartel owned by Ofei Sakyi and Dan Neil to ensure the overall quality of the soundtrack. The 16 man music production team used a combination of MIDI software along with the music sequencer program, Ableton Live; the MIDI information was used to construct the gameplay elements such as crossfading and scratching with additional custom export software. Because of this nature, Neil stated that it was much easier to alter a mix to meet certain gameplay goals, taking only a few minutes to complete, compared with the development of songs for Guitar Hero. The team worked alongside artists and DJs for incorporation of songs into the game. Neil stated they brought to artists and DJs working prototypes of the game and hardware to show them what the sampled music and final mixes sounded like, garnering interest from these groups. This led to securing of rights from several groups for their songs, though this did occur late in the development process. Mixing with celebrity DJs was performed either though electronic communications, or at FreeStyleGames' studios or the homes or studios of the DJs themselves; the team outlined the goals of the game and requested mixes that emphasized the gameplay featured, but avoided hampering the creativity of the artists. DJ Shadow was brought in by Activision during November and December 2008, at least a year into the development into the game, to help select individual songs, help with creating the mixes, and provide additional input for the game, and will also be a playable DJ avatar in the game. He was able to identify old effects samples that were used in the past for scratching for the developers to include the game. To create the mixes, DJ Shadow first created a "dry version" of each mix which did not include any embellishments. DJ Shadow then proceeded to build off that to create the "wet version" with added effects that was used as the base for the gameplay's mixes. Artists Eminem and Jay-Z have also served as consultants for the game; a special edition of DJ Hero was branded with their names, and included a limited edition of the controller, a music CD of their songs, a DJ stand, and a travel case for the units. This version is titled "Renegade Edition." Jay-Z stated that he "[loved] the freedom" that the game gives him, and was able to work closely with Activision to put in new mixes that he envisioned, and considered the game "a DJ's universe", while Eminem believed DJ Hero was a game that he could "see [himself] actually playing". DJs Z-Trip and DJ AM both created mixes for the game and will also be playable DJs in the game; Z-Trip will also help demonstrate the game at the 2009 E3 Conference. Cut Chemist and J.Period will also be assisting in creating mixes for the game. Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff have contributed remixes to the soundtrack. All the Daft Punk remixes were created in-house by the team in London. All of these artists appeared as playable avatars. In the case of Daft Punk, a special venue inspired by the group's Alive 2007 tour was created, that Tim Riley, Vice President for Music Affairs at Activision, considered to be "the next best thing to being at a Daft Punk concert". David Guetta has also contributed three mixes that were made available as downloadable content for the game; Guetta would also serve as a spokesperson in the game's European marketing. As part of the game's promotion, the DJ Hero controller appears in the music video for Kid Cudi's "Make Her Say". On August 28, 2009, DJ AM, a significant contributor to DJ Hero, was found dead in his apartment in New York City. His death did not affect the release of the game. Tim Riley, vice president of music affairs for Activision, stated that "We are deeply saddened by the loss of DJ AM. We hope that his work on the game will be a fitting tribute to his creative spirit and musical talent". Also, at least one promotional video for the game has included a screen commemorating the deceased DJ, with the message "DJ AM, 1973–2009. In memory of a visionary." Neversoft's Brian Bright revealed that the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers within DJ Hero arose when they tried to create mixes of guitar-heavy and rock tracks in the game; they felt something was missing in these mixes and added in the Guitar Hero-style of play alongside it. Bright has stated that, while too late for the planned release of Guitar Hero 5, they are looking towards future instrument controller interoperability, including use of the DJ Hero controller into gameplay for future Guitar Hero titles, or using drum controllers within DJ Hero. ### DJ Hero 2 DJ Hero 2 was officially announced in June 2010 and was released in October 2010, featuring more than 70 mashups from over 85 artists. The game includes several new gameplay modes, including a "Empire" career mode, head-to-head DJ battles, social multiplayer modes, and a jump-in and out Party Play mode similar to Guitar Hero 5. The game includes more vocal options for singing and rapping to songs, and a freestyle mode for players. Artists include Eminem, Daft Punk, Chamillionaire, Dr. Dre, Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Metallica, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna, while Deadmau5, DJ Qbert, David Guetta and Tiësto are playable avatars in the game. Prior to the game's announcement, Activision revealed a month before the game's release that it is actively seeking artists for downloadable content and a sequel to the game. One DJ in speculation to appear is DJ BJ, including mixer DJ Qbert. David Guetta has stated that he is set to work on the game's sequel to arrive late in 2010. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stated that despite low sales of DJ Hero, they are committed to continuing the series, with the sequel due in 2010. The sequel, DJ Hero 2, was further confirmed during an Activision investors report for 2009, citing it as one of only 2 major Guitar Hero titles to be expected from Activision in 2010, with an expected late-2010 release date. ### DJ Hero 3D At Nintendo's E3 press conference on June 15, 2010, the Nintendo 3DS handheld console was revealed. At the conference Nintendo listed a number of publishers and franchises coming to the 3DS, one of whom was Activision with DJ Hero 3D, a new installment in the DJ Hero series and the first handheld DJ Hero title. The gameplay is similar in nature to DJ Hero, where the stylus and touchscreen are used to mimic scratching and crossfading between songs. It was later cancelled due to poor sales of DJ Hero 2. ### Legal conflicts On April 15, 2009, the publishers of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, Genius Products and Numark, sued against Scratch'''s developer, 7 Studios and Activision. The lawsuit contends that Activision purchased 7 Studios to both gain access to proprietary technology and to delay publication of the game so DJ Hero could come out first. The Los Angeles Superior Court in which the suit was filed did not grant the requested restraining order against Activision on DJ Hero. Activision states that Scratch was already delayed by as early as October 2008, before they made contact with 7 Studios, and their acquisition of the developers did not impede them from completing Scratch. However, on April 20, the court reversed its decision, awarding Genius and Numark a temporary restraining order, and ordered the "immediate return" of all of the material from 7 Studios from Activision, including all source code related to Scratch. 7 Studios subsequently filed a counter-suit against Genius Products, claiming that they engaged in "unlawful and unsavoury business practices" that limited 7 Studios from completing the game as planned. ## Soundtrack Over 100 individual songs based on master recordings were licensed by Activision, composed into 93 DJ mixes by both participating internationally known DJs and an in-house remix team. Unusually, the audio team also acted as the design team, playtesting all mixes and creating gameplay in tandem with producing the mixes. All mixes were produced using Ableton Live, with most of the scratch routines being performed by former DMC World DJ Champion DJ Blakey. All mixes used in the soundtrack were unique at the time of the game's release. Celebrity mix artists include DJ Shadow, DJ Z-Trip, DJ AM, and Daft Punk in addition to other mix artists listed below, although Daft Punk did not create their levels - they were all created by the in-house remix team. Initial industry speculation stated that DJ Tiësto would be involved with the game, but this was eventually denied. Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys was reported to have signed an exclusivity deal with 7 Studios to appear in their game Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, meaning that he would also not appear on DJ Hero. The individual songs themselves were pulled from a large number of music genres, including Pop, Grunge, Soul, R&B, Techno, Hip Hop, House, Drum & Bass. Most mashup concepts were conceived by the in-house remix team. In addition to mixes using individual songs from both Eminem and Jay-Z, including Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder". Eminem also stated that he will have additional songs included later in the year as downloadable content for the game, such as the "Jay-Z vs. Eminem Mix Pack" released in March 2010, featuring three mash up-style songs combining the works of both artists. Universal Music Group is providing much of the content for the game. ## Reception ### Reviews DJ Hero has received positive reviews from the gaming press, who consider the title as a fresh restart of the music genre given the large number of titles based on guitar play. The turntable peripheral was considered to be well designed to meet the needs of the game. The unit's weight, size, and shape, and ability to cater to both left- and right-handed players was commended. Many reviewers noted a need to alter the action of the crossfader, either by having better physical feedback to the player to indicate the center of the knob's track, or by reducing the width of the track to better handle the rapid crossfade maneuvers. Reviewers also noted that there was a certain weight to the turntable portion of the controller which made scratching imprecise, particularly with the inner blue button where only minimal torque can be applied. The learning curve of the game across the various mixes was highly commended by reviewers for helping players to get used to the new controller. When progressing from "Medium" to "Hard" and "Expert" levels and encountering more complex mixes, reviewers thought the game felt transformed, bringing a difficult but more rewarding experience to the player as they begin emulating every part of a real DJ's motions. Johnny Minkley of Eurogamer considered that while the learning curve is steep, with the "Easy" difficulty being "less thrilling and engaging" compared to Guitar Hero, the game was "structured fabulously to nudge you gradually closer to the summit" with each successive career set and difficulty mode. Cam Shae of IGN Australia felt that the changes in "Hard" mode over "Medium" were somewhat excessive, introducing both more crossfade effects and button-pressing, and felt these could have been introduced separately in "Hard" and "Expert" modes. Richard Li of 1UP.com noted that the inability to fail a song is both "a bane and a boon"; newer players would not feel frustration at trying to get used to the controller and would be able to quickly unlock all the sets in the game's career mode, but without knowing where they failed, they would not have an idea of where they need to hone their skills to improve their performance at the game. The omission of a practice mode was noted by Daemon Hatfield of IGN, believing it would help in some of the more complex mixes by the DJ celebrities. Reviewers believed that the small faults in DJ Hero can be easily fixed for potential sequels. Reviewers found the on-disc soundtrack to be generally strong; Hatfield believed that "the entire soundtrack is superb and could easily stand on its own outside the game". Matt Helgeson of Game Informer considered it to be one of the "most adventurous" soundtracks of any music game, and said though it often relied too much on pop hits, it remained true to the spirit of the DJ mix scene. Minkley thought the game to have "vital, varied, surprising and vast musical content" and to be a fresh experience compared to previous music games. Other reviewers felt the soundtrack had some weak areas. Shae noted that many of the mixes felt like "random mash-ups that take disparate songs", which would be appropriate for a live DJ, but does not reflect well on the art of mixing that can be performed today. Li noted a clear distinction in the quality of the mixes between the early sets—those mostly created in-house by FreeStyleGames—and the latter sets centered on the work of famous DJs. While Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica felt the soundtrack was good, he asserted that individual songs were unrecognizable because of modifications made to them for the mixes, and that they were more difficult to adjust to within the gameplay itself. Many reviews for DJ Hero felt the addition of the non-scoring freeform samples during certain parts of mixes were unnecessary and difficult to use, and with the limited number of samples available, ultimately would lead to overuse and make the mixes sound worse. Reviewers were critical of the game's lackluster multiplayer modes. The DJ-vs-DJ mode was considered poor as both players play the same mix, in consideration of current band-based music games where different players can play different parts of a song. This leads to minimal engagement between players, with each just attempting to maximize their score whenever possible on the controller. While some reviewers considered the DJ-vs-Guitar modes to be fun, others felt it was more a novelty due to the current tracks offered for this mode in the game. The game's graphics were also considered as a negative, often using many strobing lights and creating concerns about possible epileptic seizures that could occur while watching the game. The character designs of the non-celebrity avatars also continued to have the same Muppet-like appearances that occur in the Guitar Hero series, and are overly stereotyped. Time named DJ Hero one of the ten best video games of 2009, considering it "the new contender for best party game". USA Today considered DJ Hero the best music game of the year. DJ Hero also won Best Soundtrack at the Spike Video Game Awards 2009. DJ Hero has been nominated for the "Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack" Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. ### Sales Prior to DJ Hero's release, game industry analysts had projected the title would sell 1.6 million units in its first fiscal quarter; however, after disappointing sales performances of Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band in the month prior to DJ Heros release, analysis had lowered that expectation to 600,000 units. NPD Group figures for the month of October reported only 123,000 units of the game were sold in the United States, below the 175,000 units projected by analysts. November sales in North America were estimated at 211,000 units. Through January 2010, the game has sold 789,000 units in North America. Ars Technica, in considering the game as a "flop" in its present market due to these numbers, attributes the failure being due to four factors: the game was not suited for social play, the cost was prohibitive in the current market, the mixes in the game were relatively unknown despite the individual songs being well-known, and there was a lack of familiarity with how a turntable works for mixing compared with a guitar or drum kit. However, despite these figures, Activision claims that DJ Hero is the highest-grossing new intellectual property of 2009 in North America based on NPD data, which reporters attribute to the game's higher cost. Activision's Dan Amirch cited total North American sales of over 1.2 million units by June 2010, and commented on the "long tail" of sales that made DJ Hero initially appear to be a failure but instead has been considered a successful title by his company but they ran out of business. They still make money off their games today. ## See also - Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX, DJ simulation games developed by Konami - Scratch: The Ultimate DJ'', a similar game by Bedlam Studios

Widowmaker (Overwatch)

Fictional character in the 2016 video game Overwatch

Widowmaker is a character developed by Blizzard Entertainment for their Overwatch franchise. She first appeared at the launch of the 2016 first-person hero shooter game Overwatch, and subsequently in the 2022 sequel, Overwatch 2. Conceived by Jeff Kaplan in the early development phases of the game, her design was fleshed out by Arnold Tsang and other Blizzard artists. In the story of Overwatch, 'Widowmaker' is the alias of Amélie Lacroix (née Guillard), a French ballerina-turned-sleeper agent for the terrorist organization Talon, who after killing her husband becomes a high-profile sniper assassin. A Damage-class character in-game, she has also appeared in related Overwatch media and other Blizzard properties, voiced by Chloé Hollings in all appearances. Widowmaker as a character was positively received, and was one of the most popular characters during the game's open-beta period. Reception on the sexuality of her design has been varied, with some arguing it gave her depth and did not detract from her character, while others argued it was a negative aspect of the games as a whole and a point of mockery towards both the character and Overwatch. Widowmaker's image has also been frequently used in unlicensed Overwatch-related pornography, produced by both fans of the game, as well as pornographic production companies. This has led to contrasting examinations of the works and how the character's depiction varies between fan works and professionally-made content. ## Conception and development While working on massive multiplayer online game concept for Blizzard Entertainment, developer Geoff Goodman suggested the idea of a large number of character classes for players to select, but with class specialization for each. Fellow developer Jeff Kaplan took this idea to heart, salvaging character concepts from Titan—a then-recently cancelled Blizzard project—and character artwork by artist Arnold Tsang for that project. Kaplan created an eight-page pitch for a first person shooter concept to propose the idea, starting with an eight-page pitch that included a series of proposed characters, among them a sniper called "Longshot" clad in a long black cloak and armor. Longshot's concept borrowed a sniper rifle and grappling hook elements from Titan's planned "Ranger" class, and added a machine pistol and a "recon visor". Though they knew they wanted to add a sniper to the game, they were originally uncertain on further details; the character's morality and whether they would be a human or a robot were discussed aspects of the character. Taking inspiration from another Blizzard Entertainment character, Sylvanas Windrunner from World of Warcraft, they chose to make a character that represented the "darker aspect" of the game's storyline. As the concept developed, Longshot's appearance changed to a woman with pale skin with her stomach and the undersides of her breasts exposed, clothed in cargo pants covering her legs. She was one of the final twenty designs to be featured on the main pitch image for Prometheus, which once approved, later materialized into Overwatch. Once work began on Overwatch, she was one of the first four characters implemented into the game, utilizing the character Tracer's model textured solid black as a placeholder. Several concepts were considered, with a primary focus on her visor to have multiple red "bug" eyes and changing her outfit to a revealing bodysuit with spiked heels. The developers noticed the lenses resembled a spider's eyes, and they chose to emphasize an arachnid theme on her design, changing her into the character Widowmaker. Several approaches to her design were considered during this time, including various degrees of chitin-like armor as well as the possibility of a segmented stinger-like grappling hook that coiled around her arm. Her visor also went through several iterations, many of which covered her entire upper head, before switching to an idea of having her face exposed while the helmet was integrated into her head with cables out of the back making up her hair. They finally settled on a design drawn by Roman Kenney where she retained her hair, and the visor was made up of pieces that automatically extend over her eyes when used. ### Design Standing approximately 1.75 m (5' 9"), Widowmaker is a slender woman with light blue skin, yellow eyes, and dark blue long hair tied into a ponytail behind her head. Her outfit consists of a form-fitting light purple bodysuit with short sleeves and the front unzipped with plunging cleavage, while the back is similarly exposed. Her hips, legs and feet are covered with segmented black armor with spikes protruding from the knees and sides of the shoes, with a small shoulderpad covers her left shoulder and a pouch strapped to her right thigh. The front of her head is covered by the aforementioned visor, covering her brow when not active. In addition to her black gloves, her left arm has a gauntlet capable of firing a retractable grappling hook. Her right forearm is covered in a tattoo resembling a spider's web with the French text "araignée du soir, cauchemar" ("evening spider, nightmare"), which according to the book The Art of Overwatch is a play on a French saying, and along with the large black widow spider tattoo on her back is meant to illustrate the character's menacing nature. Her weapon, conceptualized by artist Ben Zhang, is an assault/sniper rifle hybrid that has its barrel and scope extend when aiming. In addition to the above details, a stylized "W" adorns her shoulderpad, gun and torso at the base of the plunging cleavage, while a glowing red hourglass can be seen on the gun itself. For her appearance in Overwatch 2, the developers went for a more "cyberpunk" feel for the character, with the character seen sporting a braid and new armor plating. Like other Overwatch characters, Widowmaker received skins, unlockable cosmetic items to change her in-game appearance. When developing them, they found some difficulty redesigning the visor to match the outfit, as it was tied to an animation for her character. Notable examples of these included the ballerina-themed "Odile" with a teal and black color scheme, the "Competesse" skin modeled after French nobility, and the "Noir" skin, which was meant to illustrate an earlier version of the character and utilized concepts from her previous planned designs, such as replacing her hair with thick coiled cables. In 2023, a purchasable Greek mythology-themed skin modeled after Medusa caused some controversy, as the snakes on the skin had audible hissing both the player and opponents could hear. This led to the skin being dubbed by players and media outlets as "pay-to-lose", as a result of incidents of players complaining about being unable to hear enemies, while also being more easily located themselves. ## Appearances Amélie Lacroix is a French woman introduced in the 2016 first-person shooter Overwatch. A ballerina, her husband Gerard was an agent in Overwatch, a global peace-keeping force. The terrorist group Talon kidnapped her, and unbeknownst to the Overwatch team that rescued her, they had brainwashed her to act as a sleeper agent. After killing Gerard, she fled to Talon, who trained her as a sniper. Now operating under the moniker "Widowmaker", they experimented on her to improve her combat capabilities, slowing her heartrate which caused her skin to turn light blue and her emotions to be numbed. She later returns in the game's sequel, Overwatch 2. Her character is voiced by Chloé Hollings, with some of the dialogue spoken in French. Her story is further fleshed out in supplemental video and literary media related to the series. First appearing a cinematic trailer for Overwatch at the 2014 BlizzCon event, she is featured trying to steal a gauntlet belonging to Talon's imprisoned leader, Doomfist. She later appears in the animated short Alive, the second in a series of Overwatch animated shorts. In it, she comes into conflict with Tracer while on an assassination mission in London, escaping after killing her target. In a subsequent short, Infiltration, she appears alongside Talon agents trying to assassinate a Russian CEO, but the attempt fails. In print media, she appears in Legacy, the seventh issue of the 2016 Overwatch tie-in comic book series. Set prior to the events of the game and shortly after Gerard's murder, in the comic Overwatch attempts to rescue hostages from a Talon installation, but come under fire from Widowmaker. Their own sniper Ana tracks and shoots her in the helmet, but is stunned upon recognizing her, as Overwatch had assumed she was dead. Ana's sniper rifle is shot by Widowmaker and the shrapnel hits her face, incapacitating her. She appears briefly in the tenth issue Reflections, placing a flower on Gerard's grave, and later in issue 13, titled Masquerade, in which she helps the newly-freed Doomfist reassert his power over Talon. She also appears in the second issue of Overwatch's Tracer—London Calling comic miniseries, a retelling of the Alive animated short from Tracer's point of view. She lastly appears as a minor character in the short story Code of Violence, set before the events of the game, in which she assists Talon with retrieving a scientist. ### Gameplay In Overwatch, Widowmaker is classified as a "Damage" class character, designed to provide a more offensive role in team compositions. She was originally classified as a "Defense" class character before it and "Offense" class characters were combined into one as the Damage class. A sniper able to be utilized well from a distance, her primary weapon is a rifle named "Widow's Kiss" with two firing modes, both of which utilize hitscan projectiles. When firing without aiming the weapon functions as a close-to-medium assault rifle, while aiming will cause the weapon to do increased damage as a "critical hit". In Overwatch 2, Widowmaker gains a short term boost to her reload and movement speed after killing an enemy, due to a new passive ability given to all "Damage" class characters. Widowmaker also has several abilities that require activation, though the first two have a "cooldown" period after use and are unable to be used again during that duration. "Grappling Hook" allows her to readjust her position and reach heights that other characters cannot, immediately pulling her towards the targeted location. Her second ability, "Venom Mine", fires a projectile that sticks to walls or the ground, and acts as a proximity mine that releases poison gas that damages enemies in the blast radius over time once triggered, and will highlight them through walls for the player to see. Lastly, her 'ultimate' ability, called "Infra-Sight", requires to be charged either over time or through damage dealt to the enemy team. Once fully charged, the ability can be activated, highlighting all enemies through walls for both her and her teammates, helping to counter enemy flankers. ## Promotion and reception To promote Overwatch and the character, she was one of twelve heroes showcased in a playable build of the game at the 2014 BlizzCon convention, and a special "Noire" skin for the character was included on pre-ordered versions of the game. In Blizzard Enetertainment's Heroes of the Storm, a Widowmaker skin for the playable character Nova and vice-versa were made available as cross-promotion between it and Overwatch. Additional material included a cosplay guide, promotional images themed around holidays, and a Figma-line figurine released by Good Smile Company in February 2018. Blizzard also released a 13.5" (34 cm) statue of the character, while HummingBird Studio released an unofficial 20" (51 cm) resin statue in 2022. Since her release, the character was very positively received, being the most selected defensive-class character during Overwatch's beta period, as well as one of the most frequently cosplayed characters from the game. Described by journalist Cameron Koch as "by far, is the most traditionally sexy character in Overwatch", Widowmaker's character and portrayal has been the subject of much discussion and critique. Gita Jackson of Kotaku noted that Blizzard Entertainment leaned hard into the femme fatale "fetish-y roots" aspect of her character, and while she approved, she noted that fan reception was not always quite as positive to this particular aspect. Joseph Knoop of The Daily Dot on the other hand felt her "icy sexuality" helped her popularity in the fandom with people keen to cosplay as her, and further added his belief that "it's never felt like it's come at the expense of her agency or dignity." In a presentation at the 2017 Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment, Professor Georgia da Cruz Pereira noted that the femme fatale aspect of Widowmaker's character helped offset uncomfortable reactions to her design due to it fitting within public expectations for such a character. She further noted displays of sensuality by Widowmaker also didn't feel as out of place to the public as they did with Tracer, in part due to her attire and presentation. In contrast, however, Alyssa Mercante of Kotaku more forwardly described her as "aggressively sexualized", further complaining that her "impossibly long legs and massive tits" seemed to be targeting the male gaze whenever she appeared on the screen. Ayla Arthur of The Daily Dot did not share fellow contributor Knoop's opinion, and instead gave a thorough analysis of her design. In it she stated that while she could rationalize the character's sleek outfit due to her role as a sniper and her heels to absorb the shock of jumping down, her chest felt like it was solely "a sex object" and questioning any valid reasoning for such a presentation. She further added that the overemphasis on breasts and a lack of protection towards them was a constant she saw in female character design, and one she found particularly frustrating. Similar qualms were raised by Comic Book Resources and Rock Paper Shotgun, both of which questioning why her armor seemed intended to distract opponents up close if her goal as a sniper was to keep far away instead, with Philippa Warr of the latter stating "Who could she possibly be alluring? Are her opponents all Binoculars People from a Binoculars Planet?" When the game was featured on the talk show Conan, host Conan O'Brien and his guests riffed on Widowmaker's sexual aspects, culminating in them setting up a match with nothing but Widowmakers to "stare at the shiny butts" while mocking the "moaning" noises the character made when taking damage. Polygon's Cass Marshall offered a different take on the character, noting that while the character's design was heavily critiqued from the very start, they felt she dressed "with style". They added that while much of her design could be written off as a common video game trope of female characters, as the title progressed more cosmetics were released they kept a similar theme of focusing on her style and showing more skin than other characters, and felt that the core concept being Blizzard's design process was to express her character as someone who is "extremely vain, fastidious, and chooses style over pure substance". Marshall further added that the presence of her tattoos, as well as her interactions with other characters in game, painted a picture contrary to the emotionless assassin profile she was given, and hoped it meant future story hooks for Blizzard to work with in the future in regards to the character. Nathan Grayson, in an article for Kotaku, noted that Overwatch had a significant amount of fan-made pornography, much of it revolving around Widowmaker. He further noted that she was one of the most-searched subjects on sites like Pornhub once Overwatch entered its open beta period, a trend that has continued well past the game's actual release through 2022. Destructoid's Steven Hansen also mentioned the phenomenon, commenting that he'd already stumbled on Widowmaker having sex with "like three different Overwatch characters — all women — on the first page of a simple Google image search" when trying to write the article. Companies such as Brazzers and VR Cosplay X have utilized her image in their own live-action hardcore porn parodies of the game. The book Modes of Esports Engagement in Overwatch discussed these two portrayals in detail, attributing her usage to force the normally dominant character into a submissive role for the benefit of male viewers. While Grayson had discussed how fan works emphasized her traits in an intimate manner, the book stated the Brazzers produced work utilized those same traits to show her as manipulative, adding "Widowmaker and by extension women players of Overwatch are portrayed as relying on using their bodies and sexuality to distract men in order to succeed in competition against men."

Guilty Gear Isuka

2003 2D fighting video game

is a 2D fighting video game developed by Arc System Works and published by Sammy Corporation. Announced by Arc in September, it was released on December 17, 2003, in Japanese arcades as the sixth installment of the Guilty Gear series. Later, the game was ported for a release on the PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox, and Windows in Japan. The PS2 version was brought to North America by Sammy, and, in Europe, the home console version was released by 505 Game Street and the PC version by Zoo Digital Publishing. While the gameplay remained almost the same as in previous titles, the game introduced a four-player battle mode, and the PS2 version included new features to the series, including a scrolling adventure, a customization mode, and two new characters. Guilty Gear Isuka received mixed critical reviews. It was praised for its visual, music and customization features. However, although some aspects of the new gameplay—such as the two fighting planes and the turn button—were praised as original, their implementation was criticized. The removal of features present in previous titles was also not well received by critics. ## Gameplay ### Combat system The basic gameplay system of Guilty Gear Isuka is like the other games in the series. The game uses a four attack button configuration that consists of punch, kick, slash, and high slash. Unlike previous games, it features a "turn" button, since a character does not automatically turn around if its opponent moves to the other side of the screen. Each character (or team) starts a fight with at least a "soul"; when a character life bar is emptied, its life is filled while the player lost a soul. If the life is depleted when the player has no souls, it is defeated. It also features previous installments features like the tension gauge, which allows the player to perform super moves, and the burst gauge, which allows the player to break combinations and super moves. ### Modes The game introduces a four-player option in Versus Mode, giving a player four characters who can fight two-on-two, three-on-one or everyone-for-themselves. There are two fighting planes, one in the foreground and the other behind it. Another innovation was Boost Mode: a two-player, side-scrolling, arcade-style beat 'em up mode not included in the arcade version, in which a player fights enemy waves to accumulate items, health and experience. For the Xbox, this mode was adapted for online play with Xbox Live, supporting up to 16 players. Experience points from Boost Mode can be used in the new Robo-Ky II Factory mode, in which a player can customize a robot named Robo-Ky II by teaching him moves, combos, or one of 65 special attacks from other characters. In addition to the attacks, other aspects such as jump height, offense, defense, recovery time, tension, and speed can be improved. The game also features other modes: Color Edit, a palette swap editor that allows the player to customize nearly every aspect of the characters, including buckles and hair; Training, in which a player can practice with (and against) computer-controlled opponents and Arcade, similar to the survival mode featured in other fighting games. ### Playable characters Guilty Gear Isuka features twenty playable characters in its arcade version: Anji Mito, Axl Low, Baiken, Bridget, Chipp Zanuff, Dizzy, Eddie, Faust, I-No, Jam Kuradoberi, Johnny, Ky Kiske, May, Millia Rage, Potemkin, Slayer, Sol Badguy, Testament, Venom, and Zappa. Three characters were added to the PlayStation 2 edition: A.B.A, Robo-Ky, and Robo-Ky II. ## Development and release In September 2003, Sammy Corporation announced that a new game dubbed Guilty Gear X Series The Newest Version would be featured at the Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) arcade show; at the show, the company revealed that Guilty Gear Isuka would be the game's name. "In Guilty Gear Isuka we want to satisfy existing fighter fans with new content and never-before-seen innovations. We also want to reach out to mainstream fans to show them that, right now, the envelope in fighting games is also being pushed in two dimensions", declared Tim Pivnicny, senior VP of Sammy Studios, Inc. A PlayStation 2 version of the game was announced to be in development on March 3, 2004. An August 24 announcement said that the game would be compatible with Xbox. Guilty Gear Isuka was released in Japan on December 17, 2003, by Sammy for the Atomiswave arcade cabinets, followed by the PlayStation 2 version on July 29, 2004. An Xbox version was released by Arc System Works on December 16, 2004, and Sourcenext released the game for Windows on November 25, 2005. In North America, Guilty Gear Isuka was released by Sammy for PlayStation 2 on November 2, 2004. In Europe, 505 Games Street released it on June 16, 2005, for PlayStation 2, and the PC version was released on April 7, 2006, by Zoo Digital Publishing (now Zushi Games). In 2007, the game was made compatible with Xbox 360. DotEmu also released Guilty Gear Isuka on its DRM-free shop in April 2011. On January 16, 2014, the game was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows PCs. In 2020, a homebrew conversion was released for the Dreamcast. ## Reception Guilty Gear Isuka was the 176th-bestselling Japanese title in 2004, with 74,270 copies sold for PlayStation 2 as of December 26. It was "Best Fighting Game" at the Best of E3 2004 Awards from IGN, and was nominated for "Best Sequel Fighting" at the 2004 National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAVGTR) Awards, which went to Dead or Alive Ultimate. The game received mixed reviews from critics, with a score of 76% at GameRankings and 73/100 at Metacritic. Allgame's Damian Francis gave the game three-and-a-half stars out of five; Famitsu's four reviewers scored it 7, 7, 6, and 7 (out of 10) respectively, with a total score of 27 out of 40. Although the introduction of two planes and the turning button were considered good ideas in theory, both features were heavily criticized by reviewers. Jeremy Dunham of IGN, Manny LaMancha of GamePro and Benjamin Turner of GameSpy felt it difficult to fight one-on-one when a player can start a cat-and-mouse game, while GameSpot's Greg Kasavin and Brian Gee of Game Revolution found the features to cause "chaos". Turner said it deprived the player of the ability "to have a normal Guilty Gear X2-style match", and Dunham said the computer reacted faster. David Smith of 1UP.com called it an "irrational control scheme". The perceived poor execution of its new features led GameSpy to give it a special "It Sounded Good on Paper" award. Conversely, other additions received more positive feedback. Dunham called the Boost and Factory modes "intriguing distractions", while Turner praised the latter for "much depth and nuance", unreached by other games. Kasavin said the Boost Mode gets boring quickly due to the lack of an objective; though Kasavin declared that the Factory Mode "is quite possibly the most interesting part of the gameplay", he criticized how it depends on playing "a mindless side-scroller over and over." The new backgrounds were commended by Dunham, Kasavin and Smith, with the latter saying that Sammy should have saved them for a better game. The maintenance of aspects from previous titles, including its animation and soundtrack, was praised by Kasavin, Turner, and Gee. Its soundtrack was said to be "the best score in the franchise so far" by Dunham, and was rated among video game soundtracks which "never got the recognition they truly deserve" by Siliconera. LaMancha, however, criticized a lack of improvement of its animation and music compared to its gameplay. The removal of other features from previous titles was criticized: Dunham and Kasavin complained about the lack of a story mode, while Joe Juba of Game Informer said the series had a "magic" until Isuka, criticizing the new additions and the absence of a traditional arcade mode. Isuka was well-rated on balance, but considered inferior to the previous Guilty Gear X2 \#Reload. ## Other media ### Music , composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari, Tetsuya Ohuchi and Yoshihiro Kusano, arranged by Ohuchi and Kusano, was released on CD by Team Entertainment on April 21, 2004. An additional edition was released on iTunes on November 23, 2005; it contains six more tracks, totalizing 26 tracks. It was well received by critics; Don Kotowski and Harry of Square Enix Music Online rated it 8 out of 10. Kotowski said Ishiwatari is the mainstream in the soundtrack, while Ohuchi and Kusano "somewhat disappoint", qualifying it as "a great album" in overall. Harry said the only thing bad about this album is its "too short" length. Writing for the same site, a reviewer dubbed GoldfishX rated it 7 out of 10, citing "it lacks the depth of previous entries in the series." ### Books Ichijinsha released two Guilty Gear Isuka manga adaptations under its DNA Media Comics line. The first one, titled , is a yonkoma series released on February 25, 2004. The other series is an anthology titled , which was released on March 25 of the same year. Subsequently, on March 30, was released by Enterbrain. It is an encyclopedia compiled by Monthly Arcadia, an Enterbrain magazine, which was released along with a DVD with commentaries on the game features. Two guidebooks were released by SoftBank Creative; and were published on August 9, and on September 6, 2004, respectively.

Economy of Scotland in the Middle Ages

Overview of the economy of Scotland during the Middle Ages

The economy of Scotland in the Middle Ages covers all forms of economic activity in the modern boundaries of Scotland, between the End of Roman rule in Britain in the early fifth century, until the advent of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century, including agriculture, crafts and trade. Having between a fifth or sixth (15-20 %) of the arable or good pastoral land and roughly the same amount of coastline as England and Wales, marginal pastoral agriculture and fishing were two of the most important aspects of the Medieval Scottish economy. With poor communications, in the early Middle Ages most settlements needed to achieve a degree of self-sufficiency in agriculture. Most farms were operated by a family unit and used an infield and outfield system. Arable farming grew in the High Middle Ages and agriculture entered a period of relative boom between the thirteenth century and late fifteenth century. Unlike England, Scotland had no towns dating from times of Roman Britain. From the twelfth century there are records of burghs, chartered towns, which became major centre of crafts and trade. There are also Scottish coins, although English coinage probably remained more significant in trade, and until the end of the period barter was probably the most common form of exchange. Craft and industry remained relatively undeveloped before the end of the Middle Ages and, although there were extensive trading networks based in Scotland, while the Scots exported largely raw materials, they imported increasing quantities of luxury goods, resulting in a bullion shortage and perhaps helping to create a financial crisis in the fifteenth century. ## Background Scotland is roughly half the size of England and Wales and has approximately the same amount of coastline, but only between a fifth and a sixth of the amount of the arable or good pastoral land, under 60 metres above sea level, and most of this is located in the south and east. This made marginal pastoral farming and fishing the key factors in the pre-modern economy. Its north Atlantic position means that it has very heavy rainfall, which encouraged the spread of blanket peat bog, the acidity of which, combined with high level of wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. The existence of hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made internal communication and conquest extremely difficult. After the departure of the Romans from Northern Britain, in the fifth century four major circles of influence had emerged in what is now Scotland. In the east were the Picts, whose kingdoms eventually stretched from the river Forth to Shetland; in the west the Gaelic (Goidelic)-speaking people of Dál Riata with their royal fortress at Dunadd in Argyll, with close links with the island of Ireland, from which they brought with them the name Scots; in the south was the British (Brythonic) Kingdom of Alt Clut, descendants of the peoples of the Roman-influenced kingdoms of "The Old North"; finally, there were the Angles who had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of Bernicia (later the northern part of Northumbria), in the south-east. This situation was transformed from the eighth century when ferocious Viking raids began. Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles eventually fell to the Norsemen. These threats may have speeded a long term process of gaelicisation of the Pictish kingdoms, which adopted Gaelic language and customs and which probably facilitated a merger of the Gaelic and Pictish crowns. This culminated in the rise of Cínaed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) in the 840s, which brought to power the House of Alpin, who became the leaders of a combined Gaelic-Pictish kingdom, known as the Kingdom of Alba and later as Scotland. From the sixth century, Scotland experienced a process of Christianisation, traditionally seen as carried out by Irish-Scots missionaries, including St Ninian, St Kentigern and St Columba and to a lesser extent those from Rome and England. However, Gilbert Markus highlights the fact that most of these figures were not church-founders, but were usually were active in areas where Christianity had already become established, probably through gradual diffusion that is almost invisible in the historical record. This would have included trade, conquest and intermarriage. There are almost no written sources from which to re-construct the demography of Medieval Scotland. Estimates have been for the early period made of a population of 10,000 inhabitants in Dál Riata and 80–100,000 for Pictland, which was probably the largest region. From the formation of the Kingdom of Alba in the tenth century, to before the Black Death reached the country in 1349, estimates based on the amount of farmable land, suggest that population may have grown from half a million to a million. Although there is no reliable documentation on the impact of the plague, if the pattern followed that in England, then the population may have fallen to as low as half a million by the end of the fifteenth century. ## Agriculture In the early Middle Ages, poor transport forced self-sufficiency on small settlements. Lacking the urban centres created under the Romans in the rest of Britain, the economy of Scotland in the early Middle Ages was overwhelmingly agricultural. With a lack of significant transport links and wider markets, most farms had to produce a self-sufficient diet of meat, dairy products and cereals, supplemented by hunter-gathering. Limited archaeological evidence indicates that throughout Northern Britain, farming was done on single homesteads or amongst a small cluster of three or four homes. Each of these probably contained a nuclear family, with kinship relationships likely to be common among neighbouring houses and settlements, reflecting the partition of land through inheritance. A system was adopted that distinguished between the infield, around the settlement, where crops were grown every year, and the outfield, further away, where crops were grown and then left fallow in different years. This would be the predominant system until the eighteenth century. The nature of agricultural production was determined by the land and climate. The cold and wet climate meant that more oats and barley were grown than corn. The evidence of bones indicates that cattle were by far the most important domesticated animal, followed by pigs, sheep and goats, while domesticated fowl were very rare. Bone evidence indicates that there was a significant growth in the fish trade around 1000. This increased marine exploitation of the Highlands and Islands may have been as a result of the arrival of Scandinavian settlers in this period. The early Middle Ages were a period of climatic deterioration, with a drop in temperature and an increase in rainfall, resulting in more land becoming unproductive. Climate change had a major impact on agriculture in this period and terms emerged to describe different quantities of land. In the period c. 1150 to 1300, warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive. Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands. The main unit of land measurement in Scotland was the ploughgate, also known as the davoch and in Lennox as the arachor. It may have measured about 104 acres (0.42 km²), divided into 4 raths. The average amount of land used by a husbandman in Scotland might have been around 26 acres. Most farming was based on the lowland fermtoun or Highland baile, settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, allocated in run rigs to tenant farmers. They usually ran downhill so that they included both wet and dry land, helping to offset some of the problems of extreme weather conditions. Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter, pulled by oxen, which were more effective in heavy soils and cheaper to feed than horses. Obligations to the local lord usually included supplying oxen for ploughing the lord's land on an annual basis and the much resented obligation to grind corn at the lord's mill. In the late Middle Ages, average temperatures began to reduce again, with cooler and wetter conditions limiting the extent of arable agriculture, particularly in the Highlands. The introduction of new monastic orders such as the Cistercians in this period also brought innovations in agriculture. Their monasteries became major landholders, particularly in the Borders. They were sheep farmers and producers of wool for the markets in Flanders. By the late Middle Ages, Melrose Abbey and the Earl of Douglas had about 15,000 sheep apiece, making them among the largest sheep farmers in Europe. New farming methods began to transform agriculture in some parts of the country. Monastic agriculture was organised in granges, farms run by lay brothers of the order. Granges were theoretically within 30 miles of the mother monastery, so that those working there could return for services on Sundays and feast days. They were used for variety of purposes, including pastoral, arable and industrial production. However, to manage more distant assets in Ayrshire, Melrose Abbey used Mauchline as a "super grange", to oversee lesser granges. The rural economy appears to have boomed in the thirteenth century and was still buoyant in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death, which reached Scotland in 1349, and may have carried off a third of the population. However, by the 1360s there was a severe falling off in incomes that can be seen in clerical benefices, of between a third and half compared with the beginning of the era, to be followed by a slow recovery in the fifteenth century. ## Burghs Records of burghs, small towns granted legal privileges from the crown, can be found from the eleventh century. Burghs (a term derived from the Germanic word for fortress), developed rapidly during the reign of David I (1124–53). Up until this point there were no identifiable towns in Scotland. Most of the burghs that were granted charters in his reign probably already existed as settlements. Charters were copied almost verbatim from those used in England, and early citizens, called burgesses, that were usually English or Flemish. They were able to impose tolls and fines on traders within a region outside their settlements. Most of the early burghs were on the east coast, and among them were the largest and wealthiest, including Aberdeen, Berwick, Perth and Edinburgh, whose growth was facilitated by trade with the European continent. In the south-west, Glasgow, Ayr and Kirkcudbright were aided by the less-profitable sea trade with Ireland, and to a lesser extent France and Spain. Burghs had unique layouts and economic functions. They were typically were surrounded by a palisade or possessed a castle, and usually had a marketplace, with a widened high street or junction, often marked by a mercat cross (market cross), beside houses for the burgesses and other inhabitants. The foundations of around 15 burghs can be traced to the reign of David I and there is evidence of 55 burghs by 1296. In addition to the major royal burghs, the late Middle Ages saw the proliferation of baronial and ecclesiastical burghs, with 51 being created between 1450 and 1516. Most of these were much smaller than their royal counterparts. Excluded from international trade they mainly acted as local markets and centres of craftsmanship. In general, burghs probably carried out far more local trading with their hinterlands than nationally or internationally, relying on them for food and raw materials. ## Manufacture and trade While burghs acted as centres of basic crafts. These included the manufacture of shoes, clothes, dishes, pots, joinery, bread and ale, which would normally be sold to inhabitants and visitors on market days. However, there were relatively few developed manufacturing industries in Scotland for most of this period. By the late fifteenth century, there were the beginnings of a native iron-casting industry, which led to the production of cannon and of the silver and goldsmithing for which the country would later be known. As a result, the most important exports were unprocessed raw materials, including wool, hides, salt, fish, animals and coal, while Scotland remained frequently short of wood, iron and, in years of bad harvests, grain, which was imported in large quantities, particularly from the Baltic ports, through Berwick and Ayr. Limited sources indicate for the early Middle Ages indicate that there was some trade of luxury goods with continental Europe. For most of the period there are not the detailed custom accounts that exist for England, that can provide an understanding of foreign trade, with the first records for Scotland dating to the 1320s. In the early Middle Ages, the rise of Christianity meant that wine and precious metals were imported for use in religious rites, and there are occasional references of trips to and from foreign countries, such as the incident recorded by Adomnán in which St Columba went to a port to await ships bearing news, and presumably other items, from Italy. Imported goods found in archaeological sites of the period include ceramics and glass, while many sites indicate iron and precious metal working. In the High Middle Ages, although the Scottish economy was still dominated by agriculture and by short-distance, local trade, there was an increasing amount of foreign trade. Coins were replacing barter goods, with Scottish coins being struck from the reign of David I. Mints were established at Berwick, Roxburgh, Edinburgh and Perth, but until the end of the period most exchange was done without the use of metal currency, and English coins probably outnumbered Scottish ones. Until the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Wars of Independence in the early fourteenth century, most naval trade was probably coastal and most foreign trade was with England. The wars closed English markets and raised the levels of piracy and disruption to naval trade on both sides. They may have led to an increase in continental trade, and isolated references indicate that Scottish ships were active in Norway and Danzig, and the earliest records from the 1330s indicate that five-sixths of this trade was in the hands of Scottish merchants. Wool and hides were the major exports in the late Middle Ages. From 1327 to 1332, the earliest period for which figures survive, the annual average was 5,700 sacks of wool and 36,100 leather hides. The disruption of the Wars of Independence, which not only limited trade but damaged much of the valuable agricultural land of the Borders and Lowlands, meant that this fell in the period 1341–42 to 1342–43 to 2,450 sacks of wool and 17,900 hides. The trade recovered to reach a peak in the 1370s, with an annual average of 7,360 sacks, but the international recession from the 1380s saw a reduction to an annual average of 3,100 sacks. The introduction of sheep-scab was a serious blow to the wool trade from the early fifteenth century. Despite a levelling-off, in the Low Countries there was another drop in exports as the markets collapsed in the early-sixteenth century. Unlike in England, this did not prompt the Scots to turn to large-scale cloth production and only poor-quality rough cloths seem to have been significant. Exports of hides and particularly cod, where the Scots held a decisive advantage in quality over their rivals, appear to have held up much better than wool, despite the general economic downturn in Europe in the aftermath of the Black Death. Exports of hides averaged 56,400 a year from 1380 to 1384, but fell to an average of 48,000 over the next five years and to 34,200 by the end of the century. In the late Middle Ages, the growing desire among the court, lords, upper clergy and wealthier merchants for luxury goods, that largely had to be imported (including fine cloth from Flanders and Italy), led to a chronic shortage of bullion. This, and perennial problems in royal finance, led to several debasements of the coinage, with the amount of silver in a penny being cut to almost a fifth between the late fourteenth century and the late fifteenth century. The heavily debased "black money", introduced in 1480, had to be withdrawn two years later and may have helped fuel a financial and political crisis. ## See also - Economic history of Scotland - Economy of Scotland in the High Middle Ages

USS Kasaan Bay

Casablanca-class escort carrier of the U.S. Navy

USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) was the fifteenth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Kasaan Bay, a name assigned to the bay by the local Haida Indians. The bay is located within Prince of Wales Island, which at the time was a part of the Territory of Alaska. The ship was launched in October 1943, commissioned in December, and served as a transport carrier in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, as well as taking part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of occupied Southern France. Her aircraft provided air support and strategic bombing capabilities, disrupting German supply lines, and earning Kasaan Bay a battle star. Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet. Ultimately, she was broken up in March 1960. ## Design and description Kasaan Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carrier ever built, and was designed specifically to be rapidly mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early war losses. By the end of their production run, the time taken between laying down the hull and launching the ship had been cut down to nearly one month. Standardized with her sister ships, she was 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) long overall, had a beam of 65 ft 2 in (19.86 m), and a draft of 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m). She displaced 8,188 long tons (8,319 t) standard and 10,902 long tons (11,077 t) with a full load. She had a 257 ft (78 m) long hangar deck and a 477 ft (145 m) long flight deck. She was powered with two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, which drove two shafts, providing 9,000 horsepower (6,700 kW), thus enabling her to make . The ship had a cruising range of 10,240 nautical miles (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Her compact size limited the length of the flight deck and necessitated the installment of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft. One 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, as well as twelve Oerlikon 20 mm (0.79 in) cannons, which were mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By the end of the war, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20 mm (0.79 in) cannons, and the amount of Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns had been doubled to 16, by putting them into twin mounts. These modifications were in response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Casablanca-class escort carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate more. During Operation Dragoon, she carried 24 F6F-5 Hellcat fighters, 3 TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, and 8 F6F-3N Hellcat variant night fighters for a total of 35 aircraft, a rare occurrence, as Hellcats typically tended to operate on fleet carriers, rather than escort carriers. ## Construction Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington under a Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942. The escort carrier was laid down on 11 May 1943 under the name Kasaan Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. Her namesake, Kasaan Bay, was in turn derived from the local Kaigani Haida, who named the bay after the nearby settlement of Gasa'áan, the name of which had originated from the Tlingit name Kasa'aan, meaning "pretty town". She was laid down as MC hull 1106, the fifteenth of a series of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers. She therefore received the classification symbol CVE-69, indicating that she was the sixty-ninth escort carrier to be commissioned into the United States Navy. She was launched on 24 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Robert W. Morse, the wife of Captain Morse, who would later become best known as the advising Aviation Officer for the Fifth Fleet; transferred to the Navy and commissioned on 4 December 1943, with Captain Bradford Ellsworth Grow in command. ## Service history ### World War II Upon being commissioned, Kasaan Bay underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Diego. Upon finishing, she was assigned to transport duty, and sailed from San Francisco on 8 January 1944 with a load of aircraft and passengers, bound for Pearl Harbor. After returning to Naval Air Station San Diego, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and sailed for Norfolk, arriving on 28 February for overhaul and operations along the East Coast. On 28 May, she left New York City in conjunction with her sisters Tulagi and Mission Bay, ferrying aircraft on a round trip to Casablanca, French Morocco. She arrived at Casablanca on 6 June, departed on 8 June, and returned to New York on 17 June, carrying onboard 342 survivors of the Bogue-class escort carrier Block Island, which had been torpedoed by a German U-boat on 29 May. Upon returning to the East Coast, Kasaan Bay and Tulagi were informed that they were to take part in Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in Southern France. She first took on her fighting aircraft contingent Fighter Squadron (VF) 74, commanded by Lieutenant Commander H. Brinkley Bass, before heading to Quonset Point, Rhode Island, arriving on 29 June, where Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin and his staff turned Tulagi into his flagship. The next day, on 30 June, Kasaan Bay and Tulagi left port, accompanied by six destroyer escorts as a part of Task Group 27.7, heading for Oran, French Algeria. En route, the two carriers conducted extensive exercises, as both the carriers' crews and their aircraft contingents were relatively inexperienced. Arriving at Oran on 10 July, Task Group 27.7 dissolved, with Durgin heading for Naples, Allied occupied Italy for invasion planning. In the meantime, Kasaan Bay participated in training and spotting exercises off of the Algerian coast. On 17 July, the force, now reconstituted as Task Group 80.2, which now had a wholly new complement of escorting destroyers, left Oran for Malta. During the passage, the screening Gleaves-class destroyer Niblack picked up a suspicious contact on sonar and dropped depth charges. As one of Kasaan Bay's Avengers was up on anti-submarine patrol at the time, it headed for Niblack's course and assisted in dropping more depth charges, albeit their combined efforts resulted in no apparent results. The task group, stopping at Malta on 26 July, took Durgin back on board, and had the British Bogue-class escort carriers Hunter and Stalker join the force. Both of the British ships had 24 Supermarine Seafire fighters on board, and would assist in providing a fighter screen throughout the operation. Later that same day, the task group departed for Alexandria, Egypt, for additional training operations. Arriving at Alexandria, the task group was assigned to operate under the command of Rear admiral Thomas Hope Troubridge, as a part of Task Force 88. Thus, her task group's code was changed to Task Group 88.2. Altogether, Task Force 88 would consist of nine carriers, two British light cruisers, six U.S. destroyers, and six British minelayers. After conducting exercises, the Task Group returned to Malta on 3 August, and then proceeded onwards to Salerno on 7 August in order to take part in a dress rehearsal of the invasion. During the transit, Kasaan Bay's Avengers and Hellcat night fighters were detached and sent to Corsica. On 10 August, the Task Force was back in Malta. On 12 August, the Task Force sortied from Malta, this time to support the invasion. In order to deceive enemy observations regarding the force's intentions, the Task Force first headed due west, and upon reaching the longitude of Provence on the night on 13 August, turned due north. On the morning of 15 August, D-Day, the Allied surface forces opened fire on the German coastal defenses. For the next six days, Kasaan Bay and Tulagi provided close air support for the Seventh Army as it established its beachheads and pushed inland. There was generally very little resistance from the Germans in the air, with the Luftwaffe having been stretched thinly across multiple fronts, but the anti-aircraft fire was heavy at times. The initial targets for VF-74 were a group of four coastal batteries situated on Porquerolles, whilst the aircraft contingent of Tulagi, Observation Fighting Squadron (VOF) 1, directed naval surface fire. On the initial day of the landings, VF-74 tallied up sixty sorties. On 17 August, VF-74 launched a successful attack on a coastal battery situated on Port-Cros. However, on the last flight of the day, eight of VF-74's Hellcats had been launched, with instructions to opportunistically strike targets. Whilst the Hellcats were strafing a German truck convoy under the fading light, two of the Hellcats went missing, albeit whether it was due to German anti-aircraft fire or thunderstorms was never determined. Returning to the carrier, another Hellcat went into the flight deck's crash barrier, blocking the deck, and forcing the remaining Hellcats to divert to Tulagi. On the morning of 19 August, a Junkers Ju 88 bomber was intercepted by eight of Kasaan Bay's Hellcats, led by VF-74's skipper, Bass, and shot down. Later that same day, six of Kasaan Bay's Hellcats intercepted and shot down a lone Dornier Do 217 bomber. On the morning of 20 August, the second flight of the day for VF-74, consisting of six Hellcats, involved strafing a train of ammunition wagons. In the course of the action, one of the wagons exploded, bringing down one of the Hellcats, and damaging two others, forcing them to return to ship. Near Villefranche-sur-Mer, one of the three remaining Hellcats was hit and downed by anti-aircraft fire, albeit the pilot escaped back to Allied lines via Bordeaux. On the afternoon of that same day, Bass was leading a group of eight Hellcats up the Rhône valley striking targets of opportunity. Spotting what appeared to be a German motorcycle, Bass dived his plane for an attack, but much too low. His Hellcat's belly tank was torn off, destabilizing the aircraft, and sending it into the ground, killing Bass. Later in that same mission, another Hellcat clipped an electrical transmission line, tearing off a part of its left wing. However, the pilot was able to maneuver the plane into a safe landing onto a ground runway at Ramatuelle. At the end of the day on 21 August, after the escort carriers had retrieved their aircraft, (incidentally, during this process, Kasaan Bay recorded her 2,000th landing), Task Group 88.2 retired to Maddalena, Sardinia, to refuel and resupply. However, finding bombs trimmed to the American standard that would enable them to be utilized by her Hellcats proved to be an elusive task, even after proceeding southwards to Propriano, Corsica. Thus, the ordnancemen on Kasaan Bay found it necessary to grind the bomb suspension lugs of other bombs in order to trim them to the extent such that they would be compatible with her Hellcats' bomb racks. The task group was back off the coast of the French Riviera on 23 August, but by then, the frontlines had proceeded farther inland and quieted down. Kasaan Bay's F6F-3N night fighters had their radar gunsights stripped off, with the intention of only using them for screening missions from then onwards. Nonetheless, both Kasaan Bay and Tulagi continued conducting close air support missions until 30 August, when the task group headed for Ajaccio, Corsica, and dissolved, with ground based air bases having been secured and repaired to the extent as to render the escort carriers redundant. In the course of thirteen days of frontline duty, the two escort carriers had lost 11 Hellcats, but shot down 8 German planes, destroyed 825 trucks and other vehicles, damaging 334 more, destroyed 84 locomotives, and recorded significant damage on German supply lines and infrastructure. Three of the men from VF-74 and VOF-1 received Navy Crosses during that short period of combat. Leaving her aircraft contingent behind, Kasaan Bay first headed back to Oran, before leaving port on 6 September, arriving back at Norfolk on 18 September. She conducted another roundtrip aircraft transport mission to Casablanca in late October, returning to the East Coast in November. There, Captain Albert Noble Perkins took over command of the vessel, and she was assigned to the United States Pacific Fleet. Steaming westwards, she arrived at San Diego on 2 January 1945, and ferried aircraft to Pearl Harbor, Guam, and Ulithi throughout January, where they would be used to resupply the frontline Fast Carrier Task Force. Having completed her mission, she returned to Pearl Harbor on 14 February, where she served as a training carrier, providing pilot qualifications in the waters off of Hawaii. She continued this duty until early June, when she was assigned to conduct antisubmarine operations in the shipping lines between the Marshall and Mariana Islands. Whilst she was undergoing these duties, word came of the Japanese surrender. ### Post-war Upon hearing of the end of the war, Kasaan Bay returned to Guam, where she joined the Operation Magic Carpet fleet, which repatriated U.S. servicemen from throughout the Pacific. She departed Saipan on 13 September with her first load of servicemen, steaming into San Diego on 30 September. Throughout the next three months, she made three cruises to Hawaii and the Philippines. Upon returning to San Francisco on 28 December, she headed for the East Coast on 29 January 1946, arriving at Boston on 22 February. She was decommissioned and mothballed on 31 July 1946, joining the Boston group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. On 12 June 1955, she was redesignated as a helicopter escort carrier, receiving the hull symbol CVHE-69. She was struck from the Navy list on 1 March 1959, and she was sold for scrapping on 2 February 1960. She was ultimately broken up in Hamburg, West Germany during March 1960. Kasaan Bay received one battle star for her World War II service.

Research on Inuit clothing

History of research on Inuit clothing

There is a long historical tradition of research on Inuit clothing across many fields. Since Europeans first made contact with the Inuit in the 16th century, documentation and research on Inuit clothing has included artistic depictions, academic writing, studies of effectiveness, and museum collections. Historically, European images of Inuit were sourced from the clothing worn by Inuit who travelled to Europe (whether voluntarily or as captives), clothing brought to museums by explorers, and from written accounts of travels to the Arctic. From the 18th century until the mid-20th century, explorers, missionaries, and academic researchers described the Inuit clothing system in numerous memoirs and dissertations. After a decline in the 1940s, serious scholarship of Inuit clothing did not pick up again until the 1980s, at which time the focus shifted to in-depth studies of the clothing of specific Inuit and Arctic groups, as well as academic collaborations with Inuit and their communities. Scientific analysis of Inuit garments have often focused on the effectiveness of Inuit skin clothing as cold-weather clothing. Many museums, particularly in Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have extensive collections of historical Inuit garments, often acquired during Arctic explorations undertaken in the 19th and early 20th centuries. ## Painting, printing, and photography Inuit skin clothing has long been of interest to artists and academics of all kinds. Europeans interested in the Inuit and their culture began to create artistic depictions of Inuit clothing as early as the 16th century. These images were typically sourced from the clothing worn by Inuit who travelled to Europe (whether voluntarily or as captives), clothing brought to museums by explorers, and from written accounts of travels to the Arctic. The earliest of these was a series of illustrated broadsides printed after an Inuit mother and child from Labrador were brought to the European Low Countries in 1566. In 1577, the privateer Martin Frobisher brought three Inuit – Kalicho, Arnaq and Nutaaq – to England as captives, and the painter John White produced detailed watercolor portraits of them. A 1654 painting by Salomon von Hauen, commissioned at Bergen, Norway, is the oldest known portrait depicting the traditional clothing of the Kalaallit people of Greenland. It depicts a group of four Kalaallit who were kidnapped by a Danish trade ship, each wearing traditional skin clothing. Numerous other paintings and engravings of Inuit and their clothing were created in Europe over the following centuries. When modern techniques such as lithography and photography became available in the mid-19th century, it allowed for an even wider dissemination of images of Inuit clothing, especially in illustrated magazines. Around 1860, a series of Danish publications about Inuit culture and clothing from Greenland included lithographs created by Inuit artists. Both the Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913–1916), and the Fifth Thule Expedition (1922–1924) brought cameras and photographers to the Arctic, recording numerous photographs of Inuit and their clothing. These groups did their best to integrate with the Inuit in a respectful way, but not every photographer of that time had a similar attitude. Many photographs of Inuit from the early 20th century do not identify their subjects by name, and many Inuit in those photographs appear visibly uncomfortable having their photograph taken. ## Academic writing and studies One of the oldest major works describing Inuit clothing in detail is the 1741 book Det gamle Grønlands nye Perlustration eller Naturel-Historie ("The Old Greenland's New Perlustration or Natural History") by Danish missionary Hans Egede. The book contained detailed drawings and descriptions of women's clothing from observations made during his fifteen years living in Greenland. Starting in the 18th century, the diaries and other writings of Arctic explorers and traders, and to a lesser extent, academics, provided further detail about daily Inuit clothing. As contact between outsiders and Inuit increased, so did the level of detail in their writing. The clothing of the Caribou Inuit and Copper Inuit during this time is particularly well-documented in such writing. Anthropological study of Inuit culture and clothing by Danish, American, and Canadian scholars was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These sources focused on the physical aspects of Inuit clothing that enabled survival in the extreme Arctic environment, as well as the technical aspects involved in garment production. Ethnographers such as John Murdoch published descriptions of Inuit clothing with detailed illustrations as early as 1892, based on fieldwork in northwest Alaska. Canadian explorers Diamond Jenness and Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived with the Inuit during the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1916, adopting Inuit clothing and making in-depth studies of its construction. Jenness also accumulated a number of garments for the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Danish archaeologist Gudmund Hatt wrote a dissertation on his theory of Inuit origins, published in 1914, which was based on his in-depth study of Inuit clothing in museums across Europe. Later scholarship disputed his migration theory, but his studies of Inuit clothing, with their elaborate images drawn by his wife Emilie Demant Hatt, have been described as "groundbreaking in their meticulousness and scope". By approximately 1940, serious scholarship of Arctic clothing had tapered off. Scholarship of Inuit clothing did not pick up again until the 1980s and 1990s, beginning with fieldwork conducted by Inuit clothing expert Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad, and supported by accounts created by northern seamstresses. By then, the style of grand cross-cultural study pioneered by Hatt had fallen out of the mainstream, with modern scholars preferring to make in-depth studies of the clothing of specific Inuit and Arctic groups. From the 1970s to 1990s, University of Manitoba researchers Jill E. Oakes and Rick Riewe travelled throughout the Arctic documenting the traditional footwear of circumpolar peoples. Around this time, academic collaborations with Inuit and their communities became a dominant form of scholarship on the topic; these collaborations have been important for the preservation of traditional knowledge. For example, the Igloolik Research Centre in Nunavut, Canada, archives interviews with Inuit elders to preserve their traditional knowledge, including information about traditional clothing production techniques. In the 1980s, Driscoll-Engelstad travelled to museums in Europe and Canada with Inuit seamstresses to study historical garments. Their work has been credited with having "triggered a renaissance in clothing manufacture in some Canadian communities." Around the same time, Arctic anthropologist Susan Kaplan began to work with North Greenland Inuit and Labrador Inuit at the Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum on similar fieldwork. In 1992, Inuit seamstresses travelled to the Canadian Museum of Civilisation to study the composition of Copper Inuit garments held there. The documentary film Piqutingit: What Belongs to lnuit, released in 2006, documents the journey of a group of Inuit elders to museums in Toronto, Ottawa, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, where they studied Inuit items including clothing. ## Modern scientific research ### Archaeology Archaeology is a major source of knowledge about the history of Inuit clothing, primarily in the form of artifacts such as tools for skin preparation and sewing, as well as art objects. More rarely, scraps of frozen skin garments or even whole garments are found at archaeological sites. Some of these items come from the earlier Dorset culture era, but the majority are from the Thule culture era of approximately 1000 to 1600 CE. Research on historical garments shows evidence for the historical consistency of Inuit skin clothing. One of the most notable archaeological finds related to skin clothing was the 1972 discovery of a group of eight well-preserved and fully dressed mummies at Qilakitsoq, an archaeological site on Nuussuaq Peninsula, Greenland. The outer garments were made from sealskin, and the inner parkas constructed from the skins of at least five different types of water birds. The mummies have been carbon-dated to c. 1475, and analysis indicates that the skin garments they were found in were prepared and sewn in the same manner as modern skin clothing from the Kalaallit people of the region. Anatomical analysis of the mummies' teeth and biochemical analysis of the sealskin garments indicated that preparation methods have changed little over the past 500 years, including the use of teeth to soften skin for sewing. Archaeological digs in Utqiaġvik, Alaska from 1981 to 1983 uncovered the earliest known samples of caribou and polar bear skin clothing of the Kakligmiut people, carbon-dated to c. 1510. The construction of these garments indicates that Kakligmiut garments underwent little change between approximately 1500–1850. ### Analysis of garments A significant area of research on Inuit skin clothing has been its effectiveness, especially as contrasted with modern winter clothing made from synthetic materials. Despite extensive oral testimony on the effectiveness of skin garments from Inuit elders, as well as written records produced by Arctic explorers as early as the 18th century, little direct research was performed on the topic until the 1990s. A study published in 1995 compared caribou-skin clothing to mass-produced military and expedition gear, and found that the Inuit garments were significantly warmer, and provided a greater degree of perceived comfort than the mass-produced items. Further studies have shown that the traditional Inuit hood, with its distinctive ruff of irregular fur, is the most efficient system for preventing heat transfer from the face in the cold, windy environment of the Arctic. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the unique microscopic structure of caribou and seal hairs contribute to their effectiveness. Caribou hairs have a round cross-section, with an irregular surface and an internal structure "reminiscent of 'bubble-wrap'", which handily traps warm air inside each hair as well as between adjacent hairs. The keratin walls between cells are thin but tough, making individual hairs lightweight but resilient to damage. In contrast, seal hairs have a flattened cross-section and are solid throughout. The scales on the outside of each hair overlap only in one direction, resulting in a smooth surface. As a result, seal hair is less insulating than caribou hair, but is excellent at repelling water. Scientific analysis can reveal other details about individual garments and the animal pelts they are made of. DNA analysis and protein sequence analysis via mass spectrometer can narrow down or confirm the genus or species of the animal that contributed a given piece of fur. Using these methods, analysis of early 20th century garments made from dog and wolf fur has been used to research the relationship between dogs and humans, indicating details of historical canine diets and genetic distribution. Historically, researchers and museum conservators who wished to create accurate drawings or sewing patterns for clothing, including Inuit skin garments, would draw them by hand or commission artists to do so. The highly involved process of measuring and tracing garments has drawbacks: the handling can cause additional damage and the process is time-consuming. Without dismantling the items, the results can be inaccurate. Accurately drawing garments at 1:1 scale is less damaging, but even more time-consuming. Newer techniques have been developed to allow for accurate analysis of garment construction in shorter timeframes without having to dismantle garments. X-rays may be used to non-invasively identify sewing techniques. In 2006, the National Museum of Denmark and the Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen developed a method which combined the use of high-definition digital photography and photo editing software to create accurate, detailed scale images. Compared to hand drawing, this process is quicker and easier to perform, minimizes handling of the item, and provides similar levels of accuracy. Coordinate-measuring machines may be used to measure garments in three dimensions with minimal handling, enabling the creation of 3D models from which accurate two-dimensional sewing patterns can be created. This process takes an average of two hours per garment, and significantly reduces handling of the fragile original garment. The technique is considered applicable to other historical skins and garments. ### Sociological studies A 2020 report published by Indigenous Services Canada examined the cultural and sociological benefits of sewing clothing in modern Inuit communities. Based on interviews with 30 Inuit women from Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, the report concluded that participating in traditional sewing activities had positive effects for seamstresses, including socialization, cultural identification, and increased income. Research published in 2021 indicated that group sewing sessions formed a useful basis for art-based research among Inuit women. Among other positive traits, the use of sewing as a culturally-embedded activity was found to enable a greater balance of power between the participants, who were positioned as experts, and the researchers, who were not experienced seamstresses. This in turn allowed the participants to be more comfortable sharing information with the researchers. ## Museum collections Many museums, particularly in Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have extensive collections of historical Inuit garments. The ceremonial dance clothing of the Copper Inuit is particularly well-represented in museums worldwide. The British Museum in London holds some of the oldest surviving Inuit fur clothing, collected by Captain William Edward Parry at Igloolik in the early 1820s. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has an extensive collection of Arctic materials from Canada and Alaska, including clothing, obtained beginning in 1850. Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen acquired numerous Inuit artifacts, including clothing, during his voyage to the Northwest Passage on the Gjøa from 1903 to 1906, which he brought to the Ethnographic Museum of Norway (now the Museum of Cultural History, Oslo). Acquisition of Inuit clothing for display began early in Denmark: in the 1620s, Danish naturalist Ole Worm collected samples of Greenlandic Inuit clothing in his cabinet of curiosities, the "Museum Wormianum". Although much of his collection was later acquired by the National Museum of Denmark, the garments he collected are now lost. The skin garment collection of the National Museum is one of the most extensive in the world, containing over 2100 historic skin clothing items from various Arctic cultures, with examples from as early as 1830. In his capacity as head of antiquities at the museum, antiquarian Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was particularly active in increasing the size of this collection in the 1840s. In 1851, Finnish ethnographer Henrik Johan Holmberg acquired several hundred artifacts, including skin garments, from the Alaskan Inuit and the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, which Thomsen acquired from him for the Danish National Museum in 1852. Noted anthropological expeditions such as the Gjøa Expedition (1903–1906) and the Fifth Thule Expedition (1921–1924) brought back and donated to the museum a combined total of over 800 North American Inuit garments. Despite the existence of these extensive collections, throughout the 20th century, many museums rarely displayed Inuit clothing and artifacts. In North America, this only began to change in the 1980s, with the debut of several notable exhibitions. In 1980, the Winnipeg Art Gallery presented The lnuit Amautik: I like my hood to be full, an exhibit focusing on the women's parka, the amauti; in 2020 another exhibition called Inuk Style featured both historical and contemporary Inuit fashion. In 1982, the Smithsonian Museum presented a comprehensive exhibit of Inuit artifacts and clothing, entitled lnua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo. In 1994, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, which owns the largest collection of Inuit clothing in North America, featured examples of clothing by the Inuit, Dene, and Nlaka'pamux First Nations in an exhibition titled Threads of the Land, in cooperation with Inuit seamstresses. Since 2016, the Bata Shoe Museum has had a semi-permanent exhibition entitled Art & Innovation: Traditional Arctic Footwear which includes Inuit items collected by Jill Oakes and Rick Riewe from the 1970s to 1990s. Preservation of skin clothing, even in a museum, is difficult, because the organic materials used to make the garments are subject to decay, hair loss, and insect infestation if not preserved with enormous care. Historically, garments were often displayed in museums without any protection whatsoever. Storage areas were often poorly-maintained, dusty, and full of insects. These poor display and storage methods led to the deterioration or outright loss of many items. Since the 1960s, methods for storage of cultural heritage objects have become increasingly sophisticated. Skin garments today are typically kept in cold storage facilities when not on display. When on the museum floor, they are kept in airtight showcases with controlled temperature and light intensity. Although protective measures are important, research has found that the original preparation process, as well as previous ordinary use of the garments, are also significant factors which influence the degree of deterioration in skin garments. Driscoll-Engelstad suggested that museums should work with Inuit artisans to repair damaged clothing and artifacts. Knowledge obtained from preservation of Inuit skin garments, particularly regarding collagen deterioration, has been used to assist in the preservation of important historical documents including the Royal Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company and the United States Declaration of Independence. Increased access to travel and digital communication technologies like the internet have made it easier for museum curators to collaborate with Inuit communities. This can take the form of providing material to the community for cultural heritage programs, or arranging training so community members can make recordings of knowledge from the oral tradition. Many museums have created digital exhibits to provide greater access to their collections. Collaborative projects such as Skin Clothing Online, from the National Museum of Denmark, Greenland National Museum, and Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, have made thousands of high-resolution images and dozens of 3D scans of hundreds of pieces of skin clothing from various Arctic cultures freely accessible to researchers and the general public.

Filippo Paulucci

Russian military commander

Filippo Paulucci delle Roncole (11 September 1779 – 25 January 1849), also known as Filipp Osipovich Pauluchchi (Russian: Филипп Осипович Паулуччи), was an Italian marquis and army officer, later a general at the services of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Russian Empire. Born into a prominent Modenese noble family, he served as a junior officer in the Sardinian Army during the War of the First Coalition (1794–96). After brief services in the Cisalpine Republic and Austrian armies in Italy, in 1806 he moved into Russian service and climb the ranks to the position of governor general of Livonia. In 1829 he returned in Piedmont and was appointed full general and Inspector general of Infantry and Cavalry on 1830, only to be dismissed a year later when King Carlo Felice died. In 1848 Paulucci was rumored as a possible Commander-in-Chief for the Sardinian Army, but he refused any involvements. He died peacefully in Nice the following year. ## Life ### First years Filippo Paulucci delle Roncole was born in one of the most notable noble couples of Modena: the family of his father, Giuseppe Paulucci delle Roncole, had held the feudal titles of Vignola, Cividale and Roncole since 1768 and moved from Perugia to Modena in 1753. His mother, Claudia Scutellari, was the daughter of one of Parma noble families, with blood ties to the Spanish court. His older brother was Amilcare Paulucci, who later commanded the Austrian navy. Filippo was the fifth of their eight sons, and was admitted beyond the pages of the King of Sardinia after his father's death in 1785. This position granted him access to the military elite of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1792 the Kingdom entered the war against France, and in 1794 Paulucci, just appointed sublieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Gards, was sent to the front-line. Captured in action on 27 April, he was freed after a prisoners exchange on 7 May. He went on fighting the Frenchmen, until he was taken prisoner in Mondovì when the city surrendered to the French army, but subsequently freed after six days following the Armistice of Cherasco. After the French occupation of Turin, he challenged to a duel a French officer who questioned the valor of the Piedmontese soldiers. Since duels were outlawed, Paulucci was arrested and sentenced to a three-week imprisonment. On 19 November 1796, he was promoted to captain and freed from his fealty's oath by the king, who awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus for the stubborn loyalty he had shown. In 1797 he was listed among the staff officers and aide-de-camp of the Cisalpine Army, probably as aide-de-camp of General Giuseppe Lahoz Ortiz. In 1799, in Mantua he passed in the Austrian service, taking on garrison duties in Passau until, in 1803, the city was given to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1804, in Wien, he married Wilhelmina Franziska von Koskull, daughter of a noble Curlandian family. ### Service in the Russian Empire Paulucci, using his wife's family connections, moved to the Russian service, and in 1807 was promoted colonel, and was sent on a mission to Karađorđe's Serbia. On 7 May 1809 he was awarded the 4th class of the Order of St George "as a reward for prudent orders given whilst in the Finnish army, which helped to defeat the enemy". He took part in the war against the Turks in 1810 and was appointed quartermaster of the Caucasian Army in 1811, then governor of Georgia. In this position he simultaneously had to wage a war against the Turks (from Kars), against the Persians (Karabakh) and insurgents. Paulucci withstood this difficult situation and on 25 April 1812 was awarded the Order of St George 3rd class "as a reward for feats of courage and bravery in the Caucasus against the Persians". However, soon afterwards the preparations for war with Napoleon got underway and Paulucci was summoned to Saint Petersburg to be appointed Army Chief of Staff. However, after a few days, probably due to the opposition of Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, he received the post of the governor general of Governorate of Livonia. In 1829 he left the Russian army and went to Italy, where he took command of the army of Piedmont. ### Return to service in the Kingdom of Sardinia After the constitutional revolution in 1821, the Austrian Empire made political manoeuvres to exclude Carlo Alberto from the succession line, in hope to substitute him with Francesco IV d'Asburgo-Este. Paulucci met, during one of his Italian licence periods, Carlo Felice in Turin, and resolved to do whatever he can to help him. Paulucci's later efforts at the Russian court were indeed essential in stopping the Austrian ambitions at the Verona congress. Memoring these good services, the King Carlo Felice invited Paulucci in Piedmont in 1829, and the two started a close friendship. After the coup d'etat that, in France, brought Louis Philippe d’Orléans to power, Carlo Felice feared internal political struggles, and was eager to reinforce his army. The King eventually called on Paulucci, giving him the ranks of Full General and Inspector general of Infantry and Cavalry on 28 June 1830. The following month, he was then put at the head of the Sardinian Army, with full authority, except for the Carabinieri and four generals with greater seniority. It was recorder that Paulucci was not welcomed by the army and the officers, namely being "sevère [...] jusq'à la rudesse" (rigid to the bone). Paulucci reorganised the Kingdom's infantry, increasing the number of the troops, modifying the brigade system and facing both enthusiastic approval and bitter critic, especially from the heir to the throne, Prince Carlo Alberto. Carlo Felice died in March 1831, and Paulucci was eventually discharged of all his positions. The new king, only days later, suppressed the rank of Full General in the Sardinian Army. The name of Paulucci came back to the attention of the public in March 1848, along with that of General Latour, for the command of the Sardinian Army on the field, those being the only two generals of the entire force that had led troops in battle before. Both his age and bad health induced him to make a public refusal of the position, still never offered to him officially. Filippo Paulucci delle Roncole died in Nice on 25 January 1849, and was later buried in Mirandola, near Modena, in the church of Saints James and Philip.

1911–12 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team

American college basketball season

The 1911–12 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team (variously "North Carolina", "Carolina" or "Tar Heels") was the second varsity college basketball team to represent the University of North Carolina. After the first season, it was announced that star player and captain Marvin Ritch was named manager for the upcoming year's team. He assumed scheduling duties and released a tentative schedule in December. Newspaper outlets deemed it to be one of the toughest schedules to be played. However, before the start of the semester and college basketball season, Ritch left the team to work as a secretary for Congressman Edwin Y. Webb. North Carolina opened the season at home with a five-game home-stand, the first of which came against the Durham Y.M.C.A. The Tar Heels led for majority of the match, only to lose the game in the closing minutes. Carolina then squared off against Elon College and William & Mary, which the Tar Heels won the former handily and played a closer game in the latter. A physically larger Guilford College faced Carolina next. Guilford emerged victorious 35–20 in a game marred by many foul calls. After beating Virginia Christian, North Carolina dropped the next three games. Their loss against Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (V.P.I.) was attended by over 2,000 people. The team closed the season beating Wake Forest. The Tar Heels established a large lead in the early second half and went scoreless for the game's remainder. The Alumni Review reported after the V.P.I. game that "... basketball has come into its own in this state." ## Roster and schedule After the conclusion of the Tar Heels' inaugural season, the school's Athletic Association announced the previous season's leading scorer Marvin Ritch as team manager, along with teammate William Tillet as his assistant. He assumed the duties of putting together the schedule for the upcoming season. In October, Ritch returned to his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he told the newspapers that he felt North Carolina's team would be the best in the state. In mid-December, a tentative schedule was made public that featured 17 games between January 5 and February 29. Writers from the student run newspaper The Tar Heel commented on the schedule saying it was "... one of the longest and hardest ever attempted by a North Carolina College." The games against the Charlotte Y.M.C.A. and Guilford College were thought to be early tests before the team travels north into Virginia and around Washington D.C. to play the likes of Georgetown, Virginia, and V.P.I., which were all thought to be difficult opponents. Wilmington's The Morning Star felt the schedule was tough, stating the team would have to "hustle some." In particular, they viewed the three schedule games against Virginia to be the "big feature" and the writers expected the attendance and crowd involvement to be similar to the school's match-ups in football and baseball. The final slate of games differed from the tentative schedule and did not feature the three proposed games against Virginia, a second game against V.P.I., and the single games against Georgetown, Catholic University, Davidson, and Roanoke College. Prior to the season, Ritch was also unanimously re-elected as captain of the basketball team. On December 18, 1911, The Charlotte News reported that Ritch again returned to Charlotte and told the press that he "may not be able to return to 'the Hill' in the spring." The writers commented that if he did not, the basketball team would suffer in his absence. Before the season opened on January 5, The Evening Post confirmed Ritch's absence as they announced his appointment to be the private secretary for North Carolina Representative Edwin Y. Webb in Washington D.C. According to The Morning Star, Ritch leaving led to a "distinct dismay among the student body." Junius Smith was named captain upon Ritch's departure. \|+ Schedule \|- !colspan=6 style="background:#4B9CD3; color:#FFFFFF;"\| Regular season ## Regular season On January 5, Durham's Y.M.C.A. team traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face the Tar Heel in their season–opening match. The Y.M.C.A. brought a strengthened team that featured a couple players who were members of Trinity College's team the prior year. These additions were thought to have made the team better and quicker. North Carolina remained in front for much of the game; however, in the closing minutes, the Y.M.C.A. rallied to take the lead and won 29–18. One writer commented that the Tar Heels missed Ritch's presence. Chapel Hill's Bynum Gymnasium hosted Elon College four days later, where the Tar Heels beat them 36–5 with a strong performance from captain Junius Smith. The Tar Heels were thought to have played fast and showed improved teamwork relative to their opening game. The Tar Heels faced William & Mary on January 12. The first half featured back-and-forth scoring and visiting team led the Tar Heels 19–15 at the half. William & Mary's Metcalf scored several points from foul shots. Carolina held William & Mary to just three points for the whole second half, while the Tar Heels scored 15 more points to seal the victory. Smith again was said to have played the best for the Heels, while Tillett and Hanes were also thought to have played well. Following the game there was a break in the schedule due to the school's exam schedule from January 15 to 25. The Tar Heel reflected on the team's performance by stating they did not have great teamwork or a star player, but just needed practice and could develop into a fast and "good, fighting quint." Guilford College defeated the Tar Heels 35–20 on January 31. The Guilford players were reportedly heavier than the Carolina starting five, and although the Tar Heels played good defense, their overall teamwork was lacking, and they could not withstand Guilford's "machine-like force". The game had "a great many fouls", and Guilford's Hoyos took seven foul shots while North Carolina's Smith took eight. Virginia Christian arrived in Chapel Hill for the Tar Heels' next game on February 2. The contest was closely fought for the first half as it closed with a Tar Heel advantage of 3 points, 18–15. The second half was dominated by North Carolina as they scored 25 points to Virginia Christian's 2, bringing the final score to 45–17 in Carolina's favor. The team traveled to Durham for a rematch against their Y.M.C.A. team on February 12. The Y.M.C.A. made more field goals while the Tar Heels made more foul shots, which resulted in a 26–18 victory for Durham. Durham's Holcomb led all scoring and made some long range shots. V.P.I. arrived in Chapel Hill four days later for the next game. The teams played a close game in the first half, where both managed to counter the opposing team's scores frequently. The Tar Heels were led by strong performances from Tillett and Carrington, who helped create a halftime lead of 21–17. As Carolina held the lead early in the second half, Tillett was removed from the game. Tillett's defense proved to be a critical reason for Carolina's success and shortly after his removal, V.P.I. gained the lead. They extended their lead and won 37–28, anchored by the Legge brothers who each scored 5 apiece. The Tar Heel regarded the game as the "best played and hardest fought game" at Bynum all season long. On February 19, a third match against the Durham Y.M.C.A. happened and proved to be close throughout. Carolina led going into halftime 17–16, but the Durham squad managed to gain the lead and win the game 29–28. On February 26, Wake Forest and North Carolina faced off in Raleigh, North Carolina. A crowd of nearly 1,000 filled the auditorium to see the contest. The game featured several fouls on both teams (5 on Carolina and 11 on Wake Forest) and inconsistent performances by both teams. Carolina won the first half of the game 10–6 with multiple baskets from Smith. The Tar Heels continued to score and reached 18 points; however, Wake Forest began to click on offense and scored seven shots in the final ten minutes, sinking one as time expired. Their efforts fell short as the game ended 18-15 in Carolina's favor. ## Aftermath Following the game against V.P.I., where an estimated 2,000 people attended, the Alumni Review wrote that "... basketball has come into its own in this state." When the season ended, The Tar Heel published a column where it discussed the basketball championship of North Carolina. The editors spoke of the parity between the North Carolina based squads and felt that all of them had an equal right to the championship. In September 1912, The Tar Heel published a column where it commented on the season, blaming the poor performance on the fact the team started practice after Christmas, while most other successful teams started in October.

Gravesend Blockhouse

Gravesend in Kent at a strategic point along the River Thames

Gravesend Blockhouse was an artillery fortification constructed as part of Henry VIII's Device plan of 1539, in response to fears of an imminent invasion of England by European countries. It was built at Gravesend in Kent at a strategic point along the River Thames and was operational by 1540. A two-storey, D-shaped building built from brick and stone, it had a circular bastion overlooking the river and gun platforms extending out to the east and west. It functioned in conjunction with Tilbury Fort on the other side of the river, and was repaired in 1588 to deal with the threat of Spanish invasion, and again in 1667 when the Dutch navy raided the Thames. A 1778 report recommended alterations to the blockhouse and its defences, leading to the remodelling of the gun platforms and the construction of the new, larger New Tavern Fort alongside it. In the 1830s the government decided to rely entirely on the newer fort and the old blockhouse was demolished in 1844. Its remains were uncovered in archaeological excavations between 1975 and 1976. ## 16th century ### Background Gravesend Blockhouse was built as a consequence of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire in the final years of the reign of King Henry VIII. Traditionally the Crown had left coastal defences to the local lords and communities, only taking a modest role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict with one another, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Modest defences, based around simple blockhouses and towers, existed in the south-west and along the Sussex coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were very limited in scale. In 1533, Henry then broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul the long-standing marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon and remarry. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and he took the annulment as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England now appeared certain. ### Device of 1539 Henry issued an order, called a "device", in 1539, giving instructions for the "defence of the realm in time of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English coastline. Under this programme of work the River Thames was protected with a mutually reinforcing network of blockhouses at Gravesend, Milton, and Higham on the south side of the river, and Tilbury and East Tilbury on the opposite bank. The fortifications were strategically placed. London and the newly constructed royal dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich were vulnerable to seaborne attacks arriving up the Thames estuary, which was then a major maritime route, with 80 percent of England's exports passing through it. The village of Milton and the adjacent town of Gravesend, only 500 metres (1,600 ft) apart, formed a particularly important communications point along the river. They were the centre for the "Long Ferry" traffic of passengers into the capital, and for the "Cross Ferry" over the river to Tilbury, resulting in the local riverbank becoming lined with wharfs. This was also the first point that an invasion force would be able to easily disembark along the Thames, as before this point the mudflats along the sides of the estuary would have made landings difficult. ### Construction Gravesend Blockhouse was designed by the Clerk of the King's Works, James Nedeham, and the Master of Ordnance, Christopher Morice, with Robert Lorde serving as the paymaster for the project and Lionel Martin, John Ganyn and Mr Travers acting as the local overseers. The Crown bought the land for the fort, along with the space for Gravesend Blockhouse, from William Burston for £66; it is uncertain how much the building work cost, but earlier estimates in 1539 had suggested that it would cost £211 to build such a blockhouse, including the 150,000 bricks and quantities of stone, chalk, lime, timber and labour that would be needed. The work was quickly completed, and by 1540 the blockhouse was fully operational. It was approximately 28 by 21 metres (92 by 69 ft) in size, two storeys tall, forming a D-shape, with a circular bastion at the front, extending into the Thames; another circular bastion jutted out from the side of the fort. The bulk of the building was made of brick, faced with ashlar stone, with external walls 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) thick. Two walls ran alongside either side of the blockhouse, parallel with the river, forming part of the adjacent platforms for mounting additional guns; in 1600, the east platform was described as being 100 feet (30 m) long and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide. The rear of the blockhouse was overlooked by higher ground and would have been hard to defend. The fort was initially commanded by Captain James Crane, with a garrison of ten men, including his second in command, a porter, six gunners and two soldiers. As time went on, not all of the gunners worked full-time at the fort, some living and working in the town itself. It is uncertain how many artillery pieces the blockhouse was initially equipped with, although it is known that the five blockhouses along the Thames had 108 brass and iron guns in total between them in 1540. ### Use In 1553, orders were issued for the artillery pieces to be removed from Gravesend Blockhouse and taken to the Tower of London, although the historian Victor Smith casts doubt on whether this was actually carried out. In 1588, however, there was a renewed threat of invasion, this time from Spain; the Spanish Armada sailed from A Coruña, while a separate invasion force was prepared in Flanders, threatening London; Rober Dudley, the Earl of Leicester was put in charge of the defences along the Thames. When Dudley inspected the blockhouse, Gravesend was found to be in poor condition. The gun platforms were unable to bear the weight of cannons, and the defences needed additional artillery and gunpowder; the permanent garrison by now only comprised five gunners. One estimate that summer suggested that 1,000 feet (300 m) of structural timber, 300 iron spikes and 10 cartloads of smaller pieces of timber were needed for the repairs. Plans were made to seal off the river with a chain or a boom stretching between the blockhouse and Tilbury Fort on the other bank, which was eventually accomplished at a cost of £305. Further work was carried out on the defences, possibly including raising earthworks and establishing watch-houses. Fears of an invasion persisted for many years afterwards and in 1598 Charles Howard, the Lord High Admiral, expressed his concerns about the effectiveness of the Gravesend Blockhouse in protecting the Thames. ## 17th century A 1600 survey showed 10 pieces of artillery to be ineffective, while the gun platforms on either side of the fort were in bad condition and 2,828 feet (862 m) of planking, 650 joists and over 19 cartloads of other timber was needed for the repairs. Little investment was forthcoming under James I or Charles I and by 1630 the garrison's pay was in arrears, with the fort was in need of repairs estimated at £1,248. In 1631 the blockhouse was equipped with two brass demi-culverins and sakers, and an iron culverin, six demi-culverins, four sakers and one minion; the brass guns, which were needed for naval units, were exchanged for iron weapons in 1635. In 1642 civil war broke out between the supporters of King Charles I and those of Parliament. Gravesend was controlled by Parliament, who placed it under the command of a military governor who oversaw both this fort and Tilbury, and was used to control traffic entering London and to search for spies. Charles II regained the throne in 1660 and was petitioned by several royalists who claimed that they should be restored to the command of the blockhouse; William Leonard was ultimately successful. The defences were repaired and may have been occasionally used by the King as a banqueting hall. The Dutch fleet raided up the Thames in June 1667, but did not approach Gravesend Blockhouse due to the threat posed by its guns. The fort, under the command of Sir John Griffith, was in reality not well prepared for war. £400 was spent on upgrading the blockhouse, artillery was sent from the Tower of London to reinforce the local guns and four infantry companies were detached to guard the site. The risk of attack ended with the signing of the Peace of Breda that July, and the blockhouse did not see action. Shortly after the Dutch raids, Sir John was removed from his post for apparently demanding payments from ships passing by the blockhouse, a complaint which was repeated in later years under subsequent captains. ## 18th–19th centuries By the start of the 18th century a complex of building had grown up around the original blockhouse, which now had a pier, a dock and two wharfs alongside it, and a large house built by the King's brother, James the Duke of York, after his return to England, as well as the two lines of approximately 20 guns stretching on either side along the river; it had a garrison of a sergeant, 20 soldiers and a gunner on loan from Tilbury Fort. The blockhouse itself was no longer used to mount guns but instead acted as the magazine for the wider fortification, being able to store 2,500 barrels of gunpowder. Under the terms of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the number of artillery pieces was reduced to ten, and a survey in 1766 reported that Gravesend was in good condition and equipped with ten 9 lb guns. Amid rising concerns over the threat of a French invasion, Sir Thomas Page surveyed the blockhouse in 1778 and concluded that its guns were too closely packed together and that they could not easily fire down-river, proposing that a larger fort be built along the Thames to the east to rectify this problem. New Tavern Fort was constructed shortly afterwards and the eastern Gravesend Blockhouse gun platform was redesigned and extended as part of the work. Two volunteer militia companies were established in 1794 and 1797 to support the blockhouse and in 1805 it was equipped with 19 32 lb guns. Concerns continued to be raised that the blockhouse's guns could not fire downriver and by the 1830s it had been decided to focus investment on the New Tavern and Tilbury forts. The blockhouse itself fell out of use as a magazine in 1834, being briefly used as a government store, and the adjacent gun platforms were sold off in 1835. The blockhouse building was subsequently demolished in 1844. ## 20th–21st centuries The site of the former Gravesend Blockhouse was excavated in 1975 and 1976 by the Kent Archaeological Society, uncovering parts of the original building. The site, which lies in the grounds of the Clarendon Royal Hotel, was protected under UK law as a scheduled monument in 1979.

Elephanta Caves

Collection of cave temples in Maharashtra, India

The Elephanta Caves are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, which have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri (literally meaning "the city of caves"), in Mumbai Harbour, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahārāshtra. The island, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, consists of five Hindu caves, a few Buddhist stupa mounds that date back to the 2nd century BCE, and two Buddhist caves with water tanks. The Elephanta Caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, mostly in high relief, that show syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged. The main temple's orientation as well as the relative location of other temples are placed in a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu mythologies, with the large monolithic 5.45 metres (17.9 ft) Trimurti Sadashiva (three-faced Shiva), Nataraja (Lord of dance) and Yogishvara (Lord of Yogis) being the most celebrated. These date to between the 5th and 9th centuries, and scholars attribute them to various Hindu dynasties. They are most commonly placed between the 5th and 7th centuries. Many scholars consider them to have been completed by about 550 CE. They were named Elefante – which morphed to Elephanta – by the colonial Portuguese who found elephant statues on the caves. They established a base on the island. The main cave (Cave 1, or the Great Cave) was a Hindu place of worship until the Portuguese arrived, whereupon the island ceased to be an active place of worship. The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the caves were started by British India officials in 1909. The monuments were restored in the 1970s. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). ## Geography Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, is about 11 km (6.8 mi) east of the Gateway of India in the Mumbai Harbour and less than 2 km (1.2 mi) west of Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The island covers about 10 km² (3.9 sq mi) at high tide and about 16 km² (6.2 sq mi) at low tide. Gharapuri is a small village on the south side of the island. The Elephanta Caves is connected by ferry services from the Gateway of India, Mumbai between 9AM and 2PM daily, except Monday when the Caves are closed. Mumbai has a major domestic and international airport, as well as is connected to the Indian Railways. The island is 2.4 km (1.5 mi) in length with two hills that rise to a height of about 150 m (490 ft). A narrow, deep ravine separates the two hills and runs from north to south. On the west, the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and rises gradually to the extreme east to a height of 173 m (568 ft). Forest growth with clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees. The foreshore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe. Landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north-west, Mora Bunder in the northeast, and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south. There are five rock-cut caves in the western hill and a brick stupa on the eastern hill. The eastern hill has two Buddhist mounds and is called the Stupa hill. Close to the five western hill caves, are Cave 6 and 7 on the eastern hill. The most visited and significant cave is on the western hill and is called Cave 1 or the Great Cave, located about a kilometer walk up a steep graded uphill. The Elephanta island is a protected monument area as per the requirements of UNESCO. A notification was issued by the Government of India in 1985 declaring a buffer zone that outlines "a prohibited area" that stretches 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the shoreline. ## Description The island has two groups of rock-cut caves, hewn from solid basalt rock. The larger group of caves, which consists of five caves on the western hill of the island, is well known for its Hindu sculptures. The primary cave, numbered as Cave 1, is about 1.0 km (0.62 mi) up a hillside, facing the Mumbai harbour. Caves 2 through 5 are next to Cave 1 further southeast, arranged in a row. Cave 6 and 7 are about 200 m (660 ft) northeast of Cave 1 and 2, but geologically on the edge of the eastern hill. The two hills are connected by a walkway. The eastern hill is also called the Stupa hill, while the western hill is called the Canon hill, reflecting their historic colonial-era names, the ancient Stupa and the Portuguese era firing Canons they host respectively. All the caves are rock-cut temples that together have an area of 5,600 m² (60,000 sq ft). At their most elaborate, they have a main chamber, two lateral chambers, courtyards, and subsidiary shrines, but not all are so fully developed. Cave 1 is the largest and is 39 metres (128 ft) deep from the front entrance to the back. The temple complex is primarily the abode of Shiva, depicted in widely celebrated carvings which narrate legends and theologies of Shaivism. However, the artwork reverentially displays themes from Shaktism and Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism as well. ### Cave 1: Main, Great Cave The main cave, also called Cave 1, Grand Cave or the Great Cave, is 39.63 metres (130.0 ft) square in plan with a hall (mandapa). The basic plan of the cave can be traced back to the plan of the ancient Buddhist viharas, consisting of a square court surrounded by cells, built from about 500 to 600 years before in India. The Cave has several entrances, the main entrance is unassumingly small and hides the grand hall inside. The main entrance faces north, while two side entrances face east and west. The cave's main entrance is aligned with the north–south axis, unusual for a Shiva shrine (normally east–west). However, inside is an integrated square plan Linga shrine (garbha-griya) that is aligned east–west, opening to the sunrise. Layout (3D Google Arts & Culture tour): 1\. Ravananugraha 2. Shiva-Parvati, Mount Kailash 3. Ardhanarishvara 4. Sadashiva Trimurti 5. Gangadhara 6\. Wedding of Shiva 7. Shiva slaying Andhaka 8. Nataraja 9. Yogishvara 16. Linga East Wing Shrine 10. Kartikeya 11. Matrikas 12. Ganesha 13. Dvarapala West Wing Shrine 14. Yogishvara 15. Nataraja To reach the main cave, a visitor or pilgrim has to walk up 120 steep steps from the beach or take the tourist toy train. At the main entrance are four pillars, with three open porticoes and an aisle at the back. Pillars, six in each row, divide the hall into a series of smaller chambers. The roof of the hall has concealed beams supported by stone columns joined together by capitals. The temple is enclosed in the cave, it has interior walls but no exterior wall. The pillars create space and symmetric rhythm as they support the weight of the hill above. The main mandapa recesses into a pillared vestibule (ardha-mandapa) on the south side, while a pillared portico (mukha-mandapa) connects it to the main entrance. Embedded within the Great Cave are dedicated shrines, the largest of which is the square plan Linga shrine (see 16 in plan). It is a square garbha-griya (womb house) with four entrances, located in the right section of the main hall. Steps lead from the four doorways into the sanctum, which has a linga in the mulavigraha style. Each doorway is guarded by a dvarapala on each side, for a total of eight dvarapalas, their heights spanning floor to the ceiling. These were badly damaged when the Portuguese ceded control of this region to the British. The linga shrine is surrounded by a mandapa and circumambulation path (pradakshina-patha) as in other Hindu temples. The pillars are similarly aligned east–west to this shrine and have an east entrance. Overlaid, as if fused, on the architecture of this temple is another open temple aligned to the north–south direction with three faced Sadashiva as its focal centre. One features the abstract, unmanifest, aniconic symbol of Shiva, the other anthropomorphic, manifest, iconic symbol of Shiva. The mandapa pillars of the two align up. The northern entrance to the cave is flanked by two panels of Shiva dated to the Gupta period, both damaged. The left panel depicts Yogishvara (Shiva as the Lord of Yoga) and the right shows Nataraja (Shiva as the Lord of Dance). The Sadashiva is flanked by two large friezes, one of Ardhanarishvara and the other of Gangadhara. The walls of the mandapa feature other Shaivism legends. All the friezes, states Stella Kramrisch, feature the vyaktavyakta concept of Samkhya, where the state of spiritual existence transitions between the unmanifest-manifest, the figures leap out of the cave walls towards the spectator as if trying to greet the narrative. Even the manifested Sadashiva is shown to be rising out of the rocks. Each wall has large carvings of Shiva-related legends, each more than 5 metres (16 ft) in height. The central Shiva relief Trimurti is located on the south wall opposite the main entrance. Also called the Sadashiva, it is the iconic form of a pancamukha linga is set in a mandala pattern with the abstract linga form of Shiva. The Sadashiva is a colossal carving, a bit over 6.27 metres (20.6 ft), depicting Tatpurusha (Mahadeva), Aghora (Bhairava), Vamadeva (Uma) and Sadyojata (Nandin). The carving is unusual because the standard ancient Hindu texts for murti design state that the Tatpursha should face east, but in Elephanta it is the north face (pointing towards the main entrance). Smaller shrines are located at the east and west ends of the caves. The eastern sanctuary serves as a ceremonial entrance, and its shrine shows iconography of Shaktism tradition. #### Sadashiva: Trimurti The Trimurti is considered a masterpiece and the most important sculpture in the caves. It is carved in relief on the south wall of the cave facing the north entrance, along the north–south axis. It is also known as Sadashiva and Maheshmurti. The image, 5.45 m (17.9 ft) in height, depicts a three-headed Shiva, representing Panchamukha Shiva. The three heads represent three essential aspects of Shiva: creation, protection, and destruction. As per another version, the three heads symbolize compassion and wisdom. The right half-face (west face) shows him holding a lotus bud, depicting the promise of life and creativity. This face is symbolism for Brahma, the creator or Uma or Vamadeva, the feminine side of Shiva and creator. The left half-face (east face) is that of a moustached young man. This is Shiva as the terrifying Aghora or Bhairava, the chaos creator and destroyer. This is also known as Rudra-Shiva, the Destroyer. The central face, benign and meditative Tatpurusha, resembles the preserver Vishnu. This is the Shiva form as the "master of positive and negative principles of existence and preserver of their harmony". The three-headed Shiva are his creator, preserver and destroyer aspects in Shaivism. They are equivalently symbolism for Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, they being equivalent of the three aspects found in Shaivism. #### Gangadhara The Trimurti Shiva is flanked on its left by Ardhanarisvara (a half-Shiva, half-Parvati composite) and Gangadhara legend to its right. The Gangadhara image to the right of the Trimurti shows Shiva and Parvati standing. Shiva brings the Ganges River down from the heavens and her immense power is contained effortlessly in Shiva's hair as she descends from heaven. The artists carved a small three bodied goddess up high, a symbolism for Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati. The mother goddess Parvati stands tall next to Shiva, smiling. The carving is 4 m (13 ft) wide and 5.207 m (17.08 ft) high. The Gangadhara image is highly damaged, particularly the lower half of Shiva seen seated with Parvati, who is shown with four arms, two of which are broken. From the crown, a cup with a triple-headed female figure (with broken arms) to depict the three major rivers in Hindu texts. An alternative interpretation of the three-bodied goddess in Gangadharamurti panel here and elsewhere is that it represents the regenerative powers of rivers in the form of Mandakini, Suradhani and Bhagavati. In this grotto scene, Shiva is sculpted and bedecked with ornaments, while gods gather to watch the cosmic source of earthly abundance. The gods and goddesses shown are identifiable from the vahana (vehicle) and icons, and they include Brahma (left), Indra (left), Vishnu (right), Saraswati, Indrani, Lakshmi, and others. Wrapped on one of the arms of Shiva is his iconic coiling serpent whose hood is seen near his left shoulder. Another hand (partly broken) gives the semblance of Shiva hugging Parvati, with a head of matted hair. A damaged ornamented drapery covers his lower torso, below the waist. Parvati is carved to the left of Shiva with a coiffured hair dress, fully bedecked with ornaments and jewellery. Between them stands a gana (dwarf jester) expressing confused panic as to whether Shiva will be able to contain the mighty river goddess. In the lower left of the panel is a kneeling devout figure in namaste posture representing the heroic mythical king Bhagiratha who worked hard to bring the river of prosperity to his earthly kingdom, but unaware of the potentially destructive forces that came with it. #### Ardhanarishvara On the wall to the east of the Trimurti is a damaged four-armed Ardhanarishvara carving. This image, which is 5.11 m (16.8 ft) in height. It represents the ancient Hindu concept of essential interdependence of the feminine and the masculine aspects in the universe, for its creation, its sustenance and its destruction. It is represented as half woman shown as half of Parvati in this Elephanta panel on the right side, with breast, waist, feminine hair and items such as a mirror in the upper hand. The second half-man side is Shiva with male characteristics and items iconographically his symbol. In Shaivism, the concept pictorially symbolizes the transcendence of all duality including gender, with the spiritual lacking any distinctions, where energy and power (Shakti, Parvati) is unified and is inseparable with the soul and awareness (Brahman, Shiva). In the panel, the relief shows a headdress (double-folded) with two pleats draped towards the female head (Parvati) and the right side (Shiva) depicting curled hair and a crescent. The female figure has all the ornamentation (broad armlets and long bracelets, a large ring in the ear, jewelled rings on the fingers) but the right male figure has drooping hair, armlets and wristlets. One of his hands rests on Nandi bull's left horn, Shiva's mount, which is fairly well preserved. The pair of hands at the back is also bejewelled; the right hand of the male side holds a serpent, while the left hand of the female side holds a mirror. The front left hand is broken, while a large part of the lower half of the panel was damaged at some point. Around the Ardhanarishwara are three layers of symbolic characters. The lowest or at the same level as the viewer are human figures oriented reverentially towards the androgyne image. Above them are gods and goddesses such as Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and others who are seated on their vahanas. Above them are flying apsaras approaching the fused divinity with garlands, music, and celebratory offerings. #### Shiva slaying Andhaka The panel in the northwest side of the cave, on the wall near west entrance and the Linga shrine (see 7 in plan), is an uncommon sculpture about the Andhakasura-vadha legend. It shows Bhairava, or Virabhadra, a ferocious form of Shiva killing the demon Andhaka (literally, "blind, darkness"). The relief is much ruined below the waist, is 3.5 m (11 ft) high and posed in action. Though a relief, it is carved to give it a three dimensional form, as if the ferocious Shiva is coming out of the rocks and impaling Andhaka with his trident. Bhairava's headgear has a ruff on the back, a skull, and a cobra over the forehead, and the crescent high on the right. His facial expression is of anger, the conviction of something he must do, and one in the middle of the action. The legs and five of the eight arms are broken, attributed to Portuguese vandalism. The smaller broken image Andhaka is seen below Bhairava's image. Also depicted in his right hand is the symbolic weapon that Shaiva mythology states Shiva used to kill the destructive elephant demon. A hand holds a bowl to collect the blood dripping from the slain Andhaka, which Shaiva legend states was necessary because the dripping blood had the power to become new demons if they got nourished by the ground. Furthermore, the artwork shows ruined parts of a male and two female forms, figures of two ascetics, a small figure in front, a female figure, and two dwarfs. The uppermost part shows flying apsaras bringing garlands. #### Wedding of Shiva The niche image carved on the southwest wall, near the Linga shrine (see 6 on plan) is the wedding of Shiva and Parvati. This legend is called the Kalyanasundara in Hindu texts. Parvati is seen standing to Shiva's right, the customary place for a Hindu bride at the wedding. The carvings are substantially damaged, but the ruined remains of the sculpture have been significant to scholarly studies of Hindu literature. In many surviving versions of the Puranas, the wedding takes place in King Parvata's palace. However, in this Elephanta Cave panel, the narrative shows some earlier version. Here King Parvata standing behind Parvati gives away the bride to Shiva while Brahma is the priest in the grotto relief. Gods, goddesses and celestial apsaras are cheering witness to the wedding. Vishnu is witness to the marriage, standing tall behind the sitting Brahma on the right side of the panel. Just above the main images rishi (sages) and a few characters hanging from the ceiling are seen blessing the wedding. The groom Shiva is shown calm and young, while Parvati is depicted as shy and emotional. Her head is tilted towards him and her eyelids joyfully lowered, while his hand (now broken) is holding hers. Their dress reflect the Hindu customs. He wears the sacred thread across his chest, she the customary jewelry. The other characters shown in the wedding carry items or are shown holding items that typically grace a Hindu wedding. Chandra (moon god), for example, holds a traditionally decorated water vessel (kalash). Brahma, the priest, is squatting on the floor to the right tending the yajna fire (agni mandapa). #### Yogishvara: Lord of Yoga The panel in the east side of the portico next to the north entrance (see 9 on plan) is Shiva in Yoga. This form of Shiva is called Yogishvara, Mahayogi, Lakulisa. Shiva, states Stella Kramrisch, is the "primordial yogi" in this panel. He is the master of discipline, the teacher of Yoga arts, the master who shows how yoga and meditation leads to the realization of ultimate reality. The relief is in a dilapidated condition with most of the arms and legs broken. He is seated in padmasana lost in his meditation. His posture is well formed and suggests that the 6th century artist knew this asana. He sits on a lotus with a stalk shown as if coming out of the earth, his legs are crossed symmetrically. Two Nagas flank the lotus and express their reverence with a namaste posture. The great yogi is being approached by various Vedic and Puranic gods and goddesses, as well as monks and sadhus, yet there is a halo around him that keeps them at bay as if they admire it but do not wish to disturb his meditation. In some ways, the yogi artwork shown in this Hindu cave are similar to those found in Buddhist caves, but there are differences. Yogi Shiva, or Lakulisa, wears a crown here, his chest is shown vaulting forward as if in breathing exercises found in Hindu yoga texts, the face and body expresses different energy. This Shiva yogi comes across as the "lord of the caves" or Guhesvara in medieval Indian poetry, states Kramrisch. According to Charles Collins, the depiction of Shiva as Yogi in Elephanta Cave 1 is harmonious with those found in the Puranas dated to early and mid 1st millennium CE. #### Nataraja: Lord of Dance The panel facing the Yogishvara, on the west side of the portico next to the north entrance (see 8 on plan) is Shiva as the Nataraja, "cosmic dancer" and "the lord of dancers". It is also called the Nrittamurti. The badly damaged relief panel is 4 m (13 ft) wide and 3.4 m (11 ft) high and set low on the wall. His body and arms are shown as wildly gyrating in the lalita mudra, a symbolism for occupying all of space, soaring energy and full bodied weightlessness. His face here resembles the Tatpurusha, or the manifested form of Shiva that preserves and sustains all of creation, all of creative activity. This is an eight-armed depiction of Nataraja. The parts of the panel that have survived suggest that he is holding an axe, a coiled serpent is wrapped around its top. In another he holds a folded cloth, possibly symbolic veil of maya. There are fewer gods, goddesses and observers in this panel than others in this cave, with Brahma, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati are visible and have a facial expression of being spellbound. Also present are his sons leaping Ganesha and Kartikeya holding Shiva's staff, as well as an ascetic and a rishi, thus weaving the family life and the ascetic monastic life, the secular and the spiritual tied in through metaphorical symbolism of dance within the same panel. The dancer and destroyer aspects of Shiva are clustered in the northwest part of the cave, in contrast to yoga and creator aspects that are found in the northeast parts. This 6th-century Nataraja shares architectural elements with those found in temples in the western parts of South Asia such as in Gujarat, and in upper Deccan region. #### Mount Kailash and Ravananugraha The carvings at the east entrance are battered and blurry. One in the southeast corner of the mandapa (see 2 on plan) depicts Shiva and Parvati in Mount Kailash in the Himalayas, and the shows the Umamaheshvara story. The scene includes rocky terrain and clouds layered horizontally. On top of the rock sit the four-armed Shiva and Parvati by his side. Nandi stands below her, while celestial apsaras float on the clouds above. There are traces of a crown and a disc behind Shiva, but it is all damaged. The scene is crowded with accessory figures, which may be because the eastern entrance was meant to have a devotional focus. The panel facing the Mount Kailash panel towards the northeast corner (see 1 on plan) depicts demon king Ravana trying to lift Kailash and bother Shiva, a legend called Ravananugraha. The upper scene is Mount Kailash, where Shiva and Parvati are seated. Shiva is recognizable with a crown, and other characters are badly damaged. A portion of ascetic skeletal devotee Bhringi relief survives and he is seated near Shiva's feet. Near Shiva an outline of what may have been Ganesha and Kartikeya are visible. Below the mountain surface is shown the demon-king Ravana is seen with a few arms, trying to unsuccessfully shake Shiva and Parvati in Mount Kailash. The rest of the details are blurry and speculative. According to Charles Collins, the discernible elements of this panel are generally consistent with those in medieval era Puranas, though there is a lack in literal correspondence with any single text. #### Linga shrine The central shrine of the Great Cave temple is a free-standing square stone cella, with entrances on each of its sides. Each door is flanked by two dvarapalas (gate guardians), for a total of eight around the shrine. The height of the eight dvarapalas is about 4.6 m (15 ft). All are in a damaged condition except those at the southern door to the shrine. The Shaiva guardians carry weapons and flank the doors. Six steps lead to the inside of the cella from the floor level. In the centre is the mulavigraha Linga, is set on a raised platform above the floor of the shrine by 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in). It is the abstract unmanifest symbol of Shiva in union with the Yoni, and the symbol of Parvati together symbolising the creative source and the regenerative nature of existence. The temple and all the pillars are laid out to lead the pilgrim's view towards it, the cella is visible from any point inside the cave and its most significant progression. #### East wing: Shaktism On the east side of the main hall is a separate shrine. It is a 17 m (56 ft)-wide courtyard with a circular pedestal. It once had a seated Nandi facing the Linga shrine, but its ruins have not been restored. To the south side of this eastern courtyard is the Shaktism shrine, with a lion, each seated with a raised forepaw as guardian. Inside the west face of this small shrine (see 10–12 of plan) are Sapta Matrikas, or the "seven mothers" along with Parvati, Kartikeya (Skanda) and Ganesha. The smaller shrine's sanctum features a linga and has a circumambulatory path around it. The sanctum door has Shaiva dvarapalas. The Shakti panel in the east shrine is unusual in that counting Parvati, it features eight mothers (Asta matrikas) in an era when Sapta matrikas were more common such as at Samalaji and Jogeshwari caves. Additionally, the mothers are flanked on one side with Ganesha and the other with Skanda (Kartikeya) when typical artwork from mid 1st millennium show the Shakta mothers with Ganesha and Shiva. According to Sara L. Schastok, the Skanda in the east shrine of Elephanta Cave 1 is significant, just like the one found in Deogarh Hindu temple site, because he is depicted with regalia, weapons and icons similar to Shiva and because he is surrounded by gods and goddesses. By portraying Skanda with Matrikas, he is equated with the Krittikas legend and thereby Kartikeya, and by showing him so prominently centred the artists are likely communicating the unity of Skanda-Shiva, that all these divinities are in essence the same spiritual concept, "all emanations of the lingam at the very heart of Elephanta", according to Schastok. #### West wing: Other traditions On the west side of the main hall is another attached shrine, though in a much more ruined state. The larger cave on the south side of the west shrine is closed, contains ruins and is bigger than the eastern side shrine. Some of the artworks from here were moved to museums and private collections by mid 19th century, including those related to Brahma, Vishnu and others. The western face has two panels, one showing another version of Shiva in Yoga (see 14 on plan) and another Nataraja (see 15 on plan). Between these is a sanctum with a Shiva Linga. This Yogi Shiva panel is damaged, but unlike the other Yogi depiction, here the leg position in Yoga asana has survived. The Yogishvara is seated on a lotus, and near him are two badly defaced characters, possibly one of Parvati and another ascetic. Above him are ruin remains of celestial gods or goddesses or apsaras. The Yogi Shiva is wearing a crown, and once again there is a space of isolation around the meditating yogi in which no other character enters. Below him, under the lotus, are Nagas and several badly damaged figures two of whom are in namaste reverence posture. The Nataraja shown in the west shrine is similar in style to one inside the main mandapa. However, states Collins, its depth of carving appears inferior and it seems more eroded being more open to rains and water damage. ### Caves 2-5: Canon hill To the south-east of the Great Cave is Cave 2. The cave is unfinished. The front of this cave was completely destroyed and restored in the 1970s with four square pillars. It has two small cells in the back. Cave 3 is next to Cave 2, as one continues to go away from the main shrine. It is a portico with six pillars, and a mandapa with pillars. The portico is 26 m (85 ft) long and 11 m (36 ft) deep and is supported by four reconstructed pillars. At the back of the portico are three chambers. The central door at the back of the portico leads to a damaged shrine, the sanctum seems to be for a Linga, but that is lost. The shrine is a plain room 6 m (20 ft) deep by 5.7 m (19 ft) wide with a low altar. The shrine door has some traces of sculpture. The dvarapalas on each side, leaning on dwarfs with flying figures over the head, are now in fragments. There are two other chambers, one on each side of the shrine. Cave 4 is quite damaged, the large verandah lacking all its columns. The relief remains suggest the cave was once a Shaiva temple as well. The shrine in the back contains a lingam. There are also three cells for monks and a chapel at each end of the verandah. Cave 5 is unfinished and in a very damaged state, with no artistic remains. ### Stupa hill: caves 6-7, stupas 1-2 Across the ravine from Cave 1 on the hill on the other side are two Buddhist caves, together with the remains of a stupa and water tanks. It seems the Buddhists were the first occupants of the island. One is a large hall known as Cave 6, or Sitabai's temple cave (). The portico has four pillars and two pilasters. The hall has 3 chambers at the back, the central one a shrine and the rest for monks or priests. The hall is devoid of any decoration, except for the door of the central shrine, which has pilasters and a frieze, with the threshold decorated with lion figures. The sanctum has no remaining image. Cave 6 is historically significant because it was converted and used as a Christian church by the Portuguese in the later years when the island was a part of their colony (at some point between 1534 and 1682). Next, along the face of the eastern hill to the north of Sitabai's cave is Cave 7 (), another small excavation with a veranda, which was probably to be three cells, but was abandoned following the discovery of a flaw in the rock. Past Cave 7, to the east, is a dry pond, with large artificial boulders and several Buddhist cisterns along its banks. Near the cistern, now at the end of the north spur of the hill, is a mound that was identified as the remains of a Buddhist stupa (). This stupa, state Michell and Dhavalikar, was originally much taller and dates to about the 2nd century BCE. ### Lost monuments Many artworks from the Elephanta Caves ruins are now held in major museums around India. These include an almost completely destroyed Durga statue with only the buffalo demon with Durga's legs and some waist surviving. Other scholarly studied museum held Elephanta sculpture includes a part of Brahma head, several ruins of Vishnu from different statues, a range of panels and free-standing stone carvings. According to Schastok, some of these are "surely not part of the Great Cave", but it is unclear where they were found when they were moved elsewhere, or when ruins were cleared and restoration process initiated. The significant statues of Vishnu are difficult to explain and to position inside other surviving caves. One theory states that some of the caves must have represented the Vaishnavism tradition. Another theory by some scholars, such as Moti Chandra, suggests that the island once had open-air structural Hindu temples in addition to the caves, but these were the first victims of art destruction. The Vishnu sculptures found among the Elephanta ruins express different styles. One wears a dhoti and has a looped girdle, while holding a conch at an angle near his thigh. The remnants of his sides suggest that this was likely a four arm iconography. Another statue has elements of Shiva and Vishnu. It was identified to be Shiva by Pramod Chandra, as Kartikeya by Moti Chandra, and as Vishnu by others. It shows a chain link near the thigh, has a gada (mace) on side, and someone standing next to him with a damaged upper portion but with a small waist and full breasts suggestive of a Devi. This statue too is wearing a dhoti. The island also had a stone horse according to 18th century records, just like the stone elephant that made colonial Portuguese call it "Ilha Elefante". However, this horse was removed to an unknown location before 1764. ## History The ancient history of the island is unknown in both Hindu or Buddhist records. Archeological studies have uncovered many remains that suggest the small island had a rich cultural past, with evidence of human settlement by possibly the 2nd century BC. The Elephanta site was first occupied by Hinayana Buddhists, before the arrival of the Brahmans to the island, to raise a large stupa to the Buddha with seven smaller stupas around it, probably around the 2nd century BCE. Coins of the Kshatrapas (Western Satraps) dating to the 4th century CE were found on the island. The regional history is first recorded in the Gupta Empire era, but these do not explicitly mention these caves. This has made the origins and the century in which Elephanta caves were built a subject of a historic dispute. They have been variously dated, mostly between from late 5th to late 8th century AD, largely based on the dating of other cave temples in the Deccan region. Colonial era historians suggested that the caves were built by the Rashtrakutas in 7th century or after, a hypothesis primarily based on some similarities with the Ellora Caves, but this theory has been discredited by later findings. According to Archaeological Survey of India and UNESCO, the site was settled in ancient times and the cave temples were built between 5th and 6th century. Contemporary scholars generally place the completion of the temples to the second quarter of the 6th century and as a continuation of the period of artistic flowering in the Gupta Empire era. These scholars attribute these Cave temples to king Krishnaraja of the Kalachuri dynasty. The dating to a mid 6th century completion and it being a predominantly Shiva monument built by a Hindu Kalachuri king is based on numismatic evidence, inscriptions, construction style and better dating of other Deccan cave temples including the Ajanta Caves, and the more firm dating of Dandin's Dasakumaracarita. According to Charles Collins, the significance of the Elephanta Caves is better understood by studying them in the context of ancient and early medieval Hindu literature, as well as in the context of other Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples on the subcontinent. The historic Elephanta artwork was inspired by the mythology, concepts and spiritual ideas found in the Vedic texts on Rudra and later Shiva, the epics, the Puranas and the Pashupata Shaivism literature corpus of Hinduism composed by the 5th-century. The panels reflect the ideas and stories widely accepted and well known to the artists and cave architects of India by about 525 CE. The mythology varies significantly in these texts and has been much distorted by later interpolations, but the Elephanta Cave panels represent the narrative version most significant in the 6th century. The panels and artwork express through their eclecticism, flux and motion the influence of Vedic and post-Vedic religious thought on Hindu culture in mid 1st millennium CE. After the caves' completion in the 6th century, Elephanta became popular regionally as Gharapuri (village of caves). The name is still used in the local Marathi language. It became a part of the Gujarat Sultanate rulers, who ceded it to the Portuguese merchants in 1534. The Portuguese named the island "Elephanta Island" for the huge rock-cut stone statue of an elephant, the spot they used for docking their boats and as a landmark to distinguish it from other islands near Mumbai. The elephant statue was damaged in attempts to relocate it to England, was moved to the Victoria Gardens in 1864, was reassembled in 1914 by Cadell and Hewett, and now sits in the Jijamata Udyaan in Mumbai. Scholars are divided on who most defaced and damaged the Elephanta Caves. According to Macneil, the monuments and caves were already desecrated during the Sultanate rule, basing his findings on the Persian inscription on a door the leads to the grand cave. In contrast, others such as Ovington and Pyke, link the greater damage to be from the Christian Portuguese soldiers and their texts which state they used the caves and statues as a firing range and for target practice. Macneil concurs that Elephanta Caves were defaced and damaged during the colonial period, but assigns the responsibility not to the soldiers but to the Portuguese authorities. The colonial era British publications state they were "defaced by the zeal of Mahommedans and Portuguese". The Portuguese ceded the island in 1661 to the colonial British, but by then the Caves had seen considerable damage. The Portuguese had also removed and then lost an inscription stone from the caves. During the British rule, many Europeans visited the caves during their visit to Bombay, then published their impressions and memoirs. Some criticized it as having "nothing of beauty or art", while some called it "enormous artwork, of extraordinary genius". The British relied on the port city of Bombay (now Mumbai), which led to it becoming a major urban centre and the migration of Hindus looking for economic opportunities. The Elephanta caves re-emerged as a centre of Hindu worship, and according to British administration records, the government charged the pilgrims a temple tax at least since 1872. In 1903, the Hindus petitioned the government to waive this fee, which the British agreed to on three Shiva festival days if Hindus agreed. The Elephants Caves were, otherwise, left in its ruinous condition. In the late 1970s, the Government of India restored the main cave in its attempt to make it a tourist and heritage site. The caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 as per the cultural criteria of UNESCO: the caves "represent a masterpiece of human creative genius" and "bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared." ## Preservation The convenient location of these caves near Mumbai (in comparison to other sites that are less well served by Indian travel infrastructure) and Western curiosity for historic Indian culture made Elephanta Caves a subject of numerous guide books and significant scholarly interest in the 20th century. The early speculations and misconceptions about these caves led to many interpretations and scholarly disagreements but also increased the support for their preservation. The publication of their condition, sketches and interpretation by James Burgess in 1871 brought wider attention. The earliest efforts to preserve the Elephanta Caves were taken by British India officials in 1909 when the site was placed under the Indian Archaeological Department and the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act included it within its scope. This helped isolate the island and preserve the ruins. More specific legislation to preserve the Elephanta Island monuments were enacted with the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 and Rules (1959); The Elephanta Island (Protected Monument) Rules of 1957, which prohibits mining, quarrying, blasting, excavation and other operations near the monument; the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act promulgated in 1972 with its Rules promulgated in 1973; a Notification issued in 1985 declaring the entire island and a 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) area from the shore as "a prohibited area"; a series of Maharashtra State Government environmental acts protecting the site; the 1966 Regional and Town Planning Act; and the 1995 Heritage Regulations for Greater Bombay. However, it was in the 1970s that the site received active conservation and restoration efforts. These efforts put back the ruins of Cave 1 and select parts of broken pillars in other caves, along with developing the island as a heritage site. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Aurangabad Circle maintains and manages the Elephanta Caves. It is responsible for monitoring and stabilisation of the rock face, construction of supports to the cave structures where pillars have collapsed, and consolidation of cave floors and construction of a parapet wall surrounding the site. In addition, it maintains the visitor facilities and an on-site museum. The site receives approximately 1,000 visitors a day, more on Shiva ratri, dance festivals, the World Heritage Day (18 April) and World Heritage Week between 19 and 25 November for special events. After declaring the caves a World Heritage Site, UNESCO and the ASI have worked together to monitor the site and implement conservation methods on a routine basis. ## In literature In her 1834 poetical illustration The Caves of Elephanta, to an engraving of a painting by W. Purser, Letitia Elizabeth Landon laments the loss of the original spiritual purpose of this vast structure, so that now: 'The mighty shrine, undeified, speaks force, and only force, Man's meanest attribute'. The Elephanta Caves are mentioned more than once in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and also feature in Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel The Razor's Edge. ## See also - Ajanta Caves - Ellora Caves - Goa Inquisition - History of Maharashtra - Indian rock-cut architecture - List of colossal sculpture in situ - List of rock-cut temples in India - Tourism in India

Australia 31–0 American Samoa

2001 association football match

'''''''' On 11 April, 2001, the Australian and American Samoan national association football teams played each other in an Oceanian qualifying match for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The match was played at the International Sports Stadium in Coffs Harbour, Australia. Australia set a world record for the largest victory in an international football match, winning the game 31–0. Australia's Archie Thompson also broke the record for most goals scored by a player in an international match by scoring 13 goals. David Zdrilic, the scorer of eight goals in the match, scored the second-highest number of goals in an international match since World War I. The outcome of the match led to debates about the format of qualification tournaments, with the Australian manager Frank Farina and Thompson feeling that preliminary rounds should be introduced to avoid such unbalanced matches, views shared by the international footballing body FIFA. It eventually led to the introduction of a preliminary round in the Oceanian zone qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The unbalanced level of opponents was also addressed by Australia's move to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006. ## Background The first attempt from Oceanian teams to qualify for the FIFA World Cup came at the 1966 FIFA World Cup. In subsequent tournaments, they entered joint qualification competitions with the Asian zone until a separate qualification round for the Oceania Football Confederation was introduced in 1986. By the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament, this had grown to a competition with ten teams entering. The ten teams were divided into two groups of five teams, where each team played against each other once. The two group winners would advance to the final round and play against each other in a home-and-away format. The winner of Oceania would advance to the intercontinental play-off round against the fifth best team in the South American zone for a place in the World Cup. Australia and American Samoa were placed in Group 1 along with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga with the matches to be played at Coffs Harbour, Australia in April 2001. Australia and New Zealand were widely recognised as the strongest teams in the Oceanian zone. They were the only teams to have won the OFC Nations Cup, and the only ones to have qualified for the World Cup: Australia had qualified in 1974 and New Zealand in 1982. American Samoa was one of the weakest teams in the world, having lost all of their official international matches since they had joined FIFA in 1998. Before the match, Australia was ranked 75th in the FIFA World Rankings, while American Samoa was ranked 203rd, the lowest of all FIFA members. Two days before the match, Australia recorded a 22–0 win over Tonga, breaking the previous record for the largest winning margin in an international match, held by Kuwait who won 20–0 against Bhutan in 2000. American Samoa had suffered two losses before the match, a 13–0 loss to Fiji and an 8–0 loss to Samoa. ## Match summary Australia fielded a team with several rarely used players as many regulars were either rested or omitted from the team. Strikers John Aloisi and Damian Mori who combined for 10 goals in the 22–0 win over Tonga were also omitted for this match. The American Samoa team were troubled by passport issues, with only one member of their original 20-man senior team, goalkeeper Nicky Salapu, eligible to play. He was named captain for the match. American Samoa was also unable to call their under-20 players because most of them were involved in high school exams at the time. They were forced to draft in youth players, including three 15-year-old players, to put together a makeshift team with an average age of 18. According to team manager and Football Federation American Samoa vice-president Tony Langkilde, some of the team's players had never played a full 90-minute match before the match with Australia. American Samoa held Australia scoreless for the first ten minutes of play until Con Boutsianis scored Australia's first goal from a corner kick. Archie Thompson scored his first goal in the 12th minute. His strike partner David Zdrilic added his first goal a minute later. Tony Popovic added two successive goals in the 17th and 19th minutes to extend Australia's lead to 6–0. In the 25th minute, Zdrilic achieved a hat-trick, making the score 9–0 for Australia. Thompson then scored 6 of the next 7 goals as Australia led 16–0 at half-time. Thompson led Australia in scoring with 8 goals at half-time and Zdrilic had 4 goals. Boutsianis, who scored the first goal of the first half, scored the first goal of the second half in the 50th minute. Boutsianis later added another goal to complete his hat-trick. Thompson and Zdrilic added 5 and 4 goals to finish with 13 and 8 goals, respectively. Boutsianis finished with 3 goals, while Popovic, Aurelio Vidmar and Simon Colosimo scored 2 goals each and substitute Fausto De Amicis netting once. In the 86th minute, despite being down by 29 goals, American Samoa managed to launch an attack towards Australia's goal when Pati Feagiai had a shot, which was saved by Michael Petkovic. That was American Samoa's only shot on goal. The large number of goals created confusion over the correct scoreline. At the end of the match, the scoreboard at the stadium showed 32–0 and Thompson was credited with 14 goals. After the statistician did a recount, the 31–0 scoreline was announced and Thompson's total goal count was reduced to 13. After the match, FIFA went on to release the official statistics after receiving the official report from the referee and match officials, which confirmed the 31–0 scoreline and Thompson's 13 goals. ### Details ## Records Australia's 31–0 win broke their own record for the largest winning margin in an international match, a 22–0 win over Tonga recorded two days earlier in the same competition. Both wins surpassed the previous record held by Kuwait in a 20–0 win over Bhutan in the 2000 Asian Cup qualification. The match also broke the record for the largest margin in a World Cup qualification match. The previous record was held by Iran in a 19–0 win over Guam also in the 2002 World Cup qualification. Apart from team records, individual records were also broken in the match. Australia's Thompson, who only had two international caps and one international goal before the match, scored 13 goals and broke the record for most goals scored in an international match. Zdrilic scored 8 goals and was widely reported as having recorded the second-most goals scored in an international match, after Thompson's 13 goals. His figure was less than the previous record of 10 goals, which was achieved by Denmark's Sophus Nielsen at the 1908 Olympics and Germany's Gottfried Fuchs at the 1912 Olympics. Nevertheless, this made Zdrilic's total the second highest in almost 90 years. Thompson also equalled the world record for most goals scored in a recognised senior match, set in 1885 when John Petrie scored 13 goals in Arbroath's 36–0 win over Bon Accord in a Scottish Cup match. The previous record in a World Cup qualifying match was seven goals and was jointly held by another Australian, Gary Cole, against Fiji in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers on 14 August 1981 and Iranian Karim Bagheri against the Maldives in the 1998 World Cup Asian qualifiers on 2 June 1997. ## Match reactions Australia's manager Frank Farina criticised the qualification format and questioned the need for these kinds of matches. Thompson, who scored a record-setting 13 goals, was delighted with his record, but he also agreed with Farina's comments. FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper agreed with both comments and suggested a change in the qualification format, with the smaller teams entering a preliminary round. However, Oceania Football Confederation chairman Basil Scarsella opposed both comments and claimed that the smaller teams have the right to face Australia and New Zealand, similar to Australia having the right to face stronger opponents such as Brazil and France. > "Breaking the world record is a dream come true for me; that sort of thing doesn't come along every day. But you have to look at the teams we are playing and start asking questions. We don't need to play these games." This match and the other lopsided victories in the qualification partially contributed towards the reintroduction of a preliminary round for smaller teams in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers to avoid these one-sided matches. The significant gap between Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the teams in the Oceanian zone was one of the reasons behind Australia leaving the OFC in mid of 2006 to join the more competitive Asian Football Confederation (AFC). From the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers onwards, Australia participated in the Asian zone qualification phase. The American Samoan team did not feel down-hearted and even embraced and sang to the audience as the match finished. Salapu declared that he enjoyed the match and "wasn't embarrassed because we all learned something from it. If we had all our players, maybe it would have been only five or six goals, because I was without my best defenders and there was nothing I could do." Tony Langkilde also defended the goalkeeper, saying that he "kept the score down with a magnificent display". He also stated that "now we are recognised by FIFA, it has really helped spark an interest in football on the islands." Samoan manager Tunoa Lui commented that football was being played in the Samoan elementary and high schools and "in five years, we will be competitive." ## Post-match American Samoa closed their qualification campaign with a 5–0 loss to Tonga, finishing bottom of the group with a −57 goal difference in four matches without scoring. Australia continued their qualification campaign with a 2–0 win over Fiji and an 11–0 win over Samoa, winning the group with a +66 goal difference in four matches without conceding a single goal. Australia then defeated New Zealand, the other group winners, with an aggregate score of 6–1. By winning the Oceanian zone, they advanced to the inter-continental play-off round against Uruguay, the fifth best team in the South American zone, where however they were defeated with an aggregate score of 1–3, therefore failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. ## See also - Next Goal Wins, a 2014 documentary film about the match and American Samoa's attempt to be better - Next Goal Wins'', a 2023 dramatisation based on the above documentary - The Federated States of Micronesia national under-23 football team, who conceded an average of 38 goals a match without scoring themselves at the 2015 Pacific Games - AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne - Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord - England 20–0 Latvia - Running up the score

Erdős–Straus conjecture

On unit fractions adding to 4/n

The Erdős–Straus conjecture is an unproven statement in number theory. The conjecture is that, for every integer $n$ that is 2 or more, there exist positive integers $x$, $y$, and $z$ for which $\frac{4}{n}=\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{y}+\frac{1}{z}.$ In other words, the number $4/n$ can be written as a sum of three positive unit fractions. The conjecture is named after Paul Erdős and Ernst G. Straus, who formulated it in 1948, but it is connected to much more ancient mathematics; sums of unit fractions, like the one in this problem, are known as Egyptian fractions, because of their use in ancient Egyptian mathematics. The Erdős–Straus conjecture is one of many conjectures by Erdős, and one of many unsolved problems in mathematics concerning Diophantine equations. Although a solution is not known for all values of n, infinitely many values in certain infinite arithmetic progressions have simple formulas for their solution, and skipping these known values can speed up searches for counterexamples. Additionally, these searches need only consider values of $n$ that are prime numbers, because any composite counterexample would have a smaller counterexample among its prime factors. Computer searches have verified the truth of the conjecture up to $n\le 10^{17}$. If the conjecture is reframed to allow negative unit fractions, then it is known to be true. Generalizations of the conjecture to fractions with numerator 5 or larger have also been studied. ## Background and history When a rational number is expanded into a sum of unit fractions, the expansion is called an Egyptian fraction. This way of writing fractions dates to the mathematics of ancient Egypt, in which fractions were written this way instead of in the more modern vulgar fraction form $\tfrac{a}{b}$ with a numerator $a$ and denominator $b$. The Egyptians produced tables of Egyptian fractions for unit fractions multiplied by two, the numbers that in modern notation would be written $\tfrac{2}{n}$, such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus table; in these tables, most of these expansions use either two or three terms. These tables were needed, because the obvious expansion $\tfrac2n=\tfrac1n+\tfrac1n$ was not allowed: the Egyptians required all of the fractions in an Egyptian fraction to be different from each other. This same requirement, that all fractions be different, is sometimes imposed in the Erdős–Straus conjecture, but it makes no significant difference to the problem, because for $n>2$ any solution to $\tfrac4n=\tfrac1x+\tfrac1y+\tfrac1z$ where the unit fractions are not distinct can be converted into a solution where they are all distinct; see below. Although the Egyptians did not always find expansions using as few terms as possible, later mathematicians have been interested in the question of how few terms are needed. Every fraction $\tfrac{a}{b}$ has an expansion of at most $a$ terms, so in particular $\tfrac{2}{n}$ needs at most two terms, $\tfrac{3}{n}$ needs at most three terms, and $\tfrac{4}{n}$ needs at most four terms. For $\tfrac{2}{n}$, two terms are always needed, and for $\tfrac{3}{n}$, three terms are sometimes needed, so for both of these numerators, the maximum number of terms that might be needed is known. However, for $\tfrac{4}{n}$, it is unknown whether four terms are sometimes needed, or whether it is possible to express all fractions of the form $\tfrac{4}{n}$ using only three unit fractions; this is the Erdős–Straus conjecture. Thus, the conjecture covers the first unknown case of a more general question, the problem of finding for all $a$ the maximum number of terms needed in expansions for fractions $\tfrac{a}{b}$. One way to find short (but not always shortest) expansions uses the greedy algorithm for Egyptian fractions, first described in 1202 by Fibonacci in his book Liber Abaci. This method chooses one unit fraction at a time, at each step choosing the largest possible unit fraction that would not cause the expanded sum to exceed the target number. After each step, the numerator of the fraction that still remains to be expanded decreases, so the total number of steps can never exceed the starting numerator, but sometimes it is smaller. For example, when it is applied to $\tfrac3n$, the greedy algorithm will use two terms whenever $n$ is 2 modulo 3, but there exists a two-term expansion whenever $n$ has a factor that is 2 modulo 3, a weaker condition. For numbers of the form $\tfrac{4}{n}$, the greedy algorithm will produce a four-term expansion whenever $n$ is 1 modulo 4, and an expansion with fewer terms otherwise. Thus, another way of rephrasing the Erdős–Straus conjecture asks whether there exists another method for producing Egyptian fractions, using a smaller maximum number of terms for the numbers $\tfrac{4}{n}$. The Erdős–Straus conjecture was formulated in 1948 by Paul Erdős and Ernst G. Straus, and published by . Richard Obláth also published an early work on the conjecture, a paper written in 1948 and published in 1950, in which he extended earlier calculations of Straus and Harold N. Shapiro in order to verify the conjecture for all $n\le 10^{5}$. ## Formulation The conjecture states that, for every integer $n\ge 2$, there exist positive integers $x$, $y$, and $z$ such that $\frac4n = \frac1x + \frac1y + \frac1z.$ For instance, for $n=5$, there are two solutions: $\frac45=\frac12+\frac14+\frac1{20}=\frac12+\frac15+\frac1{10}.$ Multiplying both sides of the equation $\tfrac4n=\tfrac1x+\tfrac1y+\tfrac1z$ by $nxyz$ leads to an equivalent polynomial form $4xyz=n(xy+xz+yz)$ for the problem. ### Distinct unit fractions Some researchers additionally require that the integers $x$, $y$, and $z$ be distinct from each other, as the Egyptians would have, while others allow them to be equal. For $n\ge 3$, it does not matter whether they are required to be distinct: if there exists a solution with any three integers, then there exists a solution with distinct integers. This is because two identical unit fractions can be replaced through one of the following two expansions: $\begin{align} \frac{1}{2r}+\frac{1}{2r} &\Rightarrow \frac{1}{r+1}+\frac{1}{r(r+1)}\\ \frac{1}{2r+1}+\frac{1}{2r+1} &\Rightarrow \frac{1}{r+1}+\frac{1}{(r+1)(2r+1)}\\ \end{align}$ (according to whether the repeated fraction has an even or odd denominator) and this replacement can be repeated until no duplicate fractions remain. For $n=2$, however, the only solutions are permutations of $\tfrac42=\tfrac12+\tfrac12+\tfrac11$. ### Negative-number solutions The Erdős–Straus conjecture requires that all three of $x$, $y$, and $z$ be positive. This requirement is essential to the difficulty of the problem. Even without this relaxation, the Erdős–Straus conjecture is difficult only for odd values of $n$, and if negative values were allowed then the problem could be solved for every odd $n$ by the following formula: $\frac{4}{n}=\frac{1}{(n-1)/2}+\frac{1}{(n+1)/2}-\frac{1}{n(n-1)(n+1)/4}.$ ## Computational results If the conjecture is false, it could be proven false simply by finding a number $\tfrac4n$ that has no three-term representation. In order to check this, various authors have performed brute-force searches for counterexamples to the conjecture. Searches of this type have confirmed that the conjecture is true for all $n$ up to $10^{17}$. In such searches, it is only necessary to look for expansions for numbers $\tfrac4n$ where $n$ is a prime number. This is because, whenever $\tfrac4n$ has a three-term expansion, so does $\tfrac4{mn}$ for all positive integers $m$. To find a solution for $\tfrac4{mn}$, just divide all of the unit fractions in the solution for $\tfrac4n$ by $m$: $\frac{4}{n}=\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{y}+\frac{1}{z} \ \Rightarrow\ \frac{4}{mn}=\frac{1}{mx}+\frac{1}{my}+\frac{1}{mz}.$ If $\tfrac4n$ were a counterexample to the conjecture, for a composite number $n$, every prime factor $p$ of $n$ would also provide a counterexample $\tfrac4p$ that would have been found earlier by the brute-force search. Therefore, checking the existence of a solution for composite numbers is redundant, and can be skipped by the search. Additionally, the known modular identities for the conjecture (see below) can speed these searches by skipping over other values known to have a solution. For instance, the greedy algorithm finds an expansion with three or fewer terms for every number $\tfrac4n$ where $n$ is not 1 modulo 4, so the searches only need to test values that are 1 modulo 4. One way to make progress on this problem is to collect more modular identities, allowing computer searches to reach higher limits with fewer tests. The number of distinct solutions to the $\tfrac4n$ problem, as a function of $n$, has also been found by computer searches for small $n$ and appears to grow somewhat irregularly with $n$. Starting with $n=3$, the numbers of distinct solutions with distinct denominators are Even for larger $n$ there can sometimes be relatively few solutions; for instance there are only seven distinct solutions for $n=73$. ## Theoretical results In the form $4xyz=n(xy+xz+yz)$, a polynomial equation with integer variables, the Erdős–Straus conjecture is an example of a Diophantine equation. The Hasse principle for Diophantine equations suggests that these equations should be studied using modular arithmetic. If an polynomial equation has a solution in the integers, then taking this solution modulo $q$, for any integer $q$, provides a solution in modulo-$q$ arithmetic. In the other direction, if an equation has a solution modulo $q$ for every prime power $q$, then in some cases it is possible to piece together these modular solutions, using methods related to the Chinese remainder theorem, to get a solution in the integers. The power of the Hasse principle to solve some problems is limited by the Manin obstruction, but for the Erdős–Straus conjecture this obstruction does not exist. On the face of it this principle makes little sense for the Erdős–Straus conjecture. For every $n$, the equation $4xyz=n(xy+xz+yz)$ is easily solvable modulo any prime, or prime power, but there appears to be no way to piece those solutions together to get a positive integer solution to the equation. Nevertheless, modular arithmetic, and identities based on modular arithmetic, have proven a very important tool in the study of the conjecture. ### Modular identities For values of $n$ satisfying certain congruence relations, one can find an expansion for $\tfrac4n$ automatically as an instance of a polynomial identity. For instance, whenever $n$ is 2 modulo 3, $\tfrac4n$ has the expansion $\frac{4}{n} = \frac{1}{n} + \frac{1}{(n+1)/3} + \frac{1}{n(n+1)/3}.$ Here each of the three denominators $n$, $(n+1)/3$, and $n(n+1)/3$ is a polynomial of $n$, and each is an integer whenever $n$ is 2 modulo 3. The greedy algorithm for Egyptian fractions finds a solution in three or fewer terms whenever $n$ is not 1 or 17 mod 24, and the 17 mod 24 case is covered by the 2 mod 3 relation, so the only values of $n$ for which these two methods do not find expansions in three or fewer terms are those congruent to 1 mod 24. Polynomial identities listed by provide three-term Egyptian fractions for $\tfrac4n$ whenever $n$ is one of: - 2 mod 3 (above), - 3 mod 4, - 2 or 3 mod 5, - 3, 5, or 6 mod 7, or - 5 mod 8. Combinations of Mordell's identities can be used to expand $\tfrac4n$ for all $n$ except possibly those that are 1, 121, 169, 289, 361, or 529 mod 840. The smallest prime that these identities do not cover is 1009. By combining larger classes of modular identities, Webb and others showed that the natural density of potential counterexamples to the conjecture is zero: as a parameter $N$ goes to infinity, the fraction of values in the interval $[1,N]$. that could be counterexamples tends to zero in the limit. ### Nonexistence of identities If it were possible to find solutions such as the ones above for enough different moduli, forming a complete covering system of congruences, the problem would be solved. However, as showed, a polynomial identity that provides a solution for values of $n$ congruent to $r$ mod $p$ can exist only when $r$ is not congruent to a square modulo $p$. (More formally, this kind of identity can exist only when $r$ is not a quadratic residue modulo $p$.) For instance, 2 is a non-square mod 3, so Mordell's result allows the existence of an identity for $n$ congruent to 2 mod 3. However, 1 is a square mod 3 (equal to the square of both 1 and 2 mod 3), so there can be no similar identity for all values of $n$ that are congruent to 1 mod 3. More generally, as 1 is a square mod $n$ for all $n>1$, there can be no complete covering system of modular identities for all $n$, because 1 will always be uncovered. Despite Mordell's result limiting the form of modular identities for this problem, there is still some hope of using modular identities to prove the Erdős–Straus conjecture. No prime number can be a square, so by the Hasse–Minkowski theorem, whenever $p$ is prime, there exists a larger prime $q$ such that $p$ is not a quadratic residue modulo $q$. One possible approach to proving the conjecture would be to find for each prime $p$ a larger prime $q$ and a congruence solving the $\tfrac4n$ problem for $n$ congruent to $p$ mod $q$. If this could be done, no prime $p$ could be a counterexample to the conjecture and the conjecture would be true. ### The number of solutions `showed that the average number of solutions to the `$\tfrac4n$` problem (averaged over the prime numbers up to `$n$`) is upper bounded polylogarithmically in `$n$`. For some other Diophantine problems, the existence of a solution can be demonstrated through asymptotic lower bounds on the number of solutions, but this works best when the number of solutions grows at least polynomially, so the slower growth rate of Elsholtz and Tao's result makes a proof of this type less likely. Elsholtz and Tao classify solutions according to whether one or two of `$x$`, `$y$`, or `$z$` is divisible by `$n$`; for prime `$n$`, these are the only possibilities, although (on average) most solutions for composite `$n$` are of other types. Their proof uses the Bombieri–Vinogradov theorem, the Brun–Titchmarsh theorem, and a system of modular identities, valid when `$n$` is congruent to `$-c$` or `$-\tfrac1c$` modulo `$4ab$`, where `$a$` and `$b$` are any two coprime positive integers and `$c$` is any odd factor of `$a+b$`. For instance, setting `$a=b=1$` gives one of Mordell's identities, valid when `$n$` is 3 mod 4.` ## Generalizations As with fractions of the form $\tfrac4n$, it has been conjectured that every fraction $\tfrac5n$ (for $n>1$) can be expressed as a sum of three positive unit fractions. A generalized version of the conjecture states that, for any positive $k$, all but finitely many fractions $\tfrac{k}{n}$ can be expressed as a sum of three positive unit fractions. The conjecture for fractions $\tfrac5n$ was made by Wacław Sierpiński in a 1956 paper, which went on to credit the full conjecture to Sierpiński's student Andrzej Schinzel. Even if the generalized conjecture is false for any fixed value of $k$, then the number of fractions $\tfrac{k}{n}$ with $n$ in the range from 1 to $N$ that do not have three-term expansions must grow only sublinearly as a function of $N$. In particular, if the Erdős–Straus conjecture itself (the case $k=4$) is false, then the number of counterexamples grows only sublinearly. Even more strongly, for any fixed $k$, only a sublinear number of values of $n$ need more than two terms in their Egyptian fraction expansions. The generalized version of the conjecture is equivalent to the statement that the number of unexpandable fractions is not just sublinear but bounded. When $n$ is an odd number, by analogy to the problem of odd greedy expansions for Egyptian fractions, one may ask for solutions to $\tfrac{k}{n}=\tfrac1x+\tfrac1y+\tfrac1z$ in which $x$, $y$, and $z$ are distinct positive odd numbers. Solutions to this equation are known to always exist for the case in which k = 3. ## See also - List of sums of reciprocals

Atlantic campaign of May 1794

Naval campaign

The Atlantic campaign of May 1794 was a series of operations conducted by the British Royal Navy's Channel Fleet against the French Navy's Atlantic Fleet, with the aim of preventing the passage of a strategically important French grain convoy travelling from the United States to France. The campaign involved commerce raiding by detached forces and two minor engagements, eventually culminating in the full fleet action of the Glorious First of June 1794, at which both fleets were badly mauled and both Britain and France claimed victory. The French lost seven ships of the line; the British none, but the battle distracted the British fleet long enough for the French convoy to safely reach port. By the spring of 1794, the French Republic, under the rule of the National Convention, was at war with all its neighbours. With famine imminent, the French Committee of Public Safety looked to France's colonies and the United States to provide an infusion of grain; this was to be convoyed across the Atlantic during April, May and June, accompanied by a small escort squadron and supported by a second, larger squadron in the Bay of Biscay. However, political upheaval had severely reduced the French Navy's ability to fight coherently and supply shortages had devastated its morale, significantly weakening the fleet. Britain, by contrast, was at a high state of readiness with a well-organised command structure, but was suffering from a severe shortage of trained seamen with which to man its large navy. The French Atlantic Fleet, under Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse, was tasked with keeping the British Channel Fleet occupied long enough for the convoy to reach France safely. The Channel Fleet, commanded by Lord Howe, knew of the convoy's passage, and dispatched squadrons to protect British commerce while pursuing Villaret himself with the main body of the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet. For over a week the two battlefleets manoeuvred around one another, Villaret drawing Howe deeper westwards into the Atlantic and away from the convoy. Two partial but inconclusive fleet actions on 28 and 29 May followed, during which Howe seized the weather gage from Villaret, granting him freedom to choose the time and place of his next attack. The culminating action of the campaign took place over 400 nautical miles (740 km) into the Atlantic, and became known as the Glorious First of June. This final engagement saw Howe use the weather gage to attack Villaret directly while his opponent attempted to fight in a traditional line of battle formation. In the battle, the British fleet inflicted a heavy defeat on the French after a bitterly contested day of fighting. Forcing Villaret to retreat, Howe's force captured seven French battleships, one of which later sank, and inflicted 7,000 casualties on the enemy. Villaret however, claimed strategic success as his delaying tactics had bought enough time for the convoy to reach France safely. The battle was the first in a series of defeats the French Navy suffered during the early years of the war, which bred a defeatist attitude and an unwillingness among the French officer corps to engage the British at sea. ## Background In the winter of 1793, war and internal disorder had combined with poor weather to leave France facing starvation following the collapse of the harvest. France's ongoing conflict with her neighbours precluded overland imports; the only nation willing and able to sell grain to the National Convention was the United States. Importing food from the Americas was a highly risky venture, as the British Royal Navy—at war with France since early 1793—patrolled much of the Atlantic passage. To provide effective protection for the vessels involved, a plan was agreed between France and the United States to collect the supplies over a period of months and transport them in a single convoy. A gathering point was arranged at Hampton Roads in the Chesapeake Bay. A squadron commanded by Admiral Pierre Vanstabel was dispatched to Hampton Roads to provide escort. Vanstabel would bring the convoy to the Bay of Biscay, where a second squadron under Joseph-Marie Nielly would reinforce him for the rest of the journey. Together, these officers mustered six ships of the line and numerous smaller craft. The main French battlefleet of 25 ships under Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse would cruise the Bay of Biscay in order to challenge the British Channel Fleet if it attempted to intercept the supplies. The convoy's passage was expected to take approximately two months, and it included 117 merchant ships carrying enough food to feed France for a year. Lord Howe, admiral of the British Channel Fleet, was aware of the convoy's nature and destination long before it left the Chesapeake, and made preparations to block its passage. Sending several small squadrons to protect British commerce crossing the Bay of Biscay, Howe detailed Admiral George Montagu with six battleships to search for the convoy in the south of the Bay while Howe took the main body of the fleet, 26 ships of the line, to patrol near Brest. ## May 1794 April 1794 was a month of fevered activity on both sides of the English Channel as Villaret and Howe made their final preparations for the coming campaign. The slow French convoy had departed American waters on 2 April, and British convoys destined for the Empire had sailed from Portsmouth on 2 May. Howe used his whole force to provide them with protection as far as the Western Approaches, and on 5 May sent the frigates HMS Latona and HMS Phaeton close in to Brest to ascertain the status of the French—they reported that Villaret's battlefleet was still in harbour. ### Commerce raiding Out in the Atlantic, the detached squadrons of Nielly (French) and Montagu (British) were commerce raiding against enemy merchant shipping, but had thus far failed to find the main food convoy. Nielly encountered a British convoy from Newfoundland and took ten ships as prizes—including the convoy escort, the 32-gun frigate HMS Castor. Thomas Troubridge, captain of the Castor, would spend the entire campaign aboard Nielly's flagship Sans Pareil. Montagu also met with some success on 15 May, recapturing the merchant ships Nielly had taken, along with the French corvette Marie-Guiton and accurate intelligence on the direction and size of the French convoy which Montagu immediately passed to Howe. Resuming his patrol in the Mid-Atlantic, Nielly found the convoy from America a few days later, and transferred two of his ships to Vanstabel's escort to augment the convoy's defences. He then returned to the Eastern Atlantic to look for signs of British activity which might pose a threat to its passage. He also dispatched frigates to Villaret, carrying information about the convoy's location and speed. While Nielly and Montagu searched out at sea, Howe took his fleet on a series of cruises back and forth across the Bay of Biscay in the hope of catching the convoy. Between 5 and 18 May he found nothing and so returned to Brest, where his scouting frigates reported that the French battlefleet had gone. Taking advantage of dense fog, Villaret had sailed the previous day, his ships passing within earshot of the British fleet. The French admiral was on the trail of Nielly's squadron; his intention was to meet both Nielly and the convoy and combine forces; with superior numbers he would then be able to escort the convoy to France in safety. Having eluded Howe and still some days from his planned rendezvous, Villaret gained an unexpected success when he ran across a Dutch convoy of 53 vessels. Its escorts, Alliance and Waakzaamheid, fled at the sight of the approaching French fleet, and Villaret was free to attack the convoy, capturing 20 merchantmen. ### Howe's pursuit Howe realised that the direction of Villaret's departure would take him directly across Admiral Montagu's planned route, and that, should Montagu meet Villaret, the British squadron would be destroyed. Setting all sail in pursuit, Howe followed Villaret into the Atlantic on 20 May. The next day Howe's ships recaptured ten of the lost Dutch merchantmen, but he was forced to burn them since crewing them with British sailors would weaken his own already understrength fleet. Prisoners from these ships gave Howe the information that the French fleet was only a short distance ahead, but that it had been joined by an additional ship from Nielly's squadron as well as several frigates. By now satisfied that Montagu was safely to the southwest, Howe pressed on hoped to bring Villaret to battle within the week. On 23 May however, the British fleet was driven southwards by strong winds and had to slowly work its way north to find the French track again. The detour did however enable him to recapture and destroy four more of Villaret's Dutch prizes. On the morning of 25 May Howe's pursuit finally bore fruit, when his scouting frigates spotted a lone French ship of the line at 04:00. This ship sighted Howe's force at the same time, and immediately made off in the direction of the French fleet. The fleeing battleship left behind an American merchant ship she had been towing, which when taken reported that the French ship was Audacieux, of Nielly's squadron. Pursuing Audacieux after burning the American prize, the British fleet also overran and burnt two French corvettes, the 20-gun Républicaine and 16-gun Inconnue. Continuing his chase over the next three days, on 28 May Howe's lookouts spotted the French on the eastern horizon slightly to the south, indicating that the French held the weather gage. ## 28 May With his enemy visible from the deck of his flagship by 06:30, Howe recalled his frigates and ordered his fleet to press on all sail in the hope of engaging the rear of the scattered French line. By 10:35 Howe's continued pursuit was making his own battleline ragged, but he pressed on in the belief that Villaret intended to use the weather gage to outrun him and escape. To counter this, Howe ordered his fastest ships into a flying squadron under Admiral Thomas Pasley. This squadron was significantly faster than the majority of the vessels in either fleet and rapidly closed with the French rear. The first shots of the engagement were fired at 14:30 by HMS Russell, commanded by John Willett Payne, which managed some long-distance fire at the rearmost French ships on the opposite tack. Fire was returned by the French but without significant effect. In an attempt to hold off Pasley's squadron, at 17:00 the French first rate 110-gun Révolutionnaire exchanged places with the smaller third rates at the rear of the line and engaged the pursuing British van. This manoeuvre was apparently conducted on the initiative of Captain Vandangel of Révolutionnaire without orders from Admiral Villaret or his political observer Jean Bon Saint-André. Through a sharp and skilful tack, HMS Bellerophon, one of the slowest ships in the British van, succeeded in bringing the Révolutionnaire to steady action at 18:00. The ships exchanged fire for twenty minutes, the weaker Bellerophon taking severe damage to her rigging, and falling back to be replaced by HMS Marlborough under Captain George Cranfield Berkeley. Marlborough was joined by HMS Russell and HMS Thunderer, and between them they shot away much of the Révolutionnaire's rigging, so that by 19:30 she was unmanageable. HMS Leviathan also joined the action, firing at an unidentified ship ahead of Révolutionnaire. Concerned about Pasley's squadron becoming cut off from the main body of his fleet, Howe recalled them to the British line at 20:00. All complied except the newly arrived HMS Audacious under Captain William Parker. Audacious had engaged Révolutionnaire so closely that she could not safely withdraw, and although her gunnery eventually dismasted her huge opponent, Audacious took severe damage. It was not until 22:00 that Audacious and Révolutionnaire disentangled themselves and limped apart—their respective fleets now some way off. Audacious's crew later claimed that Révolutionnaire had struck her colours during the engagement, although this has not been corroborated. Parker stated that he did not take possession of Révolutionnaire because he was concerned by the distant sighting of nine French battleships on the horizon. He had spotted a squadron under Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, which was uninvolved in the current campaign and which soon disappeared without participating in any of the subsequent engagements. Audacious's crew made strenuous efforts to repair their ship and rejoin the British fleet during the night, but became disorientated and in the morning Audacious was still only half a mile from her former opponent. Révolutionnaire had suffered much more severely than Audacious, but survived the encounter without being boarded thanks to a misread signal by Captain Albemarle Bertie of Thunderer, who failed to take possession of the dismasted three-decker when ordered to. During the night Villaret sent reinforcements to rescue Révolutionnaire, and at dawn on 29 May Parker saw that his large opponent was soon to be supported by the undamaged ship of the line Audacieux, the frigate Bellone, and two corvettes. Once more Audacious came under fire from Révolutionnaire, leaving her no option but to flee this superior force. Audacious was chased for half an hour by Bellone and the corvettes, before losing them in a rain squall, and eventually returned to Plymouth on 3 June. Révolutionnaire also escaped pursuit and was taken under tow by Audacieux, who brought her safely to Rochefort several days later. For leaving the battlefleet before the main engagement, Révolutionnaire's captain was subsequently arrested. ## 29 May With Audacious and Révolutionnaire lost in the dark behind them, both British and French fleets continued westwards towards the convoy rendezvous. At dawn on 29 May the British fleet saw Audacieux retiring to the east but did not follow, concentrating on the main French line with the hope of provoking a decisive engagement. Howe ordered his ships to pursue the enemy rear, and the British line was placed on a tack that was intended to cut through the French line and isolate and capture the ships east of the cut. Captain Anthony Molloy in HMS Caesar was chosen to lead the attack as his ship was the fastest in the fleet, but the manoeuvre was a complete failure due to the inexplicable refusal of Molloy to close with the enemy. Instead, Caesar and HMS Queen opened fire on the rearmost French ships from a distance. The vans of the opposing fleets then engaged in a long-range broadside duel from 10:00. This inflicted mild damage on both sides, the worst hit being the French Montagnard. Having failed to cut the French line at his first attempt, Howe reissued the order at 12:30. Once more Caesar was to lead the way, with the intention of splitting the enemy fleet in half. Captain Molloy then refused to carry out the order, signalling without cause that Caesar was unable to tack and then turning and sailing eastwards down the outside of the British fleet, rather than towards the enemy. This unexpected move threw the following ships into a state of confusion; Queen, coming behind Caesar, attempted to obey Howe's signal alone but was badly damaged by shot, and her captain John Hutt mortally wounded. Unable to effectively manoeuvre, Queen passed down the outside of the French line, firing as she went. His plan in tatters, Howe responded by example, leading his flagship HMS Queen Charlotte towards the French line which was rapidly slipping ahead of the British, steering around the meandering Caesar as he did so. Queen Charlotte first attempted to break through the French between the sixth and seventh ships from the rear, but was unable to reach this gap and instead sailed between the fifth and sixth, raking the sixth ship Éole from close range. Bellerophon and Lord Hugh Seymour in Leviathan followed close behind the flagship. Both battleships attempted to cut between the subsequent French ships; Bellerophon successfully, Leviathan prevented by damage to her helm. This manoeuvre changed the course of the battle, as Howe's ships isolated and raked the Terrible, Tyrannicide, and Indomptable, forcing Villaret to either abandon his ships or sacrifice the weather gage to save them. As Howe pressed after the main body of the French fleet—now tailed by the damaged Terrible—the rest of his fleet followed, bombarding the already battered Tyrannicide and Indomptable as they passed. As HMS Orion, HMS Invincible, and HMS Barfleur cut through the French in turn, Villaret wore his fleet round to face Howe. Encouraged by Caesar's disobedience, he deliberately sacrificed the weather gage in the belief that Howe's fleet was more damaged than it appeared. All of Villaret's ships followed him except Montagnard, which refused to turn, claiming to be seriously damaged. Villaret's manoeuvre soon isolated the Queen Charlotte, Bellerophon, and Leviathan, which were forced to retreat hastily before the main French force. Having driven away the ships threatening Indomptable and Tyrannicide, Villaret reformed his fleet and attempted to escape westwards, closely followed by the British van who were now holding the weather gage. Both fleets were too damaged to continue action in the remaining daylight and firing stopped at 17:00. The British fleet has suffered 67 killed and 128 wounded during the day's fighting. Evening found the fleets approximately 10 nautical miles (19 km) apart, sailing northwest. Both were conducting hasty repairs and attempting to ready themselves for what all assumed would be another day of battle on 30 May. Significantly, Lord Howe was unaware that to the northeast, over the same sea as the previous day's action had been fought, the ponderous convoy of merchant ships was passing, having successfully evaded British pursuit. Unlike his opponent Villaret knew the location of the convoy, which was joined that evening by the battered Montagnard. Escorting the convoy, Admiral Nielly had been apprised of the situation by Montagnard's captain, and had left his escort duties to reinforce Villaret. In a postscript to the day's action the British frigate Castor, captured early in the campaign by Nielly, was attacked and retaken by the smaller HMS Carysfort under Captain Francis Laforey at the frigate action of 29 May 1794. Some of the crew were released by their rescuers but most, including the officers, were not aboard, having been taken onto Nielly's flagship Sans Pareil. ## Between the actions On the morning of 30 May, Howe sent a signal to all his captains asking if they considered their ships ready for combat. All but Caesar replied in the affirmative and Howe pushed his ships after the retreating French. Despite holding the weather gage, Howe's pursuit was soon hampered by descending fog, and unable to see or come to grips with the enemy throughout the whole day, the admiral feared he may have lost his opportunity for battle. However, by 31 May the fog had cleared and the French were still within sight to the north. To the surprise of the British, none of the 26 battleships in the French fleet appeared to show battle damage, whereas many of the British ships were nursing damaged rigging and battered hulls. Villaret had made use of the fog to reorganise his force, losing Montagnard and the frigate Seine to the convoy but gaining the independently sailing battleship Trente-un-Mai and Nielly's squadron of Sans Pareil, Trajan, and Téméraire. Villaret had also dispatched the battered Indomptable for home, escorted by an undamaged French ship. Throughout 31 May Howe's fleet closed with the French, making full use of the advantage of the weather gage. By 17:00 the fleets were five miles (9 km) apart, but at 19:00 Howe gave orders to keep his ships out of shot range but within easy sailing of the French. He did not want a repeat of the confusion of 29 May and preferred to delay any combat until he was assured of a full day in which to conduct it, in order that his signals not be obscured or misinterpreted. During the night the fleets remained in visual contact, and by first light on 1 June the British were just six miles (11 km) from Villaret's fleet and organising in preparation to attack once more. Both fleets were now sailing in a western direction, Villaret still hoping to draw Howe away from the convoy. ## Glorious First of June At 09:24 on the morning of 1 June, Howe sent his ships into action using the original tactic of turning each ship in his line northwest simultaneously, so that they would bear down individually on Villaret's fleet and each break the enemy line separately. His intention was to cut the French line in 25 places, raking the enemy vessels at both bow and stern and dividing their fire so they could be defeated piecemeal. Ultimately though this ambitious plan failed, due to ill-discipline among Howe's subordinates and the damage his fleet had sustained over the previous week. While six of Howe's ships did break the French line as ordered, and several others came close, many of his captains failed to follow orders and instead engaged the enemy from a distance in desultory gun duels which had little effect. As various British and French ships broke off into personal duels and some latecoming British ships struggled to get into action, Villaret led his flagship Montagne to the north and began assembling a coherent counter-force from those of his fleet which had escaped Howe's assault. In the melee itself several very hard-fought engagements took place—particularly that between HMS Brunswick and Vengeur du Peuple. At least twelve ships were dismasted, with the British battleships HMS Marlborough and HMS Defence losing all three masts and ten French vessels suffering similarly. By 11:30 the initial action was dying down, and Villaret brought his reconstituted force back towards the battle site to contest ownership of the dismasted hulks floating there. Howe likewise reformed his main force and met Villaret, who failed to capture any of the battered British ships but did regather six of his own, leaving Howe with seven prizes. Of these, the wrecked Vengeur soon sank, although British boats had removed many of her crew. Howe was left in possession of the battle site, but Villaret had successfully held off the British long enough for the convoy to pass to the east unmolested. Both fleets returned to their home ports over the next week. ## Aftermath While searching for the convoy during the first week of June, Montagu's squadron became trapped between two French squadrons and was forced to sail southwards to avoid Villaret's returning fleet. As a result, the French Atlantic seaboard was clear of British forces for a significant period. The food convoy arrived safely in France in the third week of June, and Montagu returned to Britain empty-handed. Both nations claimed victory in the campaign; the British by virtue of success in the only major action, and the French through the intact arrival of their convoy. The campaign had notable effects on the navies of both Britain and France. The French did not directly contest British supremacy in Northern European waters again, spending most of the next 23 years in Brest and other ports, their few major sallies mainly directed at the Mediterranean. Continued upheavals in the French Navy resulted in a decline of quality in its officer corps, so that by the Battle of Trafalgar 11 years later the port-bound nature of the French fleet had resulted in a cautious and inexperienced tactical outlook. In Britain, the battle created a division within the Royal Navy's officer corps. Howe's dispatch after the battle criticised some officers who he believed had hesitated in action, and those officers received none of the honours distributed at the end of the campaign. Fallout from this dispute was widespread, with several senior figures resigning in disgust. Captain Molloy of HMS Caesar was ultimately court-martialled and dismissed from the service for failing to support his admiral. ## See also - Glorious First of June

Typhoon Neoguri (2008)

Pacific typhoon in 2008

Typhoon Neoguri (), known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ambo, was the earliest tropical cyclone on record to strike China. The first named storm in the 2008 Pacific typhoon season, named after the Korean word for raccoon dog, it formed from a low pressure area on April 13 to the east of the Philippine island of Mindanao, and after crossing the island it intensified into a tropical storm in the South China Sea. Environmental conditions allowed for quick strengthening, with Neoguri attaining typhoon status on April 16. The typhoon reached its peak intensity on April 18 as it approached the island of Hainan, and subsequently it turned northward. Due to increased wind shear and cooler waters, Neoguri rapidly weakened and made landfall as a minimal tropical storm in southern China on April 19. In the southern Philippines, the storm brought heavy rainfall, which left a person missing when a boat capsized. The typhoon left 40 fishermen missing in the South China Sea. Neoguri brought heavy rainfall as it made its final landfall on China, causing moderate damage totaling over ¥296 million (2008 RMB, \$42 million 2008 USD). Three deaths occurred in China. ## Meteorological history An area of disorganized convection persisted east-northeast of Palau on April 11 in association with a sharp easterly wave, and within the system, a low pressure area was evident between Palau and Yap. Located beneath a developing anticyclone, with limited wind shear and enhanced diffluence, the system encountered favorable conditions for development. By April 13, a low-level circulation had formed and started consolidating about 260 km (160 mi) southeast of Bislig on Mindanao island in the Philippines. At around the same time, weak rainbands began wrapping into the center. At 1200 UTC on April 13, the JMA classified it as a weak tropical depression. Its development was impeded somewhat as it crossed Mindanao and Negros island, though the circulation consolidated while convective banding features increased. Later that day, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) classified the system as Tropical Depression Ambo, and early on April 14 the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) classified it as Tropical Depression 02W about 300 km (185 mi north of the Zamboanga Peninsula). Also, PAGASA declared "Ambo" at 0300 UTC April 14 to be within Dumaguete. The depression continued westward, along the southern periphery of a strong subtropical ridge extending from southeastern Asia to north of Luzon. After it entered the Sulu Sea, the convection and circulation continued to consolidate, while its anticyclone aloft provided excellent outflow. Based on satellite intensity estimates using the Dvorak technique, the JTWC upgraded the depression to Tropical Storm 02W midday on April 14. At 0000 UTC on April 15, the JMA classified the system as a full tropical depression, and six hours later the agency upgraded it to Tropical Storm Neoguri after it crossed Palawan island into the South China Sea. Shortly thereafter, the PAGASA issued its last advisory on the cyclone as the storm moved out of their area of warning responsibility. After attaining tropical storm status, significant intensification was limited due to a slight increase in wind shear as well as impeded outflow. The slowing of the strengthening trend was temporary, and by early on April 16 the organization had rapidly improved. As a result, the JMA upgraded Neoguri to a severe tropical storm. Warm water temperatures contributed to further intensification, and an eye formed in the center of the convection. At 1200 UTC on April 16, the JMA classified Neoguri as a typhoon about 350 km (220 mi) east of Qui Nhon, Vietnam. An approaching mid-level trough turned the typhoon northwestward, which enhanced outflow and contributed to further intensification. Late on April 17, the JTWC assessed Neoguri as attaining peak winds of 175 km/h (110 mph), averaged over a duration of one minute, near the Paracel Islands. Early the next day, the JMA estimated Neoguri reached its peak intensity with ten-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (90 mph), about 190 km (120 mi) east of Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan. Typhoon Neoguri underwent an eyewall replacement cycle around the time it reached peak intensity; the inner eyewall collapsed, and the outer eyewall contracted to a diameter of 65 km (40 mi). Upon attaining peak winds, the typhoon had turned northward, and the China Meteorological Administration assessed Neoguri as moving ashore along Hainan island near Wenchang. However, other agencies assessed the typhoon as tracking parallel to the eastern coastline just offshore. Land interaction and wind shear weakened the typhoon, and by April 19 it had weakened to a tropical storm. Cooler waters contributed to further weakening, causing its convection to diminish significantly and for its circulation to become elongated. After turning to the north-northeast, Neoguri made landfall on Guangdong province in southern China, a short distance west of Macau as a weak tropical storm. Neoguri made landfall on China earlier than any other tropical cyclone on record, about two weeks prior to the previous record set by Typhoon Wanda in 1971. Shortly after moving ashore, the JTWC issued its final warning as the cyclone began dissipating. ## Preparations and impact As Ambo (Neoguri) passed directly through many parts Visayas and Mindanao, PAGASA issued Public Storm Warning Signals for these areas. Signal number one was issued for southern Negros, Siquijor and Camiguin. This storm signal was later scaled back up until the storm reached Palawan and the South China Sea. As a tropical depression, Neoguri (Ambo) brought heavy rainfall to many portions of the Philippines, including even Metro Manila. In Cebu City, the precipitation caused flooding, which forced 62 people to evacuate their houses. In the Camotes Islands, rough waves capsized a motorboat with six passengers; five were rescued, with the other reported missing. But the storm at least alleviated for a few days the heat that has been experienced over Luzon from the past weeks. However, the storm did not stop the Palarong Pambansa (National Games in the Philippines) which was held in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, one of the areas said by PAGASA to see stormy weather. In preparation for the storm, about 21,800 fishing boats in the Chinese province of Hainan returned to port, and about 120,000 people evacuated from fish farms and low-lying areas on the island. Officials halted ferry service between Hainan and the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province. Offshore, 56 fishermen rode out the storm in a shelter on the Paracel Islands; 38 people were rescued shortly after the storm, and initially eighteen people were reported missing. The eighteen missing fishermen were found thirty hours after Neoguri struck. The ship they were on had sunk, and the crew clung to debris and made makeshift rafts to survive in the waters. However, another 18 Chinese fisherman and 22 Vietnamese fisherman remain missing. On Hainan island, the storm left the city of Wenchang without power. Along the mainland, ferry service was temporarily stopped between Hong Kong and Macau. At the Hong Kong International Airport, over 200 flights were delayed due to the threat of the storm; additionally, around 30 were canceled, and 66 others were deviated elsewhere. The Hong Kong Observatory issued a standby warning signal on April 17, which was the second earliest standby signal on record. One day later, the No. 3 strong wind signal was issued, the earliest in record. As it moved ashore, the storm brought heavy rainfall, with one station reporting 237 mm (9.35 in) in one day. Strong winds downed coconut and banana trees, with agricultural damage totaling over ¥200 million (2008 RMB, \$28 million 2008 USD). Structural damage amounted to ¥96 million (2008 RMB, \$14 million 2008 USD). Three fatalities were confirmed in China, two due to a road being covered in a mud flow, and another due to winds blowing a sheet of aluminum into a person, throwing them off the roof of a stadium. ## See also - Other tropical cyclones named Neoguri - Other tropical cyclones named Ambo - Timeline of the 2008 Pacific typhoon season

Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo

American married choreographers

Tabitha A. D'umo (née Cortopassi) and Napoleon Buddy D'umo, known together as Nappytabs, are Emmy Award-winning married choreographers. They are best known for their choreography on the television show So You Think You Can Dance and for being supervising choreographers and executive producers of America's Best Dance Crew. Since being with the former, their choreography has received both praise and criticism. They own Nappytabs urban dancewear and have been working in the dance industry since 1996. Tabitha and Napoleon grew up on opposite coasts of the United States and met in the early 1990s as students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They began their dance career together while still in college by choreographing industrial musicals for large corporations with the hip-hop dance company Culture Shock. After moving to Los Angeles in 1999, they started teaching hip-hop classes at the Edge Performing Arts Center. They took additional jobs choreographing for professional sports dance teams and back-up dancing for musical artists. In 2003, they joined the faculty of Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention. Their work was introduced to mainstream audiences in 2008 when they became supervising choreographers on America's Best Dance Crew and resident choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance. It was on the later show that their lyrical hip-hop choreography style gained exposure. The pair's career progressed to providing creative direction for tours and live events by Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Celine Dion, and Jennifer Lopez. They continued to develop their dancewear line by breaking out of its previously online-only presence and opening a physical store location in 2010. From television and concerts, their move into theater occurred gradually. In 2010, they directed the JabbaWockeeZ's MÜS.I.C. stage show and began to work with Cirque du Soleil; they choreographed Viva Elvis and were contributing choreographers for Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. They continued to establish themselves in television as choreographers for Madonna's Super Bowl halftime performance. By 2015, they had choreographed several K-pop music videos for artists such as TVXQ, EXO, and BoA. Aside from their choreography, creative direction, and dancewear line, Tabitha and Napoleon continue to teach hip-hop classes at dance studios and on the convention circuit. They have also been involved with charity work for organizations that support the arts. ## Life and career ### 1968–1996: Early life and education Napoleon was raised in Victorville, California as one of three siblings. He learned b-boying, locking, and popping by traveling to Los Angeles and frequenting the b-boy scene; he was eventually cast as an extra in the movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo in 1984. After Napoleon graduated from Apple Valley High School, he joined the army and worked as a surgeon's assistant while stationed in Germany. Once discharged, he attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where he majored in molecular biology and started taking jazz and modern dance classes. Tabitha grew up as an only child in Galloway Township, New Jersey. Her mother enrolled her in jazz dance classes when she was young. Since there were no hip-hop classes, Tabitha learned by watching music videos and participating in her school's cheer and dance teams. She cites Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Paula Abdul as influences. While cheerleading at Absegami High School, Tabitha earned "All-American" status at an NCA camp and got the opportunity to perform in the Aloha Bowl in Hawaii. After Tabitha graduated, she moved to Nevada in 1991 to attend UNLV where she majored in communications and started taking formal hip-hop dance classes. It was there at a party that she met Napoleon. While hanging out with her cheerleading and dance team friends, Tabitha invited Napoleon and his body building friends to come to a casual practice session and do stunt work with them. Napoleon and his friends eventually attended a formal practice session on campus, and the cheerleading coach was so impressed with their work that they all received full scholarships to join the team. Tabitha and Napoleon started dating in 1994, but their professional partnership and dance career did not start until 1996 when they began teaching hip-hop classes together at the Las Vegas Athletic Club. Since the beginning of their career, they have always worked together including their first choreography job and the first dance class they taught. ### 1996–2007: Early career, dancewear, and creative directing While Tabitha and Napoleon were still in college, they were accepted into the dance company Culture Shock where they met members of the JabbaWockeeZ before the JabbaWockeeZ became a crew. In addition to going to school and being a part of Culture Shock, they both maintained part-time jobs. Together they worked at Bunker Dance Center in Las Vegas teaching hip-hop classes. Separately Napoleon worked as a personal trainer and Tabitha worked at the Rio Hotel and Casino. While dancing with Culture Shock, Tabitha created demo reels of the company to send to event organizers who were having conventions in Las Vegas. Tabitha and Napoleon used this method to book choreography jobs and it was during this time that they honed their lyrical hip-hop style. Through Culture Shock, they were hired to choreograph several industrial musicals for casinos and corporations such as Nike, Levi, Redken, Matrix Hair, and MAC. They eventually worked their way up from company dancers to become the artistic directors. As Tabitha and Napoleon's college graduation was approaching they decided to change their plans from a job in public relations and medical school respectively to a career in the dance industry. Tabitha and Napoleon were married April 19, 1998. In 1999, they moved to Los Angeles to expand their opportunities. Upon arriving in L.A., they taught hip-hop classes at the Edge Performing Arts Center. They found extra work as back-up dancers for Beyoncé, Toni Braxton, Missy Elliott, Monica, Timbaland, Sisqó, and Destiny's Child whom they went on tour with in 2002. Their move from dancing into choreography occurred gradually. Jobs included choreographing performances for NFL and NBA dance teams including the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Chicago Bulls, and Orlando Magic. In November 2002, they made the cover of Dance Spirit magazine. They were profiled with seven other choreographers and interviewed about what it takes to make it as a dancer in Los Angeles. In 2003, Napoleon started teaching classes with Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention. Tabitha joined him later and they are still permanent faculty members to this day. In 2005, Tabitha and Napoleon started Nappytabs dancewear. They cite the lack of appropriate dancewear for the hip-hop dance community as inspiration for the company. Early in its production, Tabitha sewed the clothes herself. The Nappytabs logo began as a yin and yang like symbol with an "n" and a "t" overlapping in the middle. The word itself—Nappytabs—is a combination of Napoleon (Nappy) and Tabitha's (Tab) nicknames. Contrary to popular belief, the name 'Nappytabs' started as their clothing line first. They did not call themselves Nappytabs, and the word being a nickname to refer to both of them did not start until they became choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance. Tabitha and Napoleon began creative directing stage shows and concerts in the mid-2000s. In 2006, they served as assistant directors for Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics Tour. In 2007, they were also assistant directors for Ricky Martin’s Black and White Tour. Both tours were directed by Jamie King who is known primarily for his work with Madonna. The same year, Tabitha appeared in two fitness DVDs. She was the host/instructor of Drop it with Dance. The video is split into six 10-minute routines that gradually increase in difficulty; movements from all six routines are combined in the finale "Showtime" segment. She also appeared in Rock Your Body, which was hosted by Jamie King. ### 2008–2009: Dance shows and mainstream exposure Tabitha and Napoleon became supervising choreographers for the inaugural season of America's Best Dance Crew in 2008. They were responsible for choreographing group routines, coming up with dance challenges, and assisting the crews as needed with polishing their performances. Also in 2008, they took on hosting duties for Rock the Reception. On the show, they created wedding dances for engaged couples and their wedding party to perform at the reception. The participants were real life couples with no dance experience. In addition to America's Best Dance Crew and Rock the Reception, they joined the choreography and judging team on the fourth season of So You Think You Can Dance. It was on this show that their lyrical hip-hop choreography style gained mainstream exposure. Lyrical hip-hop is a fluid and more interpretive version of standard hip-hop often danced to downtempo rap music or R&B music. The term itself was coined by choreographer and producer Adam Shankman in reference to a routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon to Leona Lewis' song "Bleeding Love". "Bleeding Love" was nominated for a 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography. After the season ended, Tabitha and Napoleon directed the 2008 So You Think You Can Dance Tour. They continued creative directing several other concerts throughout the remainder of the year. They teamed up with Jamie King again and served as assistant directors for Celine Dion's Taking Chances Tour. They directed Monsters of Hip Hop: The Show and America's Best Dance Crew Live which featured dance crews JabbaWockeeZ, Super Cr3w, Fanny Pak, ASIID, and Breaksk8. OMG! gave the concert a positive review stating that the five crews represented a good mix of styles and that the concert brought the best parts of the show to the stage. In January 2009, the Nappytabs dancewear website launched which began the start of online clothing sales. The first version of their website was designed and maintained by Ryan Cyphert's 3nine Design media company. Cyphert is also a professional dancer and a colleague of Tabitha and Napoleon. At the time the website launched they all were faculty members at Shock the Intensive dance convention. When Tabitha and Napoleon joined So You Think You Can Dance, dancers on the show, as well as on America's Best Dance Crew and Dancing With the Stars, were already wearing their clothing line during rehearsals. Some of the sponsors were not happy about it and wanted to cover the Nappytabs logo on the clothing. In response to this, judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe decided to start calling Tabitha and Napoleon "Nappytabs" during the show so that viewers who looked them up on Google would find their store's website. In April 2009, Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed two couples' routines and a group routine for the second season of So You Think You Can Dance Australia. The "Arab Money" hip-hop routine they choreographed received positive reviews from the judges but their "Dead and Gone" lyrical hip-hop routine, which was performed later on the same episode, received the most praise. Bonnie Lythgoe called it the "top routine of the night". Jason Coleman added "the choreography [was] absolutely spectacular" and Matt Lee said it was "...probably the best routine in the series." While in Australia, Tabitha and Napoleon were judges at the 2009 Australian Hip Hop Championships in Sydney. Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed several television specials later in the year. In September, they choreographed the opening dance sequence on the season seven premiere of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The routine featured both DeGeneres and the top ten dancers from season five of So You Think You Can Dance. At the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, they choreographed a routine honoring dance that featured Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy from Dancing With The Stars; Katee Shean, Mark Kanemura, and Joshua Allen from So You Think You Can Dance; and four members of Quest Crew—the winners of season three of America's Best Dance Crew. They finished the year with choreography for Carrie Underwood's All-Star Holiday Special and Jennifer Lopez' performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest. ### 2010–2011: Stage productions and brand expansion In 2010, Tabitha and Napoleon returned to So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) for season seven and started to work with four different productions of Cirque du Soleil. In February, they provided choreography for Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas. They also choreographed a Viva Elvis guest appearance on Dancing with the Stars. On SYTYCD, they choreographed routines for the contestants as well as one guest performance for the cast of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles Love. They worked with Love again at the NHL awards and with their sister Cirque productions Kà, for a guest performance on America's Got Talent, and Mystère, for a guest performance on Lopez Tonight. After SYTYCD ended, they appeared as guest choreographers on the Ukrainian version of the show called Everybody Can Dance!/Танцюють всі!. Aside from choreography, Tabitha and Napoleon continued to develop and expand their dancewear line. In May, they opened the Nappytabs store and dance studio in the North Hollywood Arts District. Although they design their own clothing, they commissioned some print and t-shirt designs from Alex Lodermeier who has also designed for Propr, a clothing line owned by Ben Harper, David Arquette, and David Bedwell. Through Nappytabs, they also started to sponsor The Pulse on Tour dance convention and the Industry Voice online newsletter. Their clothing appears in independent R&B singer John Gillette's music video "All Bad". Tabitha was a featured dancer in the video and Napoleon made a cameo appearance at the end. Also in May, the JabbaWockeeZ' MÜS.I.C. (pronounced MUSE-i-see) stage show, which Tabitha and Napoleon directed, opened at the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel. MÜS.I.C. was the first hip-hop dance stage show on the Las Vegas Strip. The show was 90 minutes long involving dancing, comedy, and magic. In October, MÜS.I.C. moved to the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. At the Monte Carlo premiere, the JabbaWockeeZ brought Tabitha on stage for a cameo appearance. In February 2011, Tabitha and Napoleon made their music video directorial debut with the song "All These Boys" by Jasmine Villegas. Unlike John Gillette's "All Bad" they did not dance or appear in the video, but they did serve as the choreographers. In the Spring, they returned to working in television with two projects. At the invitation of Nigel Lythgoe, they joined the production crew on the tenth season of American Idol as staging and creative directors, a position they continued to hold for season 11. They also choreographed the Howie Mandel-produced television show Mobbed which premiered after American Idol on March 31, 2011. The pilot episode was actually shot in September 2010, but after drawing 10.8 million views it was picked up as a series. In April 2011, they started work on the film Make Your Move starring Derek Hough from Dancing With the Stars and K-pop singer BoA Kwon. Their relationship with BoA extended past the production of the film when they choreographed the music video for her song "Only One"—the title track from her seventh studio album. Due to scheduling conflicts with the production of Make Your Move, Tabitha and Napoleon did not return to America's Best Dance Crew as supervising choreographers for season six. When filming was complete, they did return to Cirque du Soleil as two of ten choreographers for Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. Like other stage shows they've worked on in the past, this one was directed by Jamie King. Christmas 2011 brought personal changes as Napoleon announced on their Twitter page that Tabitha was pregnant. ### 2012–2016: Music videos, K-pop, and Las Vegas residencies Tabitha and Napoleon spent the beginning of 2012 apart. While Tabitha was choreographing Madonna's halftime performance for Super Bowl XLVI, Napoleon was shooting more scenes for Make Your Move and scouting for the seventh season of America's Best Dance Crew. Although they never returned to America's Best Dance Crew as supervising choreographers, they did return in season eight as co-executive producers After the Super Bowl, Tabitha worked with Madonna again. She choreographed her music video "Girl Gone Wild" which featured all-male Ukrainian dance troupe Kazaky. During the last months of the year, Tabitha and Napoleon continued to work with K-pop artists. They choreographed the music videos "Humanoids" by TVXQ and "I Got A Boy" by Girls' Generation. TVXQ, Girls' Generation, and BoA are all signed to S. M. Entertainment. In April 2013, Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed the music video "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Herb Alpert. Two months later, they recreated the video on SYTYCD as the opening routine for season ten's Top 20 performance episode. Yahoo! Music called the performance "absolutely epic". Like the video, it was also shot in one take and several people made cameo appearances including Sean Cheesman, Travis Wall, Chris Scott, Mary Murphy, Jason Gilkison, Nigel Lythgoe, Herb Alpert, Lani Hall, and Tabitha and Napoleon themselves. In February 2014, Tabitha and Napoleon teamed up with TVXQ again to choreograph their music video "Spellbound"—the title track from their seventh album. Just like Alpert's "Puttin' on the Ritz", the video was shot in one take. Billboard gave the video a positive review: "The duo makes a strong case for 2014's best choreography in the [Spellbound] video." Tabitha and Napoleon also choreographed Super Junior-M's music video "Swing"—the title track from their third EP. They briefly returned to the stage as directors for sibling ballroom dancers Derek and Julianne Hough's Move Live on Tour. After the Move tour, Tabitha and Napoleon continued to work on music videos. They choreographed Ed Sheeran's music video for the single "Thinking Out Loud". Since its premiere, the video has amassed over 1.5 billion views. They directed and choreographed the music video for "Harlem Hopscotch", the first single from Maya Angelou's posthumous poetry album Caged Bird Songs. The video premiered December 23, 2014, on Oprah.com and features cameo appearances by Derek Hough and actress Zendaya. The beginning of 2015 marked a return to K-pop. They choreographed BoA's "Kiss My Lips" and EXO's "Call Me Baby" and "Monster". Afterward, they directed and choreographed Mariah Carey's Number 1's residency at Caesars Palace hotel and re-choreographed Beatles Love at the Mirage Resort and Casino. ### 2017–present: World of Dance Tabitha and Napoleon serve as co-executive producers and supervising choreographers for World of Dance (WOD), a television show based on the hip-hop dance competition of the same name. This project will serve as a continuation of a long professional partnership they've had with Jennifer Lopez; her company Nuyorican Productions is developing the show. Tabitha and Napoleon worked with Lopez in 2009 when they choreographed her performance at the American Music Awards. They choreographed her 2011 music video "Papi", her 2014 A.K.A. promotional tour, and her 2016 All I Have residency at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Tabitha and Napoleon's relationship with WOD goes back to 2014 when they were judges at the competition's Los Angeles tour stop. They were working on Britney: Domination, Britney Spears's Las Vegas residency, but their work was put on hold because of the singer going into a hiatus to take care of her father. ## Choreography style ### Artistry Tabitha and Napoleon's choreography is primarily hip-hop; however, it varies across genres depending on what project they're working on. For example, on America's Best Dance Crew all of the group routines they choreographed were hip-hop. However, on So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) they choreographed a few jazz routines and on Cirque du Soleil their work incorporated acro. In general, their choreography emphasizes big visuals, which they attribute to their cheerleading past, and is "...largely centered on storytelling and physical comedy." Inspiration for lifts is taken from lucha libre, adagio, and swing dance. The style they are most known for is lyrical hip-hop. ### Lyrical hip-hop Lyrical dance is a studio-based dance style that uses a combination of classical dance techniques from jazz and ballet to tell a story through movement. With jazz and ballet, technique alone can provide a good performance but in lyrical dance expressing emotion is emphasized just as much as technique. Hip-hop is an urban dance style that is characterized as hard-hitting involving isolations—moving certain body parts independently from others—and musicality, the body's sensitivity to changes in music. Hip-hop can incorporate movement from its substyles locking, breaking, popping, and boogaloo to add a different movement quality but conveying emotion does not have to be present as the dance is more about bravado and personal enjoyment. Lyrical hip-hop is a fluid and more interpretive version of standard hip-hop. It combines the nuances of lyrical dance with the vocabulary and foundational movements found in hip-hop. According to Dance Spirit magazine, what differentiates lyrical hip-hop from standard hip-hop is that dancers interpret the beat differently. In lyrical hip-hop there are still isolations, gliding, and body waves just like in standard hip-hop. However, the movements are smoother and more fluid rather than hard-hitting and, like lyrical dance, emphasis is placed on storytelling and conveying emotion through the choreography. `Lyrical hip-hop first gained mainstream exposure, and its name, in 2008 on season four of SYTYCD. The term itself is credited to Adam Shankman, a choreographer and judge on the program, who made a comment in reference to a routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo to Leona Lewis' song "Bleeding Love". Due to Shankman's comment and their subsequent work on seasons four through seven, Tabitha and Napoleon are credited with developing this style.` Some hip-hop purists feel the interpretive and softer approach means lyrical hip-hop is not hip-hop at all. From a purist perspective, dancing to the lyrics would make the choreography linear and too technical. This is because dancing to the words would take precedence over dancing to the beat. Traditionally in hip-hop, dancing to the beat is essential; lyrics can accent the movement, but the beat is the guiding force for the dancing. Other hip-hop dancers, such as choreographer Shane Sparks, believe that lyrical hip-hop is hip-hop but not different enough for it to have a separate label or be in its own subgenre. ### Teaching Although Tabitha and Napoleon have a solid career in choreography and creative direction, they spend a significant amount of time teaching classes at dance studios and conventions. They have stated that teaching helps their choreography because it keeps them current on new hip-hop social dances (party dances). They are faculty members at Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention. In the past they have taught at Shock the Intensive, the Edge Performing Arts Center, Millennium Dance Complex, Hip Hop International, Dance Blitz, Seattle Theater Group, Coastal Dance Rage, the Dance Teacher Web Conference and Expo, Teen Dance Company of the Bay Area, JUMP, Xtreme Dance Force, ProDance, Triple Threat Dance, Project 818, Boogiezone, iHollywood, the So You Think You Can Dance Experience, DANCE! The Convention, the Hollywood Summer Tour, Velocity, Radix, The Zoo, and VIP Dance Events. ## Critical reception ### JabbaWockeeZ The JabbaWockeeZ performed the show MÜS.I.C. from May 2010 to September 2012. Over the course of their two-year run, the show received mixed reviews. For their second show PRiSM they signed a six-year deal which included building a new 830-seat theater in a space that used to house a motion-simulator ride. Upon opening, PRiSM was met with positive reviews. Tabitha and Napoleon directed both shows. #### MÜS.I.C. The first run of MÜS.I.C. was held at the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel and casino. Las Vegas Weekly wrote that MÜS.I.C. had "game-changing potential" because it was the first time hip-hop dance had headlined a show on the Las Vegas Strip. In contrast, the Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) criticized the show for being repetitious and for having a bare stage for the first 20 minutes. LVRJ also criticized the use of masks as not appealing to a casual viewer because it inhibited the dancers' personality: "Even if a generational split is in play here, it would be tough to hear the creators argue that the show would suffer if, after 20 minutes or so -- gasp! -- makeup or clown-face replaced the masks to expand the original concept." In October 2010, the show moved to the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. Changes to the original show included a bigger stage, a new set, and added dance routines. CraveOnline.com called the new show "amazing" and Zap2It.com described it as "a vibrant, frenetic and multi-genre extravaganza of visuals, sound and movement." In April 2012, the Jabbawockeez began running two MÜS.I.C. shows in tandem. Some members stayed with the flagship show in Las Vegas while the others took the show on limited residencies elsewhere. Their first residency outside Las Vegas was in Australia at the Jupiters Hotel and Casino in Gold Coast, Queensland. Gold Coast Magazine gave the show a good review describing it as "magical... it truly does stir an emotional response through your soul and the combination of dance and drama make it appealing to all ages." After leaving Jupiters, the Jabbawockeez took up a second month-long residency in August 2012 at Harrah's Resort Atlantic City casino in New Jersey. Philly.com gave it a lukewarm review: "The problem is that as good as Jabbawockeez is at what [they do], the novelty wears off about a third-way through the show... the bulk of the performance pretty much offers little more than variations on a theme. As such, Jabbawockeez would have much more impact as a featured act in a variety show than it has on its own." The members that stayed in Las Vegas temporarily moved into an 800-seat tent outside the Monte Carlo to continue their show. VegasChatter.com reviewed the tent show and called it "an entertaining, fun, and interactive performance show." They performed in the tent from June 2012 through September 2012 with the understanding they would take up residence in the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in the Spring of 2013. #### PRiSM The JabbaWockeeZ second stage show PRiSM opened at the Luxor Las Vegas on May 31, 2013. The show's original title was Nonsense (a nod to the crew's name) because, at the time, they lacked a cohesive theme. However, it was Napoleon's idea to change the title to PRiSM since there are seven crew members and when light goes into a prism, seven colors emerge (the Luxor hotel is in the shape of a triangular prism). From that point on, unity and color became the themes of the show and the title was given the backronym Painting Reality in a Spectrum of Movement. PRiSM received positive reviews. Las Vegas Weekly wrote "Those who deride the art of pantomime or breakdancing need to check this show out. It will change your mind." Las Vegas Sun (LVS) described the show as "a mix of great choreography, interesting storylines and special effects reminiscent of Electric Daisy Carnival...". LVS wrote "It’s great to see a different kind of headliner — in content and ethnic makeup — thriving on the Strip." Vegas Kool stated that the new theater "...is laid out [so] everyone has a great view of the stage." Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) directly addressed Tabitha and Napoleon's involvement in "...turning the Jabbawockeez brand into an oddly endearing mix of mime, modern dance and physical theater." Several reviewers noted that overall PRiSM is better than MÜS.I.C. LVRJ wrote "...it all seems to hang together better this time, with a seamless flow and unifying themes of brotherhood and diversity." Dance Track Magazine wrote "Not only does the show have a much more intimate feel than previous Jabbawockeez shows, but PRiSM also includes increased audience participation, intensified humor and a storyline that is dramatic and flows through the entire performance." IGoShows.com had the same observation: "...the [previous] shows were plagued by lost opportunities, undeveloped ideas, and repetition. They seem to have corrected these shortcomings. 'Prism' is better in almost every way over its predecessors. The show has a cohesiveness that it never had before, good follow-through on ideas, and far more intriguing staging. The choreography is strong, varied, and doesn’t suffer the repetition that had invaded it previously." ### So You Think You Can Dance Most criticism of Tabitha and Napoleon's choreography has come as a result of their work on So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). Over the course of their involvement with the show, they have received mixed reviews. At worst, their choreography has been criticized as "softie hip-hop (more like 'hip-pop')". At best, it has been described as "amazing" and "bring[ing] out the best in their dancers..." #### Seasons four, five, and six `Lyrical hip-hop gained exposure and popularity during Tabitha and Napoleon's first season with SYTYCD (season four). On the first performance episode, contestants Katee Shean and Joshua Allen performed a D'umo choreographed lyrical hip-hop piece to the song "No Air" by Jordin Sparks. This routine received positive reviews and was later chosen as a "Judges' Favorite" by judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe to be performed again during the finale. BuddyTV.com wrote that the routine deserved an Emmy nomination. Although Tabitha and Napoleon were not nominated for "No Air", they were nominated for "Bleeding Love", another lyrical hip-hop routine performed by Mark Kanemura and Chelsie Hightower which the San Francisco Gate called a "great drama from hip-hop choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo, danced with chemistry and theatrical flair." This routine was picked as a "Judges' Favorite" by choreographer and judge Christopher "Lil' C" Toler. In June 2010, TVSquad.com named "No Air" and "Bleeding Love" two of the ten best routines from all seasons of SYTYCD. A third Tabitha and Napoleon lyrical hip-hop routine choreographed to Alicia Keys' song "Like You'll Never See Me Again" did not receive as much critical praise or attention as "Bleeding Love" or "No Air"; however, Nigel Lythgoe confessed when giving feedback on the dance that season four was the first time he had been emotionally affected by hip-hop routines.` Seasons five and six brought less praise for Tabitha and Napoleon. During season five's Top 8 performance episode, Lythgoe commented after a hip-hop routine choreographed by Shane Sparks "It's wonderful to have Shane Sparks back this season. He brings something else... I've been a little disappointed with our hip-hop this year." Out of the ten hip-hop routines (both couples and group routines) choreographed on season five previous to Lythgoe's comment, Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed seven. The most significant criticism came during season six in response to "People are Strange"—a routine about how aliens would attempt to dance hip-hop. None of the judges liked the routine. Lythgoe said the routine placed concept (theme) over substance (dancing). All the judges felt that the dance was weird and that the choreography was more to blame for the dancers' performance than the dancing itself. Of the routine "Give it to me Right" that Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed on a later season six episode about two fraternizing office employees, TVSquad.com wrote that many parts were awkward and that the dance only became enjoyable once the dancers "stopped cavorting around the desk and got out on the floor." In contrast to the mediocre to bad reviews, two other routines they choreographed were picked as "Judges' Favorite" during the season six finale: "Beggin'" (chosen by Lil' C) and "I Can Transform Ya" (chosen by Mary Murphy). #### Seasons seven and eight Tabitha and Napoleon received their best reviews on SYTYCD during season seven after a performance they choreographed to the song "Outta Your Mind" by Lil Jon. Creators.com called the routine "brilliantly imaginative." Pioneer Local called it "powerful... It's been so long since [Tabitha and Napoleon] have had a showstopping hip-hop number on SYTYCD. Not since Season 4 when they had Katee, Joshua, tWitch, Mark and Chelsie have they pulled out hip-hop this good." The routine was performed by ballet dancer Alex Wong and "All-Star" hip-hop dancer Stephen "tWitch" Boss from season four. The concept is about a psychologist (tWitch) who teaches a dancer (Alex) to let go of his technique and inhibitions and just dance. After the performance, tWitch and Alex received a standing ovation from the crowd and all three judges—Nigel Lythgoe, Mia Michaels, and Adam Shankman. Host Cat Deeley commented "I have never, never, in 'So You Think You Can Dance' history, heard a roar from a crowd like this - ever." Lythgoe called the concept "brilliant... This is about a ballet dancer doing the most incredible hip-hop... If this routine and you are not up for an Emmy with Napoleon and Tabitha next year, I don't know why not. It's probably one of the funnest, best hip-hop routines we've ever had on this show." In slight disagreement, the Wall Street Journal noted that "Outta Your Mind" may in fact be nominated for an Emmy, but it is unlikely to win because past winners have all been lyrical, very emotional routines. On a later episode, Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed a lyrical hip-hop routine to Alicia Keys debut single "Fallin'". Of the dance, judge Mia Michaels stated "That to me felt more real than any contemporary piece, honestly, because it came from such a raw raw space and place. That was absolutely unbelievable, and it was like watching a dance film." Lythgoe stated that the dance reminded him of "Bleeding Love" and "No Air" from season four and added "Somehow Napoleon and Tabitha have this ability... to put emotion into hip-hop routines and it really is a real talent." The positive reviews continued through the rest of the season. Of Tabitha and Napoleon's "Scars" routine about angry clowns, Lythgoe called the piece "stunning" and Michaels described it as "hip-hop theater". After the episode aired, Dance Spirit magazine wrote "Tabitha and Napoleon are on FIRE this season!" The Los Angeles Times echoed this comment stating that season seven had been "Nappytabs' best season". On the Top 3 performance episode, after their "Power" routine danced by eventual champion Lauren Froderman and "All-Star" tWitch, Michaels commented "Nappytabs what a season you have had, my God. It's been like home run after home run after home run..." Shankman echoed this comment on the finale by calling Tabitha and Napoleon "the MVPs of the season". Four of their routines—"Fallin'", "Scars", "Battle for the Beat", and "My Chick Bad"—were chosen as "Judges' Favorite" during the season seven finale broadcast. Due to an injury sustained by Alex Wong, "Outta Your Mind" was not picked as a judge's favorite. Instead, it was performed by tWitch and special guest Ellen DeGeneres as a tribute to Alex just before Lauren Froderman was declared the winner of season seven. Season eight brought back mixed feedback. Early in the season, Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed a lyrical hip-hop routine "Coming Home" about a veteran coming back to his wife after returning from his deployment. The routine generated positive while emotional responses causing both guest judge Debbie Reynolds and resident judge Mary Murphy to cry while giving feedback. The Star Ledger placed "Coming Home" at number three in its list of the top five routines performed during season eight. Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed another lyrical hip-hop routine "I Got You" on the Top 16 performance episode. Celebuzz.com called the routine "dramatic and breathtaking". The dance generated positive reviews from the judges causing them to spontaneously kiss one another in response to a kiss that was choreographed into the dance. On the Top 8 performance episode, Lady Gaga appeared as a guest judge in which three hip-hop routines were performed. Although Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed two of them, she criticized their work while giving feedback on all three. She indirectly criticized them after a lyrical hip-hop piece choreographed by Marty Kudelka in which she referred to the dance style as "dated". Of the two routines they did choreograph, she criticized their use of props in both of them. A flower was used in the first routine "Take a Bow" about a cheating boyfriend asking for forgiveness. Several props including trash cans, rags, and brooms were used in the second routine "Bad Boys for Life" about waste management workers. Aside from disliking the props, she described their hip-hop choreography for "Bad Boys for Life" as "contrived". On the finale, "Coming Home" was not picked as a "Judges Favorite" but two other routines they choreographed, "I Got You" and "Break Ya Neck", were chosen instead by judges Nigel Lythgoe and Lil' C respectively. ### Make Your Move Make Your Move was released in South Korea and the United States in April 2013. With the exception of a make-out scene the choreography was generally praised among critics. The Washington Post stated "Although the bit of bedroom footwork was more laugh-inducing than anything, some of the dancing really is spectacular. Scenes from the competing clubs include impressive choreography and gravity-defying moves." KPopStarz.com wrote "The dance teams and performances are enough to dominate the scenes, and definitely deserve a look. They bring forth the unique charm of watching a dance movie." RogerEbert.com stated "'Make Your Move' rests on the success of its various dance sequences, not its plot. And the dancing here is exciting, innovative, and specific. Each 'number' has a story behind it, a motivation, a different look and feel... I could have lived without the choreographed (literally) foreplay scene, as they dance their way to the bed, but there are other dance sequences between the two where their chemistry vibrates off the screen." The Hollywood Reporter said "The Romeo and Juliet-inspired plotline basically serves as a framing device allowing the opportunity for a plethora of exuberant dance sequences that particularly show off Hough's considerable talent." ## Awards and recognition Primetime Emmy Awards Tabitha and Napoleon have won two Emmys from a total of four nominations. At the 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, they joined the other choreography nominees and created a routine honoring dance that was performed just before the Outstanding Choreography award was presented. 2013 was the first year the Outstanding Choreography award was presented at the Primetime Emmys telecast rather than at the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony which takes place a week prior. MTV Video Music Awards Dancers' Choice Awards The Carnival Choreographer's Ball World of Dance Entertainment Weekly In 2011, Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of the "25 Best Performances Ever" on So You Think You Can Dance. Tabitha and Napoleon choreographed four routines on the list. Shorty Awards ## Charity work Tabitha and Napoleon have donated money and their time to different non-profit organizations. In 2009, they made an appearance at the Life Changing Lives Gala, the proceeds of which benefited the Wounded Warrior Project, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Boys & Girls Clubs. At the event, dancers Katie Shean and Joshua Allen from season four of So You Think You Can Dance performed the D'umo choreographed "No Air" lyrical hip-hop routine about a soldier telling his girlfriend he is being deployed. In the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Tabitha and Napoleon held a week-long fundraiser from online sales of their dancewear line. The money raised was donated to Artists for Peace and Justice who in turn gave 100% of their donations toward humanitarian relief efforts. For a separate fundraiser, they donated Nappytabs merchandise for a silent auction held by the organization Art4Life to benefit the American Cancer Society. In 2012, they taught classes at "The JabbaWockeez Experience" held at the Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas. The event raised money for the Monsters on the Move Foundation which grants scholarships to aspiring dancers. In 2013, they worked with the Jabbawockeez again on a music video to the song "Celebrate" by Empire of the Sun and Tommy Trash. The music video also featured Les Twins, 8 Flavahz, and Harry Shum, Jr. and was used to raise money for a Coke (RED) campaign to decrease the number of HIV-infected newborns and raise awareness about AIDS. For Veterans Day 2013, they choreographed a military themed performance for the Homeward Bound Telethon that aired live on the Military Channel. The purpose of the telethon was to raise money for veterans who suffer from TBI and PTSD. Tabitha and Napoleon are on the board of directors of the Dizzy Feet Foundation and the advisory board of The Young Choreographers Festival. ## See also - List of dance personalities - List of dancers

Stadium of Light

Football stadium in Sunderland, England

The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England, and the eighth and current home to Sunderland A.F.C. With space for 48,707 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. The stadium primarily hosts Sunderland A.F.C. home matches. The stadium was named by chairman Bob Murray to reflect the coal mining heritage of the North East and the former Monkwearmouth Colliery site on which it stands. A Davy lamp monument stands at the entrance to reflect the coal mining industry that brought prosperity to the town. As well as hosting Sunderland games, the stadium has hosted three matches for the England national football team, as well as an England under-20, an England under-21 and an England women's team match. With an original capacity of 42,000, it was expanded in 2000 to seat 48,707. Its simple design is apparently to allow for redevelopments up to a capacity of 64,000. The attendance record at the Stadium of Light is 48,353 set on 13 April 2002, when Sunderland played Liverpool with the visitors running out 1–0 winners. Along with hosting football matches, the stadium has played host to performers such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Oasis, Take That, Kings of Leon, P!nk, Coldplay, Spice Girls and Elton John. The ground also holds conference and banqueting suites, the Black Cats Bar, and a club shop selling Sunderland merchandise. ## Planning and construction Following the release of the Taylor Report in January 1990, Sunderland was obliged to make plans to turn their Roker Park home into an all-seater stadium. Roker Park was a ground that mainly consisted of standing terraces, and if converted into all-seater it would have held far fewer spectators than before. Enclosed by residential streets on all sides, expansion was practically impossible. So, by 1991, Sunderland chairman Bob Murray had started to scour the local area for possible sites to build a new all-seater stadium. The front-runner that emerged was a proposed stadium located on an area of land adjacent to the Nissan car plant. The 49,000 all-seater ground was labelled "the Wembley of the North" by Sunderland fans and would boast a capacity that not even Manchester United's Old Trafford exceeded until 1996. The plans did not come to fruition. Shortly after the plans were announced in 1992, Nissan launched an official objection, ultimately forcing Sunderland to abandon the idea. By 1995, the site of the Wearmouth Colliery, which had closed in December 1993, was identified as the club's preferred location for a new stadium. The area, on the north bank of the River Wear in the Sheepfolds district of Sunderland, was only a few hundred yards from Roker Park, and close to the centre of the city. In 1993, Sunderland's planned new stadium was on the shortlist for Euro 96 venues, as England had been named as hosts of the competition in May 1992. However, it soon become clear that a new stadium in Sunderland would not be ready in time for the tournament. On 13 November 1995, the Sunderland chairman Bob Murray announced that the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation had approved plans for Sunderland to build a 34,000-seater stadium on the Monkwearmouth site. Ballast Wiltshier plc, a contracting company that had built the Amsterdam Arena, was contracted to build the stadium at an initial cost of £15 million. In June 1996, as the planned capacity rose to more than 40,000, construction work began. The capacity was revised again in early 1997, and the stadium was completed on time, with a capacity of 42,000. The stadium's design allows possible expansion of a further tier; completed expansion of the whole upper tier would produce a capacity of 63,000, although it is believed by some that the stadium can expand to a maximum capacity of 84,000, this would seem unlikely ever to be exercised. The stadium was opened on 30 July 1997 by Prince Andrew, Duke of York, with bands such as Status Quo, Upside Down and Kavana playing. To celebrate the opening of the stadium, Sunderland played a friendly against the Dutch side Ajax, which was drawn 0–0. The move did not happen without criticism. Famous actor and Sunderland supporter, often named in the media "Sunderland's most famous supporter", Peter O'Toole, said he wasn't as much a fan as he used to be since the team left Roker Park. Playwright Tom Kelly and actor Paul Dunn created a one-man play called "I Left My Heart at Roker Park" about a fan struggling with the move and what Roker Park meant for him - the play originally ran in 1997, and had a few revivals since. The North Stand was extended in 2000 to bring the capacity to 49,000, costing the club a further £7 million, making the final cost of the stadium £23 million. On 18 July 2006, a statue of 1973 FA Cup Final winning manager Bob Stokoe was unveiled outside the stadium. At the end of season Football League awards, the Stadium of Light was named the Best Away Ground, with other contenders including Crewe Alexandra's Alexandra Stadium and Plymouth Argyle's Home Park. Sunderland celebrated the tenth anniversary of the stadium with a pre-season friendly against Juventus on 6 August 2007; the game was drawn 1–1. ## Name During construction, the stadium had not adopted an official name, and had been known colloquially as the "Wearside Stadium" and "New Roker Park". The name was eventually revealed as the Stadium of Light at a naming ceremony on 30 July 1997, hours before the opening game against Ajax. Speaking at the naming event, Bob Murray explained the inspiration for the name came from the Coal mining heritage of the region and the stadium's Monkwearmouth Colliery site: > "For many years, miners at Wearmouth Colliery carried with them a Davy lamp as part of their working lives. Reflecting this tradition, the name allows the image of this light to shine forever." To emphasise the fact, a statue of a miner's Davy lamp was located in front of the stadium's ticket office, adjacent to the stadium. The name initially drew mixed reactions from Sunderland fans many unhappy that the name was already associated with the home ground of S.L. Benfica. A film crew for the Premier Passions documentary series recorded the moment that Bob Murray faced Sunderland fans immediately after the naming with many expressing their disappointment. The similarity to the name of Benfica's home, Estádio da Luz, often anglicised to The Stadium of Light, has led to some visiting fans and reporters to erroneously assume that Sunderland's home was named after the Portuguese stadium. Murray responded directly to this in a 2017 interview with the Evening Chronicle, in which he said > "The Estadio de Luz in Portugal isn’t the Stadium of Light, it is named after the area – Luz. It’s like, say, Elland Road or Old Trafford. We are the only club whose stadium has that name, and it was because of the history of the region that I named it". In the same interview, Murray revealed that shortly after the stadium opened he was approached by a representative of the Labour government asking if he would consider renaming the stadium after Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in September 1997. Murray refused the request as he believed the stadium should be named in honour of those in the region who had worked in darkness. The 'Of Light' suffix became a recognisable part of the Sunderland A.F.C. brand, and was used in a number of other areas related to the club; the Academy of Light is the club's training facility and youth academy, the Foundation of Light is a registered charity affiliated with the club and the Beacon of Light is a sports and education centre, owned by the Foundation, which is adjacent to the stadium. The club's official magazine was called Legion of Light before it was discontinued in January 2017. In March 2010, Sunderland Chairman Niall Quinn announced the club were considering plans to sell naming rights to the stadium as a new way to boost income. The plans were shelved shortly after. The possibility of selling the naming rights was floated again by chief executive Margaret Byrne in 2013. Discussing the options of selling the stadium name in October 2018, chairman Stewart Donald said: > "I think the fans should have a say on whether they are comfortable with it. My gut feel is that even if we didn't consult with them, the vibe I get is that they aren't particularly attached to the name of the stadium. It's not a sacred thing like some of the other grounds." ## Structure and facilities The stadium is in the shape of a square bowl, and is separated into the West Stand, North Stand, East Stand and the Roker End (South Stand). The stands have all formerly had commercial names as part of sponsorship deals, e.g. the Vaux Stand (West), the Carling Stand (North), Fosters Stand (East) and the Metro FM Stand (South). The South Stand was renamed to the Roker End in December 2018, following a poll organised by the Red & White Army supporters club. The Roker End was the name of the stand behind the goal at the southern end of the ground at Roker Park. The West Stand includes the Premier Concourse which is the name of the upper tier and a number of executive boxes. The North Stand also includes an upper tier, formerly branded the Strongbow Upper, which contained the exterior seating for the Black Cats Bar, an enhanced match-day experience with padded seating and an exclusive catering facilities and bar. When the away fans were relocated in 2012, the Black Cats Bar seating was relocated to the rear of the North Stand lower tier. Within the stadium is a concourse, housing the turnstiles, emergency exits, food kiosks, bars and toilet facilities. The concourse allows uninterrupted spectator access throughout the inner stadium bowl, with the exception being a gap between the South Stand and the South West corner. The concourse is linked to the seating bowl via a series of access ramps. The South East corner of the stadium is designated as the Family Zone, and has family-oriented branding within the concourse, as well as entertainment such as PlayStation 4 consoles. Away fans were seated in the west half of the South Stand when the ground opened in 1997, but in November 2011, the club announced that the away supporters' section would be moved from the South Stand to the North Stand Upper from the beginning of the 2012–13 season. However, the club announced its intention to move away fans back to the lower bowl in time for the 2023–24 season following a number of incidents. The pitch is several metres below the level of the ground outside the stadium. The pitch uses a lighting system from Stadium Grow Lighting to ensure the grass can grow at any time of year. The device controls various aspects of the pitch, including exposure to light, temperature, water, and air, to make the grass able to grow in any conditions. To the North East of the stadium stands the Black Cat House, a separate building which is the location of the Box office and club administrative offices. There is a large car park behind the West Stand and two car parks behind the East Stand, but match-day parking is permit only. Fragments of the iconic Archibald Leitch latticework, taken from the Main Stand at Roker Park, is used to separate parts of the Western Car Park. Wooden boards mimicking the Leitch lattice work were also added to the Roker End in 2019 as part of an initiative by the Red & White Army supporters group to bring a sense of identity to renamed stand. The perimeter walls of the stadium incorporate a "Wall of Fame" feature, where names can be engraved into the bricks of the walls. The interior of the stadium holds a banqueting suite, which can seat from 460 to 600 people. The stadium also contains several conferencing suites, that can be hired for events. Quinn's Bar, housed in the West Stand, was named after former player and chairman Niall Quinn and includes memorabilia from the club's history. Originally it was available for non-match-day visitors, but has since become exclusive for match-day hospitality and event packages. In 2004,The Centre for Light was opened by the SAFC Foundation within the Stadium. The £1.6m learning facility, built over multiple floors, included five learning areas supporting up to 120 visiting children per day. In 2015, Sunderland became the first football club in the world to open a sensory room within the Stadium - thereby allowing people on the Autism spectrum to watch matches in a sound-proofed environment. It was named the Nathan Shippey Sensory Room after Nathan's parents petitioned the club to set the room up. The sensory room provided a huge success, with the model being adopted at other clubs around the world. Sunderland opened their second sensory room in 2018. In March 2018 it was announced that after the relegation to EFL League One, the Premier Concourse would be closed during the 2018–19 season, although it was temporarily reopened to accommodate a large crowd for the Boxing Day game against Bradford City and again on the final home league game against Portsmouth. After promotion back to EFL Championship, the Premier Concourse is permanently reopened. ### Seats The stadium was originally kitted predominately with red seats, the exception being a Sunderland emblem and the words "SUNDERLAND A.F.C" in white lettering on the East Stand, and the slogan "HA'WAY THE LADS" ("Ha'way" is a Mackem dialect equivalent of the Geordie word "Howay", meaning "Come on") in white lettering on the North Stand. A thin band of white seats also circled the top of the East and South stand. Over time, sections of red seats become bleached by the Sun, turning them pink - which became a source of mockery from opposing fans. Sunderland fans petitioned the club to replace the seats, even noting on the inclusion of the faded pink seats in the digital replica of the Stadium of Light in the FIFA video game. In 2016, the club announced that a programme of seat changes would take place as part of a face-lift for the stadium's 20th anniversary. Sections of the East Stand were replaced, but further work stalled. When Stewart Donald purchased the club in the summer of 2018, frustration over the pink seats (and the general state of the Stadium) came up frequently in his early engagements with fans. In June, Donald announced that he had purchased 31,500 seats and requested Sunderland fans to volunteer to help change them. The seat change took place in phases, with hundreds of volunteering fans joined occasionally by club officials and players. Phase I was the South East corner and was completed on 19 July 2018, Phase II was the North East corner and North Stand on was completed on 15 September 2018, and Phase III the South West corner completed in October 2018. The fourth and final phase, replacing 10,000 seats in the South and West stands, began on 29 October 2018. The corners were replaced with white seats, while the sides and ends were left red. The emblem and lettering remained. The club were nominated as a finalist in 'Best Club Marketing Initiative' category at the 2018 Business Football Awards for the seat change activity. ## Fan Zone A 6,000 capacity Fan Zone, modeled on similar schemes at Manchester City and those at NFL games in the United States, was approved by Sunderland City Council in July 2015. It followed a successful trial prior to a game against West Ham United in January 2013. It was opened on the first home game of the 2015–16 season. The zone was located in the car park outside the East Stand and South East corner, and included live music, children's activities (including a Five-a-side football pitch), food and drink kiosks and on-stage interviews with club legends. The Fan Zone opened three hours before kick-off and for a few hours after the game, and was accessible to ticket-holding spectators, including away fans. Due to the temporary structures in use, the Fan Zone was closed for safety reasons during periods of high winds. An enhanced version of the Fan Zone was opened for the England senior international game vs Australia in 2016. The Fan Zone re-opened for the 2016–17 season opener against Middlesbrough, but as the season progressed, poor performance on the field and financial troubles off the field led to the Fan Zone being cancelled. In a Q&A with supporters association 'Red & White Army', new club owner Stewart Donald committed to bring back the Fan Zone. It returned for the opening game of the 2018–19 season against Charlton Athletic, although smaller than the 2015 version, it was open to anyone - not just ticket-holding spectators. The Fan Zone no longer re-opens after a game. ## Stadium Village A 30 hectare site area around the Stadium, including the Sheepfolds Industrial estate, was designated as the 'Stadium Village' development zone by Sunderland City Council in 2007 - and a draft Supplementary planning document was released in 2009. The plan, adopted in 2010, described a framework for redeveloping the Stadium Village area into a mixture of commercial, residential and entertainment facilities with a focus on health and well-being. The plan was consistent with wider redevelopment plans across Sunderland, then under the umbrella of Sunderland Arc agency. In preparation for the redevelopment plans, the council began buying up plots in the area in 2008. Initial redevelopment work focused on the Northern end of the site, adjacent to the stadium's North Stand and the Black Cat House ticket office. The buildings in this area have Stadium Park as their address. The Sunderland Aquatic Centre, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool and fitness centre, opened in April 2008. In December 2014 construction work began on a new 141-room Hilton Garden Inn which opened on 28 April 2016. The Beacon of Light, a sports, education and community centre, opened in the summer of 2018 alongside the Aquatic Centre. In 2009, during a review of the Stadium Village plans, city councilors expressed ambitions to build an Indoor skiing facility on the site and an expression of interest was issued to potential developers. In the spring of 2011, the Sunderland Arc redevelopment agency was shut down, after its funding was pulled due to austerity cuts. This put the long-term future of the Stadium Village plan in doubt. However the council partnered with IDPartnership Group to push ahead with the plan, and in September 2017, a 'masterplan' for Phase II of the Stadium Village area was approved by Sunderland council and released for public consultation. The Phase II area covers an area to the South and East of the stadium and proposals included facilities such as a Velodrome, an Ice rink, a Conference centre and a Climbing wall. A key part of the new masterplan is Stadium Way, a proposed tree-lined boulevard linking the St Peter's Metro station with a proposed Plaza at the South East corner of the stadium. The plaza would incorporate an enhanced Fan Zone, and is modelled on a similar space being developed as part of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. ## International matches As well as holding Sunderland games, the stadium has also hosted England matches. The stadium was one of several venues used as temporary home grounds for the England team while the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium took place. It hosted its first England game in 1999, when they played Belgium in a friendly match, which England won 2–1. It played host to its first competitive England match on 2 April 2003, when they played Turkey in a Euro 2004 qualifying match, which England won 2–0. The Stadium of Light also held an England under 20 match against Italy on 27 November 2002, Italy beat England 5–3. On 10 June 2003 it hosted an England's under-21s 2004 U21 European Championship qualifier match against Slovakia's under-21s. The hosts beat the visitors 2–0 through Peter Doležaj's fortieth minute own goal and Phil Jagielka's eighty third-minute goal with 11,223 in attendance. On 4 March 2016 it was announced that the Stadium of Light would host England for a friendly against Australia on 27 May 2016 as part of their preparations for Euro 2016. The sold-out match finished in a 2–1 victory for England, with goals from Marcus Rashford (on his international debut), Wayne Rooney and an own goal from Eric Dier. On 30 September 2021, it was announced that the Stadium would host its first women's football international; an England 2023 World Cup qualifier against Austria on 27 November 2021. ### Matches ## Other uses ### Other Football The Stadium of Light hosted the final of the Durham Challenge Cup in 2008 and again in 2019. and was due to host the 2020 final (which would have been contested by Sunderland U23s and Spennymoor Town) before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. The Stadium of Light has also played host to finals for youth football, including the U14 Premier League Cup Final in 2014. ### Rugby union In August 2023, the stadium was confirmed as one of eight host venues for the 2025 Rugby World Cup. ### Concerts In October 2008 it was announced that the stadium would hold a concert on 10 June 2009, featuring Oasis, with Kasabian, The Enemy and Reverend and the Makers as support acts. On 5 and 6 June 2009 Take That started their nationwide 'Circus' tour at the Stadium of Light. Pink performed a sell out show at the stadium on 11 June 2010, with support from VV Brown, Butch Walker and City & Colour. Take That returned to the stadium along with Robbie Williams on 27 May 2011, supported by Pet Shop Boys. On this occasion Take That began their Progress Live tour in Sunderland, making the Stadium of Light the first venue to hear Take That perform as a five since 1995. Originally only two dates were announced, however due to huge demand from fans two further dates were added at the Stadium of Light. Kings of Leon played at the stadium on 17 June 2011 as part of their nationwide tour across Britain. During the summer of 2012, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Coldplay and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed at the stadium. On 30 October 2012, it was announced that Bon Jovi would play at the stadium during the summer of 2013. On 20 June 2013 Rihanna performed a sold-out show at the stadium as part of the European leg of her Diamonds World Tour. Rihanna was scheduled to return to the stadium during her Anti World Tour, but the concert was cancelled. 2013 also saw the stadium hold the first of two 'North East Live' concerts, a music festival featuring artists such as Little Mix and Jessie J. After the 2016 concert by Beyoncé as part of her Formation World Tour there was a three-year hiatus for concerts at the Stadium of Light after Sunderland City Council withdrew their financial support. Following the takeover of the club in 2018, new Executive director Charlie Methven confirmed that concerts would return in the summer of 2019. On 5 November 2018, the Spice Girls announced their 2019 Spice World Tour, with Jess Glynne as a support act. The UK leg of the tour included a concert at the Stadium of Light on 6 June 2019. There were no concerts planned for the summers of 2020 or 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted events across the world. In June 2021, Elton John announced that the Stadium of Light would be one of the UK venues in his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in June 2022. The concert was put in doubt in September 2021 when the singer was injured in a fall, causing him to cancel some of the planned shows, but it was later confirmed that the Stadium of Light date was not affected. In September 2021, Ed Sheeran announced three nights at the Stadium of Light in June 2022 as part of the +–=÷x tour, though one of the dates was later cancelled. #### Concert Capacity The exact capacity of the stadium for concerts varies depending on the profile of the act and the layout of the stage. Sunderland city council capped the original 2009 concerts to 51,528 for Take That and 52,933 for Oasis. The 2010 Pink concert had a lower capacity of 42,054. The 2015 Foo Fighters concert had a capacity of 56,351. The Beyonce concert in 2016 had a capacity capped at 55,000 and the 2019 Spice Girls concert had a cap of 50,835. Aided by an open stage in the centre of the arena, Ed Sheeran performed in front of a record 60,000 crowd on his +–=÷x Tour in June 2022. This was the largest ever crowd for a concert in the North East of England. ### Sunderland University The Stadium of Light currently hosts the annual graduation ceremony for the students of the University of Sunderland. The stadium won the RSVP magazine's Most creative use of a sporting venue award in 2007 for its usage as the university's graduation site. ## Records ### Attendances The highest football attendance at the Stadium of Light is 48,353 set on 13 April 2002 for a Premier League game between Sunderland and Liverpool. The Stadium attendance record for non-football is 60,000 on 3 June 2022 for an Ed Sheeran concert. The lowest league attendance at the stadium was 22,167 against Wigan Athletic on 2 December 2003. The lowest recorded attendance for a first-team competitive game at the Stadium of Light was 3,498 vs Oldham Athletic in the EFL Trophy Second Round on 1 December 2021. A dead rubber game vs. Bradford City in the same tournament on 9 November 2021 did not have an officially recorded attendance. The highest seasonal average at the stadium since it was opened was 46,790 in the 2000–01 season while Sunderland were playing in the Premier League. The lowest average attendance at the Stadium of Light was 27,119 in the 2003–04 season in Division One. The highest total seasonal attendance was recorded during the 1998–99 season when the aggregate was 890,660 in a season where Sunderland were First Division champions, and League Cup semi-finalists. The lowest seasonal aggregate at the Stadium of Light was 572,241 in the 2019–20 season, as Sunderland played only 19 of a planned 23 games due to the season's curtailment because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following season saw all games played behind closed doors due to the pandemic. In the 2018-19 season, Sunderland averaged a home league crowd of 32,156, setting a new record for the third tier, while the Boxing Day game against Bradford City attracted 46,039, both a League One record, and the highest attended league game outside of the Premier League that season. ### Results Sunderland's largest margin of victory at the stadium was a 7–0 win over Oxford United in Division 1 during the 1998–99 promotion season. Sunderland's biggest defeat at the Stadium of Light was 5–0 in a preseason friendly (marking the 20th anniversary of the stadium) against Celtic on 29 July 2017. Sunderland's biggest league defeat at the Stadium of Light is 4–0 which has happened on four occasions (all in the Premier League): vs. Arsenal (11 May 2003), vs. Manchester United (26 December 2007), vs. Aston Villa (14 March 2015) and vs. Southampton (11 February 2017). The highest scoring matches at the Stadium of Light with nine goals are a 6–3 Sunderland victory over Exeter City in Round 2 of the EFL Cup on 25 August 2015, and a 5–4 Sunderland defeat to Coventry City in League One on 13 April 2019. ## Transport Sunderland railway station, which is connected to London King's Cross by infrequent services run by the Open Access operator Grand Central or by main line services run by London North Eastern Railway connecting via Newcastle or Darlington, is located nearby to the stadium. The St Peter's and Stadium of Light Metro stations were built as part of the Sunderland extension, both are quite near the stadium, though ironically St. Peter's is a closer station to the ground than the Stadium of Light station. The Metro was extended into Sunderland in 2002. A park and ride system is available on match days to allow spectators to park away from the stadium, and a new footbridge proposal has been put forward to link the stadium to the south bank of the river as part of the stadium park regeneration project.

Fred Shero

Canadian former ice hockey player and coach

Frederick Alexander Shero, nicknamed The Fog (October 23, 1925 – November 24, 1990) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach, and general manager. He played for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). However, he spent most of his playing career in the minor leagues. Following his playing career, Shero went into coaching. He spent 13 years coaching in the minor leagues before making it to the NHL. As the head coach of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers, Shero won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975 and reached the Stanley Cup Finals a third time, in 1976. He also had four consecutive seasons of having a 0.700 or better winning percentage and remains the Flyers all-time leader in coaching victories. Shero controversially left the Flyers following the 1977–78 season to become the head coach of the New York Rangers, whom he led to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season. He resigned from the Rangers after coaching for less than three seasons. Shero had a unique style of coaching that led to several innovations that are still used today. He was the first coach to hire a full-time assistant coach, employ systems, have his players use in season strength training, study film, and he was one of the first coaches to utilize a morning skate. In 2013 Shero was recognized for his contributions when he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder. He was known for his enigmatic and introverted personality often appearing or disappearing from a room unnoticed, or being completely lost in thought. He often left philosophical sayings on a chalkboard as a way of provoking thought or as a motivational tool. Prior to game six of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals, Shero wrote his now famous quote "Win together today and we walk together forever" – a statement that continues to be quoted to this day. His son, Ray Shero, also pursued a career in hockey, serving as general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins (2006–2014) and New Jersey Devils (2015–2020). ## Playing career As a 17-year-old, Shero was signed by the New York Rangers to a professional contract. He spent the first year of his contract in the minors splitting time between the New York Rovers and the Brooklyn Crescents in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League. The following season Shero served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II, although he continued to play hockey for the Navy as a member of . Upon returning to the Rangers organization, Shero continued to play in the minors for another two seasons before reaching National Hockey League (NHL). On October 16, 1947, he made his NHL debut at the Montreal Forum against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens in the 1947–48 season opener. However, he only played 19 games with the Rangers that year while splitting time with the St. Paul Saints in the United States Hockey League. It was during this time that he would first garner the nickname "The Fog". Although more often associated with his loner personality and propensity for being lost in thought, the nickname actually began during a 1948 game in St. Paul, Minnesota. High humidity on indoor ice surfaces can result in fog. One night in St. Paul the fog was so thick that Shero was the only player who claimed to be able to see the puck thus earning him the name "Freddy the Fog". The 1948–49 season saw Shero become a regular in the Rangers line up as well as his first NHL post-season action. The following season Shero set career highs in games played, assists, and points, while the Rangers qualified for the post-season in the fourth and final position. Despite being the lowest seeded team, the Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals by upsetting the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. In the Finals the Rangers met up with the Detroit Red Wings, and on April 23, 1950, the Rangers lost game seven in double overtime. It was the last NHL game Shero ever played. On May 14, 1951, the Rangers traded Shero to the American Hockey League's (AHL) Cleveland Barons. Upon his return to the minors Shero enjoyed team success as a player winning back-to-back Calder Cups with the Barons in 1953 and 1954. Shero was also named an AHL Second Team All-Star in 1954. However, he only played one more season with the Barons before moving to the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Winnipeg Warriors for the 1955–56 season. Shero captained the Warriors to the WHL championship, in his first season with the club. He played with the Warriors again during the 1956–57 season, but moved to the Quebec Hockey League (QHL) where he played for the Shawinigan Cataractes in 1957–58. During the 1957–58 QHL season Shero first began coaching. He served as a player/assistant coach for the Cataracts and helped them capture the QHL championship. He retired from playing in 1958. ## Coaching career After retiring as a player, Shero continued to coach and began a 13-year coaching career in the minor leagues. During his time in the minors, Shero proved to be a winning coach accumulating six first-place finishes, five second-place finishes and twice finishing third in various leagues. He also coached the St. Paul Saints to the IHL championship, The Turner Cup, in 1960 and 1961. In 1964, he coached the St. Paul Rangers to the CPHL championship finals. The following season Shero began his AHL coaching career with the Buffalo Bisons whom he led to a Calder Cup Championship in 1970, while winning the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as AHL coach of the year. For the 1970–71 season Shero again changed teams this time coaching in the Central Hockey League with the Omaha Knights, winning the league Championship. Although in the Rangers farm system for several years and winning at various levels, Shero was never seriously considered to replace Emile Francis as head coach, due to Shero's perceived alcohol problem and a belief that he was an ineffective communicator. ### Philadelphia Flyers (1971–1978) In 1971 the Philadelphia Flyers were looking for a new coach, and general manager Keith Allen suggested Shero to owner Ed Snider. When asked if he knew Shero, Allen admitted to only knowing him by reputation. He knew Shero always had a winning record, plus he had a "gut feeling" he was the right man for the job. Snider agreed to bring in Shero because he trusted Allen's judgment. Thus Shero became the third coach in Flyers history; he had high hopes for the season, predicting that the Flyers would finish no worse than second in the West Division. The 1971–72 season was disappointing for Shero as the Flyers finished in 5th place in the West with a 26–38–14 record. The Flyers 66 points were actually a decrease of 7 points in the standings and they missed the playoffs for the second time in three years. Shero's "Fog" nickname was also re-established during the year following a game at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta when he left the arena through a door with no re-entry and became locked outside prior to the post-game press conference. At the press conference no one knew where Shero was and reporters unsuccessfully searched the arena for him. In the off-season Shero decided that the team would be more successful if he coached them like he had coached his minor league teams. Upon being elevated to the NHL, he had decided not to employ systems like he did in the minors, stating that he had too much respect for NHL players. However, he decided that since he had the same kind of players on the Flyers as he did in the minors, he would use the same systems, becoming the first coach to employ systems. Shero insisted on having a scout for talent in Europe, and the club employed Aggie Kukulowicz who had played in the NHL and spoke Russian and Polish. In 1972–73 Shero hired Mike Nykoluk as an assistant coach on a one-year tryout basis. Although assistant coaches are common today, Nykoluk was the first full-time assistant coach in the league, and the decision to hire him led to rumors that Shero must not be much of a coach if he needed help. However, with the additional help Shero guided the Flyers to their first winning season in franchise history, and Nykoluk stayed on as assistant throughout Shero's tenure. Prior to a game during the 72–73 season Shero wrote a quote about commitment on the dressing room blackboard, and the team won the game. From then on Shero wrote inspirational quotes prior to games. After finishing second in the West Division they faced off with the Minnesota North Stars whom they defeated 4–2 winning the first playoff series in Flyers history. In the second round the Flyers matched up with the Montreal Canadiens, who defeated Philadelphia 4–1. #### Stanley Cup years The following season Shero led the Flyers to a 50–16–12 record, first place in the Western Division. The 112 point total also placed the Flyers just one point behind the Boston Bruins for first overall in the NHL. It also marked the first time in franchise history that the Flyers posted a winning percentage over .700. The division title and high winning percentage accompanied by a 27-point increase from the previous season led to Shero winning the inaugural Jack Adams Award for coach of the year. In the 1974 playoffs the Flyers' first round match-up was against the Atlanta Flames. Following a game three win in which the Flyers went up 3–0, Shero was involved in an infamous incident. Known for taking late night walks and stopping at local bars and pubs for a drink, Shero decided to go for one of those walks following the game three victory. Though no one knows for sure what happened, Shero was allegedly mugged. Shero didn't divulge any information about what really happened but police responded to a disturbance call at 2 a.m. outside the Flyers hotel. Shero was found with a broken thumb and cuts and bruises to his face. Flyers' management sent him home to recuperate and assistant coach Nykoluk coached the team in the series winning game. In the Semi-final round the Flyers were considered underdogs to the New York Rangers. However, the Flyers had home ice advantage. In the seven game series the home team won every game, giving the Flyers a 4–3 series win. It marked the first time an expansion team defeated an Original Six team in a playoff series. The Flyers advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals where they played the Boston Bruins. Prior to game one Shero devised an unconventional game plan. The Flyers were to dump the puck to Bobby Orr's side of the rink. Orr was considered to be one of the league's best players, and the plan was to make him skate hard back to get the puck. In addition the team was to be physically hard on him. Any player who had the opportunity was to check, bump or put a stick on Orr, in an attempt to wear him down. Bobby Clarke later recalled that the strategy did work although it did take some time. Clarke stated that Orr was the best player on the ice in game five, but in game six Orr wasn't the factor he had been in other games. Going into game six, the Flyers had a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Prior to the game Shero wrote his famous quote "Win today, and we walk together forever" on the dressing room blackboard for inspiration to the players. The quote is still used today. The Flyers went on to win game six and the series, thus becoming the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. Following the series Flyers' goaltender Bernie Parent was named Conn Smythe as playoff MVP. During the official presentation Parent was given a new car, which he promptly gave to Shero. In the 1974–75 season Shero led the Flyers to a 51–18–11 record. They won the newly formed Patrick Division, were first in the new Campbell Conference, and first overall in the NHL. In their opening series the Flyers swept the Toronto Maple Leafs, setting up a semi-final match-up against the New York Islanders. After taking a 3–0 series led, the Flyers lost three straight to set up a deciding seventh game. Before game seven, Shero wrote a quote by Dag Hammarskjöld – "Only he deserves power who every day justifies it." on the blackboard. Though Shero never admitted it, the quote was believed to be directed at centre Rick MacLeish who had underperformed in the series. MacLeish responded and in game seven he registered a hat-trick as the Flyers won the game 4–1. The win set up a Stanley Cup Finals match-up with Buffalo. Shero and the coaching staff again devised a game plan. This time it was to stop Buffalo's French Connection line. The first part of the plan was to keep Sabre's centre Gilbert Perreault out of the middle of the rink and to take away his passing options. The Flyers' centres were instructed to play close to Perreault and be physical against him, to the point where it bordered on a penalty. The second part involved wearing down the French Connection. Shero made numerous line changes to keep fresh players out against the Sabre's trio. A perfect example of this part of the strategy was in game one. The French Connection took a 97-second shift and the Flyers made three line changes during that time. Shero's strategy worked, and the Flyers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup. In 1975–76 Shero guided the Flyers to a 51–13–16 record highlighted by a 36–2–2 home ice record. Again they won the Patrick division and finished first overall in the Campbell Conference. The season saw the club set franchise records in points and winning percentage. The season also witnessed an exhibition game, that would become one of the most famous games in Flyers history. In 1976 the Soviet Red Army team toured North America and played four games against NHL clubs. On January 11, 1976, the Russians matched up against the Flyers at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Entering the game the Red Army team was unbeaten, defeating both Boston and the Rangers and registering a tie against the Canadiens. Shero had studied the Soviet style of play, even traveling to the Soviet Union during different off-seasons. Shero even implemented some of the Russian style into his own system, altering it slightly. With his knowledge of the Russian system, Shero devised a game plan. The Russian system involved making several passes often to where a player had just moved from. Shero instructed the Flyers' players not to chase the puck, but rather hold their positions. While in the offensive zone the Flyer forwards were to hold the puck as much as possible to avoid counter-attacks. The Flyers won the game by a final of 4–1 and outshot the Red Army 49–13. The victory led some to see the Flyers as the best team in the world. Following the playoffs that distinction would not last. Bernie Parent had suffered a back injury that limited him to eleven regular season games; he was able to return for the first-round series win versus Toronto. But the pain became too much for Parent to continue to play in subsequent series, and Shero was forced to use his back-up goaltender, Wayne Stephenson. The Flyers were also without second-line centre MacLeish, resulting in a depletion of scoring depth. Despite these setbacks Shero led Philadelphia past Boston in the semi-finals and back to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, the Flyers fell short of winning three straight cups, losing to Montreal in four consecutive games. In the 1976–77 season the Flyers' win total slipped from 51 to 48, but they still managed a .700 winning percentage. This marked the fourth consecutive year of having a .700 or better win percentage – once again winning their division and finishing first in the Campbell Conference. In the post season the Flyers again reached the semi-finals, but lost to the Bruins in four straight games. The following season the Flyers' record fell to 45–20–15 finishing second to the Islanders in both the division and the Conference. Shero again led the Flyers to the semi-finals, where they lost to the Bruins once more. At the end of the season Shero, who had one more year left on his contract, submitted a letter of resignation stating that the Flyers needed a change whether they realized it or not. Flyers management had previously heard rumors about Shero wanting to leave Philadelphia and re-join the Rangers organization, and refused to accept his letter of resignation. Shero then signed a \$250,000, five-year contract with the Rangers to be their new Head Coach and General Manager, believing he no longer had a contractual agreement to the Flyers. A few weeks after signing Shero, the Rangers gave the Flyers their first-round pick in the 1978 draft (Ken Linseman) and cash as compensation, allowing the Rangers to avoid tampering charges. ### New York Rangers and beyond In his first season with the Rangers, Shero led them to a 40–29–11 record – an increase of ten wins over the previous season. The Rangers excelled during the playoffs that year, defeating the Los Angeles Kings in their first round match-up, then knocking off Shero's former club Philadelphia. In the semi-finals the Rangers upset their cross town rival Islanders to reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1972. The Rangers matched up against the Montreal Canadiens in the Finals. After upsetting Montreal in game one of the finals, Phil Esposito asked Shero to get the team out of town prior to game two, two nights later. Shero decided against such a move and several Rangers' players were rumored to have "partied hard" following the win. The Rangers took a 2–0 lead in game two before losing the game and eventually the series, 4–1. In the 1979–80 season the Rangers record dipped to 38–32–10, good for fourth place in the Campbell conference. In the playoffs the Rangers defeated the Flames in round one, but lost a playoff rematch to the Flyers, 4–1, in round two. After the season Shero was honored with the Lester Patrick Trophy for his contributions to the growth of hockey in the United States, an award he shared with the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey Team. The next season the Rangers suffered injuries to key players resulting in a 4–13–3 start. Shero decided to step down from both his positions and was replaced by Craig Patrick. In 1982, Shero failed in an attempt to become the Detroit Red Wings head coach. A year later he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He underwent surgery but remained healthy enough to start his new position as color analyst for the New Jersey Devils radio broadcasts. In 1987, Shero decided he wanted to experience coaching in Europe and spent one season coaching the Tilburg Trappers in the Netherlands. He was recommended for the position in Tilburg by Lou Vairo, who had been an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils. With his health declining Shero returned to the Flyers' organization as a special assistant in 1989. The reunion was to help him with his medical costs, but it was also something that was very important to Shero on a personal level, as it was a return to the organization he had the most success with. On March 22, 1990, Shero was elected into the Flyers' Hall of Fame. Eight months later on November 24, Shero died at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey. He was 65. Shero's passing did not diminish his popularity in Philadelphia and in a 1999 Philadelphia Daily News poll, he was selected as the city's greatest professional coach/manager, beating out other notable coaches such as: Connie Mack of MLB Philadelphia Athletics, Dick Vermeil, and Greasy Neale of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles. In 2010 there was a push to get him elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame, which included an online petition at Flyershistory.net. Shero was eventually elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2013. He remains the winningest coach in Flyers history with 308 wins, plus 48 more in playoff competition. ## Coaching style Shero's introverted, enigmatic personality had an effect on the way in which he coached players. Shero often communicated with his players by way of notes left in their lockers. When he did talk to them, he was known for never yelling. He believed that when coaches yell they do it for their own sake. He always defended his player whether it was in the press or even against management. He always tried to make sure his players were focused during the game. He often asked them how much time was left in the period to force them to pay attention. He had a unique take on practice as well. If the team was winning then he worked the team hard. If they were losing then there would be a low key practice. He believed that he could get more out of players when they were winning. He often had drills designed to let the players have fun, stating that "Hockey is a child's game played by men. Since it's a child's game it ought to be fun". To have fun the Flyers occasionally had 12-on-12 games with the winning team earning a small monetary reward. He sometimes had the players perform drills that lacked purpose which the team performed until a player questioned the validity of the drill. At that point Shero stopped the drill and praised the player for being alert. Shero was notoriously bad with names. On one occasion it led to him trading for the wrong player. While GM of the Rangers Shero traded for Cam Connor believing it was Colin Campbell. Upon his arrival Connor had to explain that he was a winger and not a defenceman. Often credited with using fighting and intimidation as a tactic, Shero never coached players to fight. He valued team toughness and insisted that players take the body and follow through with their checks. When it came to fighting Shero was quoted as saying "I swear I have never told a player to attack another player. In fact, I have told my players if they ever hear me saying something like this, they can break a stick over my skull. I ask only that they play aggressively." In an interview in the HBO documentary Broad Street Bullies Shero states that he had a team that liked fighting so he let them fight. Demonstrating his personal coaching philosophy that "You have to learn to win with what you got or you don't win at all." Shero was an innovator, aside from being the first coach to employ systems, and known as one of the first Western coaches to study Soviet influences, he was the first coach to study film. His son Ray even recalls his father breaking down games from radio broadcasts. He was also the first to have his players use in season strength training, with the use of an Apollo machine, a precursor to Nautilus equipment., as well as one of the first coaches to adopt the morning skate. He was one of the first coaches to have a game plan specifically designed on how to attack opposing teams, although not all of them worked to plan. Bernie Parent recalls a game against Montreal in which Shero decided to outskate the highly skilled Canadiens. After the first period, during which the Flyers' goaltender faced 21 shots, he jokingly summed it up by saying, "the Zamboni didn't even need to resurface the other end of the ice." Yet it illustrates Shero's understanding that he didn't know everything about coaching and his pursuit to learn more. ## Personal life Shero was the son of Russian immigrants who moved to Winnipeg to avoid religious persecution. He was often bullied for being the son of an immigrant and went out of his way to avoid some of the other children in his neighbourhood. Shero credited his childhood experiences as a reason why he tended to be a loner. As a child Shero took up boxing and at age 13 he became a Canadian Bantamweight champion. His success gave him a chance to become a professional boxer, but he decided to play hockey instead. When he signed his first professional contract with the Rangers, his father cautioned him that "hockey players are looking for work when they are 30." When he left Winnipeg's Isaac Newton High School to go off to New York to play for the Rovers, he continued his education in his new surroundings. In 1957, Shero was introduced to his future wife, Mariette, by his teammate Eddie Johnston in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec. Mariette was the sister of a woman Johnston was dating, at the time. Johnston recalled that Shero told him that he was going to marry Mariette after their first date, which he did shortly thereafter. Fred and Mariette had two sons, Rejean (Ray) and Jean-Paul. Ray Shero also pursued a career in hockey, serving as general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins (2006–2014) and New Jersey Devils (2015–2020). Fascinated by the law, Shero contemplated retiring from coaching to attend law school following the Flyers Stanley Cup victory, believing he had nothing left to prove in hockey. Although he remained in coaching he did take a correspondence course in law. Known to spend time at his local library, Shero enjoyed the works of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and prided himself for being "the very first New York Ranger ever to hold a New York Public Library card." Among other interests was playing the violin. ## Awards and achievements - EAHL First All-Star Team (1947) - Calder Cup (AHL) Championships (1953, 1954, and 1970) - AHL Second All-Star Team (1954) - WHL Championship (1956) - Turner Cup (IHL) Championships (1960, 1961) - Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award for AHL Coach of the Year (1970) - CHL championship (1971) - Stanley Cup championships (1974 and 1975) - Jack Adams Award for NHL coach of the year (1974) - Lester Patrick Trophy winner (1980) - Inducted to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985 - Inducted to the Flyers Hall of Fame in 1990 - Inducted to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1999 - Inducted to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 - Inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013 ### NHL coaching record ## See also - Notable families in the NHL

Hurricane Able (1950)

Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1950

Hurricane Able was the first named tropical cyclone in the Atlantic hurricane database, and was also the first of six major hurricanes in the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season. Its development was confirmed on August 12 by the Hurricane Hunters, which is a group that intentionally flies into a hurricane for observations. Hurricane Able initially threatened to strike the Bahamas, but instead turned to the northwest and later to the northeast. As it neared the Outer Banks, Able reached peak winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h), equivalent to a modern-day Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. After brushing those islands and Cape Cod, Able moved ashore on Nova Scotia as a minimal hurricane. It later crossed Newfoundland and dissipated on August 24. The hurricane prompted standard precautions in the Bahamas and Florida, although it did not affect the region. In North Carolina, winds and waves brushed the coast, while around New York City, heavy rainfall caused some flooding. Along Cape Cod and Nantucket, Able produced winds up to 55 mph (90 km/h) and high waves, and across New England there were nine traffic fatalities. The hurricane killed 2 people in Canada and caused over \$1 million in damage. ## Meteorological history The beginning of the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season was considered "remarkably quiet" by the U.S. Weather Bureau, with no noteworthy activity until early August. A Hurricane Hunters flight into an easterly wave on August 12 indicated a developing tropical storm east of the Lesser Antilles; it was later given the name "Able", which is the first name in the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. It moved steadily northwestward and reached hurricane status on August 14, as it passed to the north of the Leeward Islands. The next day, Hurricane Able turned to the west and west-southwest, due to a high pressure system to its north. On August 17 it attained major hurricane status, and by early on August 18 reconnaissance aircraft measured winds of 140 mph (225 km/h), though Atlantic hurricane reanalysis later determined that those winds were unrepresentative of the intensity. At the time, the storm was 350 miles (565 km) in diameter. Able was expected to continue to the west toward the Bahamas and Florida. It was the strongest hurricane to threaten the Bahamanian capital, Nassau, since a hurricane in 1929. The hurricane turned to the northwest, however, sparing the Bahamas from the strongest winds. On August 19, Able turned to the north, and attained its peak intensity of 125 mph (201 km/h) while doing so; shortly before peak intensity, aircraft measured a central pressure of 953 millibars (28.14 inHg), the lowest in the life of the storm. The next day Able accelerated to the northeast, after passing just offshore Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Having maintained peak winds for 12 hours, Hurricane Able began to weaken on August 20, and early the next day it moved quickly by Cape Cod. It produced winds of hurricane force in Nova Scotia before it moved ashore on August 21 near Goodwood with winds of 75 mph (121 km/h). Subsequently, it deteriorated into an extratropical cyclone, and Able crossed Newfoundland before dissipating early on August 24 in the far northern Atlantic Ocean. ## Impact and records When Hurricane Able was expected to move through the Bahamas, people executed standard preparations such as securing windows and bringing ships to harbor. One cruise liner diverted its route from the Bahamas toward New York. In Florida, the U.S. Air Force made preliminary plans to move planes. Ultimately, the hurricane spared the region. Further north, the United States Weather Bureau issued northeast storm warnings from Morehead City, North Carolina to the Eastern Shore of Virginia. There, the hurricane ended up bringing light winds and rough waves. Moderate precipitation occurred along the North Carolina coast. In southern New England, Able dropped 3 – 5 inches (75 – 125 mm) of rainfall, with a peak of 6.89 inches (175 mm) in Beechwood, Massachusetts. Flooding was reported in portions of New York City. The resulting slick roads from the rains caused nine traffic fatalities across New England. The storm produced 55 mph (90 km/h) gusts in Nantucket and Cape Cod, along with high tides and waves. Offshore, the waves damaged a freighter headed for Florida. In Nova Scotia, Able produced hurricane-force winds, the only land along its path to receive such winds; a gust of 99 mph (160 km/h) was reported in Halifax. The hurricane also dropped heavy rainfall, including over 4.92 inches (125 mm) in Annapolis Valley. Initially there were three fishing boats missing throughout the region, although two later returned to harbor. By August 22, the third was still missing over the Grand Banks, which prompted a rescue team to search for the boat. Many other boats crashed against the coast, and two children died when their raft capsized. Two bridges and several roadways were washed out or flooded, and in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, floodwaters left roadways impassable. On land, Able produced heavy damage estimated at over \$1 million (CAD), half of which in Annapolis Valley, and split between crops, communications, and fishing industries. From 1950 through 1952, names from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet were first used for storms in the North Atlantic. Able is the first name in the alphabet, and as such, Hurricane Able in 1950 was the first name officially to be used for an Atlantic hurricane. It was also the first of eight major hurricanes in the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season, which as of 2010 was thought to be the record for the most major hurricanes in a season. However, as of 2014, it was found that several storms in 1950 were weaker than thought, and it was found that only six major hurricanes formed, so the record is now held by 2005. ## See also - 1950 Atlantic hurricane season

TNA Television Championship

Former professional wrestling championship

The TNA Television Championship was a professional wrestling championship owned by the promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now Impact Wrestling). It was introduced on the October 23, 2008 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact! as the TNA Legends Championship. It was later known as the TNA Global Championship and the TNA King of the Mountain Championship. The title appeared in Global Force Wrestling (GFW), during a talent exchange partnership. As a professional wrestling championship, it was won via a planned ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. All title changes occurred at TNA-promoted events. Reigns that occurred on TNA Impact!, or its later title Impact Wrestling, usually aired on tape delay. The first champion was Booker T. The final champion was Lashley, as the title was retired on August 12, 2016. There were a total of 25 reigns among 19 wrestlers. ## History The title was introduced during a storyline that pitted The TNA Front Line against The Main Event Mafia. In the weeks leading up to the unveiling of the physical belt, Booker T carried around a steel briefcase. On the October 23, 2008, episode of Impact!, Booker T introduced the belt by removing it from the briefcase, announcing its name as the "TNA Legends Championship", and declaring himself the first champion. He went on to state that the championship was his and that he would defend it when he saw fit; this meant that the championship was unsanctioned by TNA in the storyline. On March 15, 2009, at TNA's Destination X pay-per-view (PPV) event, AJ Styles defeated Booker T to win the championship. Afterwards on the March 19, 2009, episode of Impact!, Styles was credited as becoming the first-ever TNA Grand Slam Champion, by winning the World Heavyweight (NWA or TNA), the World Tag Team (NWA or TNA), the TNA X Division Championship, and the Legends Championship. TNA Management Director Jim Cornette then announced that the TNA Legends Championship had become an official TNA sanctioned championship thanks to Styles defeating Booker T for it legally via the contract the two had signed to make the match official. On the October 29, 2009, episode of Impact!, then-champion Eric Young renamed the title the "TNA Global Championship". He went on to declare that he was not going to defend it against any American wrestlers nor on American soil. However, Young's first defense was on the December 10, 2009, episode of Impact! in Orlando, Florida against Japanese female wrestler Hamada. Young's second, third and fourth defenses lived up to his earlier decree, when he defended against Suicide in Glasgow, Hamada in Bournemouth, and unsuccessfully against Welsh wrestler Rob Terry in Cardiff, Wales at a live event on January 27, 2010. On the July 22, 2010, episode of Impact!, Terry lost the Global Championship to AJ Styles. Styles then renamed the title the "TNA Television Championship" on the July 29, 2010, episode of Impact!. On the April 19, 2012, episode of the newly titled Impact Wrestling, TNA General Manager Hulk Hogan ordered that the TNA Television Championship had to be defended every week. The weekly title defenses lasted until the June 21, 2012, episode of Impact Wrestling. On July 3, 2014, TNA Executive Director Kurt Angle declared the championship inactive. The title was reactivated on June 25, 2015, by TNA under the new name of the "TNA King of the Mountain Championship." TNA announced that a new champion would be determined in a King of the Mountain match at their Slammiversary PPV event on June 28. Jeff Jarrett defeated Matt Hardy, Eric Young, Drew Galloway, and Bobby Roode to win the championship. The title ended up appearing in GFW at a July 9 live event where Young attacked Jarrett and stole the championship belt. During the August 18, 2016, taping of Impact Wrestling, it was announced that the King of the Mountain Championship was vacated, deactivated and retired with announcement of a new title, the Impact Grand Championship. ## Reigns The inaugural champion was Booker T, who awarded the championship to himself on the October 23, 2008, episode of Impact!. Eric Young holds the record for most reigns, with three, and is the only wrestler to hold the title under all four of its incarnations. Abyss' second reign is the longest in the title's history at 396 days. P. J. Black and Lashley share the record for shortest reign in the title's history at one day. Abyss holds the record for combined days as champion, with 460. Lashley was the final champion, having defeated James Storm for the championship with his X Division and World Heavyweight Championships on the line, and unifying the title with his World Title, thus retiring the King of the Mountain Championship in the process. Overall, there have been 25 reigns shared among 19 wrestlers, with three vacancies and two deactivations.

Mami (album)

Mami is the fourth studio album by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan. It was released on 25 April 2018 in digital and physical formats by Alexandra Stan Records and Victor Entertainment. Stan collaborated with producers from multiple countries, including Marius Mirică, Alex Parker, Laurențiu Popescu, Simon Says, Cristian Ștefănescu and Cristian Tarcea. She recorded Mami in Los Angeles, United States, where she relocated with her boyfriend in September 2017. The singer was involved in the writing process of several songs featured on the album. Music critic Jonathan Currinn of website CelebMix gave Mami a mixed review. While picking several tracks as highlights and praising the contributions of the featured artists on the album, he criticized selected songs as "rushed" and unfinished. Musically, Mami has been described as a Latin-inspired dance-pop album; according to Stan, influences include pop, reggae and Balkan music. The singer also said that the album’s title represents her femininity and artistic maturity. Mami was preceded by the release of three singles, "Boy Oh Boy" (2017), "Noi doi" (2017) and "Mami" (2018), to minor success in Romania, as well as the promotional single "Favorite Game". The album itself reached number 119 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart. Stan promoted it with live appearances in Japan, as well in Europe and Canada. ## Background and release Alexandra Stan initially referred to the album as AS4 in a late 2017 interview with a Brazilian website, and confirmed that it would be released in 2018. At that time, she had begun to record new material for the record, which she described as "pop ballads, with a touch of reggae, or Balkanic sounds". In September 2017, Stan bought a residence in Los Angeles, United States with her boyfriend Bogdan Stăruială, where she went to local studios to record and compose material for three months as of December 2017. The tracklist for the Japanese edition of Mami was unveiled during one of Stan's Facebook posts on 6 April 2018. She originally announced that the record would be released at the end of February or at the beginning of March 2018. Stan elaborated on the album's title: > "[It] is not chosen by chance, with it celebrating the Latin, loving mother, mother of 'all lost boys,' who always thinks about the happiness of others, but at the same time forgets to be careful with herself, to love herself and to be the beloved 'caliente' wife that any man desires. Each [of my] album[s] suggests a stage in my life as a woman [...], and at the age of 28, I can say I am the oldest [in my career], so the album is called Mami. I know who I am, what I want and where I go." For Mami, Stan collaborated with several record producers from Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, the United States and Romania, while also being involved in the writing process of nearly all songs. Mixing and mastering was handled at Sterling Sound in New York City by Luigi Barone, Narcotic Creation, Caloway the Donuts, Serge Courtois, Rappy Sergio, Thrace Music and Cole Nystorm. The album was made available in digital and physical formats on 25 April 2018 in Japan by Alexandra Stan Records and Victor Entertainment, respectively. A deluxe edition, containing a bonus DVD with the music videos produced for the album's singles, was released on the same date by the latter label. Mami was later released in Italy on 15 June, and in various other countries on 15 August 2018. ## Composition A writer of Antena 1 labelled Mami a Latin-influenced dance-pop album, noting that "the songs are composed in such a way to rensemble all of Stan's fans, regardless of their nationalities." The record's international version starts with "Rablaton", an English and Spanish Latin pop song that Jonathan Currinn of website CelebMix likened to the works of Barbadian singer Rihanna and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. It is followed by "Mami", a trilingual song combining English, French and Spanish; its lyrics deal with feminity. Mami continues with "You Used to Know" and "Ou La La", with the latter being entirely written in French and having sex-inspired lyrics that feature Stan tantalisingly asking questions. The fourth track on Mami, "India", features American rapper Kent Archie. Currinn described it as an experimental "progressive, adventure song" musically inspired by The Lion King. Dominican singer Jenn Morel features on the tropical song "Whine It Up". Stan sings in a higher octave, while Morel provides an "afrobeat rap". The next track, "Thinking About You", opens up with "90's bubblegum pop/club/house beats", which Currinn found reminiscent of Australian singer Kylie Minogue's older material. Closing the album, "Round & Round" features multiple instruments in its backing track. "Boy Oh Boy", featured solely on the Italian and Japanese versions of Mami, is a 1990s–influenced electropop song with dancehall and reggae elements. It lyrically revolves around a girl's need to be loved and Stan's volatile relationship with her partner. Similarly not included on the record's international issue, "Noi doi" is entirely written in Romanian and has the singer asking her love interest to spend time at the beach with her. ## Critical reception Currinn of CelebMix gave a mixed review of Mami's international version. He found it disappointing that the album solely featured eight tracks and lacked the songs "Boy Oh Boy", "Noi doi" and "Favorite Game" in comparison to earlier versions of Mami released. Currinn praised the contribution from Archie and Morel, as well as Stan's vocal delivery on multiple tracks. He picked "Rablaton", "You Used to Know" and "Round & Round" as highlights on the record. However, Currinn labelled the song "India" as "unpolished", and also criticized "Whine It Up" as "rushed". He suggested Stan sings in a tonality that does not suit her, and wrote that "the backing track is too Coca-Cola tropical". Currinn concluded his review: "We know Stan can do better, but it does open up new directions for her and we’re excited to see what new music she brings to the industry." ## Singles and promotion "Boy Oh Boy" was released as the first single from Mami on 30 June 2017 through Stan's newly-founded Alexandra Stan Records. "Noi doi" was made available as the second single on 8 August 2017, reaching number 80 in Stan's native country. The album's homonymous and last single was self-released on 4 April 2018. Accompanying music videos were produced for all aforementioned singles, including one for the Japan-only promotional release "Favorite Game", which was featured on the soundtrack of Japanese movie Miko Girl (2017). Stan promoted Mami with concert dates in Poland (Sopot Hit Festival), Turkey, Romania, Canada and Japan from mid August to early September 2018. ## Track listing Credits adapted from the liner notes of Mami. Notes - signifies an additional producer ## Charts ## Release history

An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig

"An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on September 10, 1997. In the episode, the boys of South Park try to force Kyle Broflovski's pet elephant to crossbreed with Eric Cartman's pet pig for a class project on genetic engineering. Meanwhile, Stan Marsh tries to deal with his elder sister Shelley, who keeps beating him up. This episode was written by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with Dan Sterling. "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" episode served as both a parody of genetic engineering and a statement against its potential evils. The scenes of Stan getting beat up by his sister were inspired by Parker's real-life childhood experiences with his own sister, who is also named Shelley. "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" was met with generally positive reviews, and has been described as one of the most popular early South Park episodes. Several commentators praised its satirical elements with regard to genetic engineering. The episode marked the first appearance of Shelley Marsh, Stan's mother Sharon Marsh, and the mad scientist Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, who was inspired by the title character of the 1996 film, The Island of Dr. Moreau. ## Plot The boys are waiting at the bus stop when Eric Cartman notices Stan Marsh has a black eye and it turns out his elder sister Shelley has been beating him up, all because she got new headgear at the dentist. Kyle Broflovski has problems of his own; his mother Sheila will not let him keep his new pet elephant in the house. At school, Mr. Hat teaches the class about genetic engineering, which prompts Kyle to decide to crossbreed his elephant with Cartman's pot-bellied pig, Fluffy, to make little "pot-bellied elephants", which he could keep in his house. Upon hearing this, Terrance Mephesto bets Kyle that he can clone a whole person before Kyle can create a pot-bellied elephant. Their teacher Mr. Garrison suggests the boys use their genetic modifications for the upcoming science fair and go to the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch. At the ranch, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto shows them his genetically engineered collection, including several different animals with four pairs of buttocks, such as a monkey, ostrich and mongoose. Mephesto then explains that, just like the Loverboy song says, "pig and elephant DNA just won't splice", and steals a blood sample from Stan and the boys leave. At school the boys learn Terrance has cloned a human foot. The boys go to Chef with their genetic engineering problem, and after he too cites the Loverboy song, he gives them the idea to try to have the animals "make sweet love" to breed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mephesto and his assistant Kevin have created a human clone of Stan for Terrance. The boys attempt to get the pig and the elephant drunk and to mate, but it does not seem to be working until Chef stops by and sings to the animals with a little help from Elton John. The cloned Stan breaks free from Mephesto's ranch and proceeds to terrorize the town. The boys eventually find the clone and take it to Stan's house and convince it to attack Shelley; however she easily defeats it and the clone decides to destroy the house and indirectly kills Kenny McCormick, by flinging him into a microwave, with a chair. Mephesto shows up and shoots the clone, but Stan is afraid he will be in trouble for everything the clone did. However, in a brief moment of kindness, Shelley takes the blame, after which she beats up Stan. When the science projects are due, Terrance presents a monkey with five pairs of buttocks, known as the "Five-Assed Monkey", but Kyle has nothing until the pig gives birth to a pot-bellied pig that looks like Mr. Garrison, implying the pig was impregnated by Mr. Garrison before the elephant. Garrison quickly awards it first prize over Terrance's monkey. ## Production "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" was written by show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Dan Sterling. It first aired on September 10, 1997, in the United States on Comedy Central. Parker and Stone intended to call this episode "An Elephant Fucks a Pig", but changed the title under pressure from Comedy Central. The network also made them cut a scene in which Shelley sets Stan on fire, to keep the show from coming under the same controversy for showing dangerous acts that can easily be imitated as MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head and later, MTV's Jackass. On early reruns of "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", water under Stan would appear without an explanation. It was until later when South Park was re-released in HD when the water under Stan was removed. It was during the writing of this episode that Parker and Stone decided Kyle would be the good student and "school-smarter than the other kids". The subplot with Stan getting beat up by his sister Shelley came from Parker's real-life experiences getting beat up as a child by his sister, also named Shelley, who is three years his elder. Parker said although his sister would later deny it, she regularly beat him up or locked him out of the house for hours. He stated that the scene when Stan says "You're my sister and I love you" in order to try to avoid a beating, but was subsequently beat even harder, was based on an actual experience with his sister. A scene in which Stan asks the giant mutant Stan to attack Shelley is based on Parker's childhood fantasy of having a larger version of himself beat up his sister. The resolution to the subplot, in which Shelley takes the blame for Stan's mistakes, and then beats up Stan when he tries to thank her, was also based on experiences Parker had when his sister would bail him out of trouble. The dialogue spoken by the giant mutant Stan was inspired by a mentally handicapped character in the MTV show How's Your News?, which Parker and Stone produced. According to Parker and Stone, the character could only say phrases like "Bubba chop, bubba chewy chomp", and both men took turns voicing mutant Stan to sound the same way. Isaac Hayes, who does the voice of Chef, recorded all his lines via phone from New York City. Parker and Stone said they were nervous to ask him to repeat the line, "Now I know how all those white women felt", but he had no problem repeating it. The genetic mutations Dr. Mephesto creates, including the animals with multiple asses and the goldfish with bunny ears, were inspired by things Parker drew during high school. The scene in the cafeteria, in which the four boys are annoyed by Pip Pirrup, is a cut scene from the original version of the South Park pilot, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". As such, the animation in that individual scene is actually traditional paper cutout stop motion, while the animation throughout the rest of the episode is done with computers. In order to illustrate the aftermath after the destruction scenes, Parker and Stone smudged the paper sets with their fingerprints and stains to make them look like scorch burns. ## Cultural references The Baltimore Sun writer Tamara Ikenberg equated the episode as both a parody of genetic engineering and a statement against its potential evils, particularly through its portrayal of the giant mutant Stan wreaking havoc through South Park. This episode marked the first appearances of the characters Shelley and Sharon Marsh, Stan's elder sister and mother respectively, as well as that of Dr. Mephesto. Dr. Mephesto is based on Marlon Brando's character Dr. Moreau in the 1996 film, The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on the 1896 H. G. Wells novel of the same name. Mephesto is named after Mephistopheles, the demon in the Faust legend. Kevin, the companion of Dr. Mephesto, is based on the small creature who resembles and dresses like a miniature version of Brando's character in the film. Elton John, the English singer and songwriter, appears as a guest vocalist for Chef's song, in one of the earliest celebrity spoof appearances on South Park. Trey Parker, who provided the voice for Elton John, said many people thought it was the actual John singing because his impression was so accurate. In another musical reference featured in the episode, several characters claim the real-life Canadian rock group Loverboy wrote a song about the fact that the DNA of an elephant and pig will not splice. "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" includes several pop cultural references to films and television shows. The last line in the episode, "That'll do pig", spoken by Cartman, is a reference to the final line of the 1995 film Babe, a movie about a talking pig, which Stone has described as one of his favorite films. When the boys try to tell police officer Barbrady about the clone, he suggests that the boys have seen too many episodes of The X-Files. In the scene in which Pip is introduced, Stan asks Pip about his peculiar name, but Cartman interrupts Pip during his answer. Pip's reply – "my father's family name being Pirrip and my Christian name Phillip, my infant tongue--" – is identical to the opening line of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, which is narrated by its protagonist, Pip. The fourth season episode "Pip" is a parody and comedic retelling of the novel, and stars Pip, who assumes the role of his namesake. ## Reception Several media outlets described "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" as one of the most popular early South Park episodes. Tom Carson of Newsday said it was the most outrageous South Park episode until "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" aired three months later. Many reviewers said the mere title demonstrated the crudeness and originality of South Park, then still a relatively new show. Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News said, "With episode titles such as, 'An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig,' suffice it to say there ain't much on the air like it." Tamara Ikenberg of The Baltimore Sun said the episode demonstrated the show's ability to address ethically challenging issues like genetic engineering with an "imaginative, unconventional flair". Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times praised the episode, and said the bestiality hinted at in the final scene of the episode illustrated the outrageousness of the show, as well as the fact that the show would probably not be enjoyed by all audiences. Rick Bentley of The Fresno Bee said the biggest laughs from the episode come from the song Chef sings to the elephant and pig. In 2008, Alicia Wade of the Daily Egyptian said the episode and its theme about genetic engineering still felt fresh more than 10 years after its original broadcast. In 2009, Travis Fickett from IGN rated the episode an 8.3 out of 10, and concluded, "It's a bit shocking, perhaps offensive to some, but in the context of murdering mutants and five-assed monkeys created by Brando parodies in Hawaiian moo-moos – it all makes perfect sense. And it's all quintessentially South Park." ## Home media "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" was released, alongside five other episodes, in a three-set VHS on May 5, 1998, marking the first time South Park was made available on video. The episode was released on the "Volume III" video, along with "Death"; other featured episodes included "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", "Volcano", "Weight Gain 4000" and "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride". The episode was re-released by Warner Home Video in 2002, as part of the DVD box set South Park – The Complete First Season. "Tonight is Right for Love", the song sung by Chef to encourage the elephant and pig to make love, is featured in the 1998 South Park soundtrack "Chef Aid: The South Park Album". In the track, rock singer Meat Loaf sings the song along with Isaac Hayes, the actor who voices Chef. The distribution license for "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" was among six South Park episodes purchased in 2000 by the Pittsburgh-based company and website SightSound.com. The site made the episodes available for download \$2.50 for a two-day download and \$4.95 for a permanent copy. It was one of the first experiments with making television videos available for Internet download, making "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" one of the first of any television episode made legally available on the Internet.

Donny van de Beek

Dutch footballer (born 1997)

Donny van de Beek (; born 18 April 1997) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester United. He joined the Ajax academy in 2008. In 2015, Van de Beek made his competitive debut for the club in a UEFA Europa League match against Celtic. In the 2016–17 season, Ajax progressed to the Europa League Final, but lost to Manchester United. During the 2017–18 season, Van de Beek established himself as a key player in Ajax's starting eleven. Following the 2018–19 campaign, in which Ajax reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Van de Beek was listed among the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or. With Ajax, he won the Eredivisie title, KNVB Cup and Johan Cruyff Shield. On 30 August 2020, Van de Beek joined Premier League club Manchester United. In youth international football, Van de Beek made more than 40 appearances for the Netherlands from under-17 to under-21 level. In November 2017, he made his senior international debut against Romania. In 2019, he was part of the squad that reached the first ever UEFA Nations League Final, but lost to Portugal. ## Early life Van de Beek was born in Nijkerkerveen. His parents are André and Gerdina van de Beek. André is a supporter of Ajax and took Donny to their stadium at the age of five. Donny's younger brother Rody played for Veensche Boys. ## Club career ### Early years Van de Beek began his career as a boy with the local Veensche Boys' academy where his father, André, once played. In August 2014, he joined the Ajax youth academy signing a three-year contract, and was assigned to the D-team. He progressed further through the academy and featured in the A1 team Supercup victory against the Feyenoord A1 team. On 27 January 2015, he signed a contract extension, to keep him at the club until mid-2018. Van de Beek made his debut for Jong Ajax (the Ajax reserve team) in the Eerste Divisie against Sparta Rotterdam in January 2015. Two months later, manager Frank de Boer called him to the senior team for a league match against ADO Den Haag as an injury replacement. However, he was an unused substitute in that match. At the end of the 2014–15 season, he won the AFC Ajax Talent of the Future award. In November 2015, Van de Beek was called to the senior team for a UEFA Europa League match against Scottish club Celtic. He made his European debut in the match, which Ajax won 2–1. He termed his debut as "beautiful" and added: "I have taken my duels well. It was of course difficult because the game went back and forth continuously. But I think I did fine." Three days later, Van de Beek made his first team debut in a 2–0 league victory against PEC Zwolle. In the following month, he scored his first goal for Ajax in a 1–1 draw against Norwegian club Molde FK. As he scored the goal, his head collided with opposition player Joona Toivio's causing his left eyebrow to bleed. Commenting on the goal, he said that he would not soon forget it. The goal also won him the club's Goal of the Month award. Voetbal International reported in January 2016 that manager De Boer was impressed by Van de Beek and said he would continue to play with the first team "until further notice". After the departures of John Heitinga and Yaya Sanogo, he was officially promoted to the first team on 16 February. Media reports in March suggested that German club Bayern Munich was interested in signing him. By the end of the 2015–16 season, he cemented his position with the first team, and was also playing regularly for the Ajax under-19 team in the UEFA Youth League. Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported that Barcelona was considering options to secure his services. ### Ajax At the beginning of the 2016–17 season, new manager Peter Bosz included Van de Beek in the Ajax squad for the UEFA Champions League qualification match against Greek club PAOK for a couple of reasons: Bosz was impressed by Van de Beek's performance during pre-season friendlies in Austria, Riechedly Bazoer was injured and Nemanja Gudelj was suspended. On 26 July, he made his Champions League debut against PAOK, starting in the 1–1 draw. While playing for the reserves during the season he and Abdelhak Nouri were the only players who were given more than a 7.0 rating on average by Voetbal International. In November, he was included in the Europa League Team of the Week for his performance against Panathinaikos. He was a part of a midfield trio with Nouri and Lasse Schöne. Van de Beek replaced Schöne in the 70th minute of the Europa League final against Manchester United, with Ajax losing the match 2–0. Commenting on Van de Beek's 2017–18 pre-season matches, the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad wrote that he had successfully filled the void created by the departure of Davy Klaassen who had recently moved to English club Everton. In October, English club Tottenham Hotspur scouted him in the Netherlands. He scored a goal in both legs of the Champions League qualifier against French club Nice. In the first leg, he scored an equaliser in the 36th minute of the 1–1 draw; taking an advantage of an error made by opposition goalkeeper Yoan Cardinale. In the second leg, he found the net in the first half of the 2–2 draw. On 18 November, Van de Beek scored a hat-trick in an 8–0 league victory against NAC Breda. Ajax captain Joël Veltman hailed the feat as "extra nice". He featured 34 times in the league and scored 11 times, besides adding six assists. In July 2018, he rejected an offer made by Italian club Roma citing that "Ajax is the right place for his development". Van de Beek played a pivotal role as the attacking midfielder for Ajax in the 2018–19 season, starting almost every match in all competitions, as the team won their first league title in five years and surprisingly reached the semi-finals of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. Van de Beek scored against Juventus on 16 April in the second leg of the quarter-final to help his team knock out the Italian champion with a 3–2 win on aggregate. On 7 May, he scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the semi−final which resulted in a 1–0 away victory for Ajax. However, Ajax did not manage to advance to the final, losing the tie on away goals after a 2–3 defeat at home in the second leg. In the 2019–20 Champions League season, Van de Beek scored against Valencia in a 3–0 away win, and Chelsea in a 4–4 draw; however, Ajax lost 1–0 at home to Valencia to be eliminated from the group stage. ### Manchester United #### 2020–2022 On 30 August 2020, Ajax reached an agreement with English Premier League club Manchester United for the transfer of Van de Beek. The transfer was completed three days later with Van de Beek signing a five-year contract for a reported £35 million plus £5 million in add-ons. Van de Beek chose to wear the number 34 jersey as a tribute to former Ajax teammate Abdelhak Nouri, who collapsed during a friendly in 2017 and went into an induced coma. Van de Beek had little involvement during his first season at Manchester United, starting only four Premier League matches. He made his unofficial debut in a friendly against Aston Villa on 12 September, before making his competitive debut as a substitute in the club's opening Premier League fixture at home to Crystal Palace on 19 September; he scored United's only goal in a 3–1 defeat. In his second season, he did not start in the Premier League at all, although he did get a few starts in the Champions League and the EFL Cup. In what turned out to be manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final match, a 4–1 loss at Watford on 20 November 2021, Van de Beek was subbed in for only the third time in twelve Premier League matches, scoring his second and last Premier League goal for the club. Matters did not improve: in the ten Premier League matches under replacement managers Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick, he totalled only 9 minutes of playing time. #### Loan to Everton On 31 January 2022, Van de Beek was loaned out to Premier League club Everton until the end of the 2021–22 season. He made his debut for Everton in a 3–1 defeat at Newcastle United on 8 February 2022. He started five of the first six matches, but after that his stint at the club was marred by persistent thigh injuries and he only again played in the last Premier League match of the season, a 5–1 defeat against Arsenal; Van de Beek scored the Everton goal. #### 2023–present In January 2023, Van de Beek suffered a knee injury in a 3–0 win over AFC Bournemouth that ruled him out for the rest of the season. ## International career Van de Beek played youth international football for the Netherlands at under-17, under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels. On 11 September 2013, Van de Beek made his debut for the under-17 team against Germany. He was part of the squad that managed to reach the final of the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship after defeating Scotland in the semi-final. However, they finished runners-up to England. On 14 November 2017, Van de Beek made his senior international debut against Romania in a friendly match. He appeared in both games in the 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals as a substitute, as the Netherlands defeated England 3–1 but lost to Portugal in the final 1–0. He scored his first international goal on 14 October 2020 in a 1–1 away draw against Italy in the UEFA Nations League. On 8 June 2021, Van De Beek was forced to withdraw from the Netherlands’ squad for the Euro 2020 tournament just days before the tournament got under way. It was disclosed by the Dutch FA that Van de Beek had been battling through injury and as a result, he had trained away from the main squad. It was confirmed that he could not recover in time and would withdraw from the Netherlands' squad entirely. ## Style of play A tactically versatile and hard-working player, Van de Beek is capable of playing anywhere in midfield. At Ajax, Van de Beek played mainly as a central or an attacking midfielder but can also play as a defensive midfielder. The Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo writes that he plays a more offensive role compared to his counterparts on other teams. Goal.com described Van de Beek as a player who has "excellent control and a great eye for a pass as he links up with the attack and is dangerous as he makes runs into the box". While playing for the Ajax academy, he was compared with Davy Klaassen. However, Van de Beek rejected the comparison and said that he was a player who wanted to keep the ball at his feet. Former Ajax captain Joël Veltman described Van de Beek as a player who "works very hard and can play between the lines". ## Personal life Van de Beek is in a relationship with Estelle Bergkamp, the eldest daughter of Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp. The couple have one daughter together, named Lomée. ## Career statistics ### Club ### International Netherlands score listed first, score column indicates score after each Van de Beek goal ## Honours Ajax - Eredivisie: 2018–19 - KNVB Cup: 2018–19 - Johan Cruyff Shield: 2019 - UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2016–17 Manchester United - EFL Cup: 2022–23 - UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2020–21 Netherlands U17 - UEFA European Under-17 Championship runner-up: 2014 Individual - Ajax Talent of the Future (Sjaak Swart Award): 2014–15 - Eredivisie Talent of the Month: November 2017

Mongol siege of Kaifeng

1232–33 battle of the Mongol-Jin War

In the Mongol siege of Kaifeng from 1232 to 1233, the Mongol Empire captured Kaifeng, the capital of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. The Mongol Empire and the Jin dynasty had been at war for nearly two decades, beginning in 1211 after the Jin Dynasty refused the Mongol offer to submit as a vassal. Ögedei Khan sent two armies to besiege Kaifeng, one led by himself, and the other by his brother Tolui. Command of the forces, once they converged into a single army, was given to Subutai who led the siege. The Mongols arrived at the walls of Kaifeng on April 8, 1232. The siege deprived the city of resources, and its residents were beset with famine and disease. Jin soldiers defended the city with fire lances and bombs of gunpowder, killing many Mongols and severely injuring others. The Jin dynasty tried to arrange a peace treaty, but the assassination of a Mongol diplomat foiled their efforts. The Emperor Aizong of Jin fled the city for the town of Caizhou. The city was placed under the command of General Cui Li, who executed the emperor's loyalists and promptly surrendered to the Mongols. The Mongols entered Kaifeng on May 29, 1233, and looted the city. The dynasty fell after the suicide of Aizong and the capture of Caizhou in 1234. ## Background Genghis Khan was declared Khaghan in 1206. The Mongols had united under his leadership, and defeated the rival tribes of the steppes. In the same period, China proper was divided into three separate dynastic states. In the north, the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty controlled Manchuria and all of China proper north of the Huai River. The Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty ruled parts of the western China, while the Song dynasty reigned over the south. The Mongols subjugated Western Xia in 1210. In that same year, the Mongols renounced their vassalage to the Jin. Hostilities between the Jin and Mongols had been building up. The Mongols coveted the prosperity of Jin territory. They may have also harbored a grudge against the Jin for assassinating Ambaghai, one of Genghis' predecessors, and for the Jin emperor Wanyan Yongji's rude behavior to Genghis when Wanyan Yongji was still a Jurchen prince. The Mongols learned that a famine had struck the Jin, and invaded in 1211. Two armies were dispatched by the Mongols into Jin territory, with one under the command of Genghis. The Jin built up its armies and reinforced its cities in preparation for the Mongol incursion. The Mongol strategy was based on capturing small settlements and ignoring the fortifications of major cities. They looted the land and retreated in 1212. The Mongols returned the next year and besieged Zhongdu, the capital of the Jin, in 1213. The Mongols were not able to penetrate the walls of the city in the Battle of Zhongdu, but intimidated the Jin emperor into paying tribute. They withdrew in 1214. Later in the year, fearing another siege, the Jin moved their capital from Zhongdu to Kaifeng. The Mongols besieged Zhongdu once more in 1215 once they learned that the Jin court had fled from the city. The city fell on May 31, and by 1216, large swaths of Jin territory were under Mongol control. Meanwhile, the Jin had been afflicted by multiple revolts. In Manchuria, the Khitans, under the leadership of Yelü Liuge, declared their independence from the Jin and allied with the Mongols. Yelü was enthroned a puppet ruler subordinate to the Mongols in 1213, and given the title emperor of the Liao dynasty. The Jurchen expedition sent against him commanded by Puxian Wannu was not successful. Wannu, realizing the Jin dynasty was on the verge of collapse, rebelled and declared himself king of Eastern Xia in 1215. Further south, rebellions had broken out in Shandong beginning with Yang Anguo's revolt in 1214. The rebels were known as Red Coats, from the color of the uniforms they wore starting in 1215. After the fall of Zhongdu in 1215, the Mongols downsized their war effort against the Jin, and shifted their resources in preparation for the invasion of Central Asia. The Jin tried to make up for their territorial losses to the Mongols by invading the Song in 1217. The invasion was fruitless, so the Jin wanted to negotiate for peace, but the Song rebuffed the offers. By 1218, Jurchen diplomats were prohibited from traveling to the Song. The Mongol war against the Jin had subsided, but not stopped, and went on through the early 1220s under the command of the general Muqali. Muqali died from sickness in 1223, and the Mongol campaigns against the Jin wound down. The Jin settled for peace with the Song, but the Song continued to assist the Red Coats insurgency against the Jin. Genghis Khan fell ill and died in 1227. Ögedei was his successor, and he renewed the war against the Jin in 1230. The ethnic Han general Shi Tianze led troops to pursue Emperor Aizong as he retreated and destroyed an 80,000-strong Jin army led by Wanyan Chengyi (完顏承裔) at Pucheng (蒲城). Shi Tianze led a Han Tumen in the Mongol army since his family under his father Shi Bingzhi defected to the Mongols under Muqali against the Jin. ## Siege of Kaifeng Two Mongol armies were dispatched in 1230 to capture the Jin capital of Kaifeng, then named Bianjing. The plans were to have one army approach the city from the north, while the second attacked from the south. Ögedei Khan headed the army based in Shanxi and his brother Tolui commanded the army stationed in Shaanxi. An illness incapacitated Ögedei and Tolui, and they relinquished their roles in the campaign. Ögedei later regained his health, but Tolui died the next year. Subutai led the combined Mongol forces once the two armies converged in late 1231 and early 1232. The Mongols reached the Yellow River on January 28, 1232, and began amassing around Kaifeng on February 6. They besieged the city on April 8. The Jurchens tried to end the siege by negotiating a peace treaty. There was some progress towards an agreement in the summer of 1232, but the assassination of the Mongol diplomat Tang Qing and his entourage by the Jurchens made further talks impossible. The Jin grew desperate. They had enlisted most of the available men in the empire to either defend Kaifeng or fight against the Mongols on the front lines. While the negotiations were ongoing, a plague was devastating the population of the city. Starvation was rampant. The supplies stored in Kaifeng were running out, even with what had been forcibly seized from people. The city's political disintegration created unfounded fears that there was an internal threat. Several residents of the city were executed on the suspicion that they were traitors. The defense of the city did not collapse immediately. The Jin held out for months before the city fell. The Jurchen emperor was afforded the opportunity to escape in late 1232, and departed with a retinue of court officials. He left the governance of the city to the General Cui Li and reached the city of Guide in Henan on February 26, 1233, then Caizhou on August 3. The retreat of the emperor was ruinous to the morale of the soldiers defending the city. In the wake of the emperor's departure, Cui ordered the execution of those loyal to the emperor who had remained in the city. He realized that prolonging the siege was suicidal, and offered to surrender to the Mongols. Cui opened the gates of Kaifeng and the Mongols were let into the city on May 29. He was later killed outside of battle in a personal dispute, for insulting the wife of someone under his command. The Mongols looted the city when it fell, but atypical to most sieges in the time period, they permitted trade. The richest residents of the city sold their luxury belongings to Mongol soldiers for critically needed food supplies. Male members of the royal family residing in the city were captured and executed. All imperial concubines, including the empress dowager, were captured and taken north. ## Military technology Historian Herbert Franke observed in his assessment of the battle that the siege is significant for historians of military technology. Many of the details of the siege are known to historians, based on a comprehensive account of the battle compiled by a Jin official living in the besieged city. The Jurchens fired explosives, propelled by trebuchets, at the opposing army. A contemporaneous record of the battle recounts the process by which the bombs were launched. First, a soldier ignited the fuse. The rope of the trebuchet was pulled, launching the bomb into the air. The bomb produced a large explosion the moment it landed, inflicting damage that could penetrate armor. The explosion sometimes sparked a fire on the grass of the battlefield, which could burn a soldier to death, even if he survived the initial blast. The bombs were more primitive than modern explosives, and occasionally they would fail to detonate or detonated too early. Mongol soldiers counteracted the bombs by digging trenches leading up to the city, which they covered with shielding made of cowhide, to protect from the explosives fired overhead. The Jurchen official reports, in a translation provided by historian Stephen Turnbull: > Therefore the Mongol soldiers made cowhide shields to cover their approach trenches and men beneath the walls, and dug as it were niches, each large enough to contain a man, hoping that in this way the troops above would not be able to do anything about it. But someone suggested the technique of lowering the thunder crash bombs on iron chains. When these reached the trenches where the Mongols were making their dugouts, the bombs were set off, with the result that the cowhide and the attacking soldiers were all blown to bits, and not even a trace being left behind. The infantry of the Jin were armed with fire lances. The fire lance was a spear, with a tube of gunpowder attached to it. The mixture contained, besides the gunpowder ingredients of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter, ground porcelain and iron filings. The flame that shot from the lance reached a distance of three meters. The heated tinder that ignited the weapon was stored in a small iron box toted by the Jurchen soldiers in battle. Once the gunpowder was consumed, the fire lance could be wielded like a normal spear, or replenished by a new tube filled with gunpowder. The bombs and fire lances of the Jin were the only two weapons of the Jurchens that the Mongols were wary of facing. The Jurchen deployment of gunpowder was extensive, but it is not certain if the Mongols had acquired gunpowder from the Jurchens before this point. Herbert Franke maintains that gunpowder was in the arsenal of both combatants, but Turnbull believes that only the Jurchens made use of it. The Mongols loaded their catapults with large stones or bombs of gunpowder, which were fired at the Jin fortifications. The barrage inflicted casualties in the city and had a psychological impact on the soldiers operating the Jurchen trebuchets. ## Historical significance The siege of Kaifeng crippled the Jin dynasty, but did not destroy it. The penultimate emperor of the dynasty, Emperor Aizong, had evaded capture, but was left destitute after the siege. He sent his diplomats to entreat the neighbouring Song Dynasty for help. They warned that the Mongols would invade the Song once the Jin fell, and requested supplies from the Song. The Song refused the offer. The Song, who had fought multiple wars against the Jin, resented the Jurchens for their conquest of northern China decades earlier. Instead of aiding the Jin, the Song allied with the Mongols. They cooperated militarily and captured the last of the cities still controlled by the Jin. In December 1233, the Mongols besieged Caizhou, where Aizong had fled to from Kaifeng. The emperor was unable to escape the town under siege, and resorted to suicide. On February 9, 1234, the Mongols broke through the defenses of Caizhou. Emperor Mo, Emperor Aizong's intended successor, resided in the same town and was killed in battle soon after. His reign lasted less than two days, from February 9 to his death on February 10. The Jin dynasty ended with the fall of Caizhou. One year after the end of the Jin dynasty, Emperor Aizong's prediction turned out to be right, with the beginning of the Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty. ## Comparison to the Mongol treatment of other royal families Historian Patricia Buckley Ebrey noted that the Mongol Yuan dynasty treated the Jurchen Wanyan royal family harshly, butchering them by the hundreds as well as the Tangut emperor of Western Xia when they defeated him earlier. However Patricia also noted the Mongols were lenient on the Han Chinese Zhao royal family of the Southern Song explicitly unlike the Jurchens in the Jingkang incident, sparing both the Southern Song royals in the capital Hangzhou like the Emperor Gong of Song and his mother as well as sparing the civilians inside it and not sacking the city, allowing them to go about their normal business, rehiring Southern Song officials. The Mongols did not take the southern Song palace women for themselves but instead had Han Chinese artisans in Shangdu marry the palace women. The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan even granted a Mongol princess from his own Borjigin family as a wife to the surrendered Han Chinese Southern Song Emperor Gong of Song and they fathered a son together named Zhao Wanpu. Mongol leader Genghis Khan forced the Jurchen Jin dynasty to give the former Jurchen Wanyan Jin Emperor Wanyan Yongji's daughter, the Jin Jurchen Wanyan Princess of Qi (岐國公主) to Genghis as a concubine during the Battle of Zhongdu. In the Mongol siege of Kaifeng in 1233 against the Jurchens in the Jin dynasty, Mongols and Han Chinese who defected to the Mongols against the Jin slaughtered the male members of the Jin Jurchen Wanyan Imperial family and took the Jin Jurchen Wanyan royal women including the Jin concubines and Jin Jurchen Wanyan princesses to Mongolia as war booty.

Stuart Clarence Graham

Australian general

Major General Stuart Clarence Graham, (23 October 1920 – 20 July 1996) was a senior officer in the Australian Army, seeing service during the Second World War, the Occupation of Japan and the Vietnam War. Born in Ulmarra, New South Wales, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1940. Graham subsequently held a series of regimental and staff appointments, serving in a number of infantry and armoured units during the Second World War. In the post-war period he served in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and held a number of staff and command positions in the Armoured Corps. In the late 1950s he was posted to Army Headquarters, and later served as Director of Military Intelligence. Commanding the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) during fighting in South Vietnam during 1967, he was responsible for establishing the controversial barrier minefield from Dat Do to the coast. Later, Graham filled a range of senior command, staff and diplomatic roles in Australia and overseas, including the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff (DCGS), before retiring in 1977. He died in 1996. ## Early life Graham was born in Ulmarra, New South Wales, on 23 October 1920, and was educated at Grafton High School. Highly intelligent, he did well at school and achieved a high position in the Leaving Certificate. After joining the Australian Army in January 1938, at the age of 19 he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon (RMC) in August 1940, following the outbreak of the Second World War. He was subsequently allocated to the Armoured Corps as a regular officer in the Permanent Military Force (PMF) with the rank of lieutenant. At Duntroon Graham had excelled academically and was known for his unorthodox and innovative tactical solutions to military problems. Top of his graduating class, he received the Kings Medal for his achievements. Shortly after his commissioning he married Joyce Lawrence of Canberra on 20 August 1940, and the couple later had two sons—Stuart born in 1941, and Ray born in 1944. ## Military career ### Second World War Graham subsequently held a series of regimental and staff appointments, serving in a number of infantry and armoured units. Volunteering for overseas service, he transferred to the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) on 26 July 1941. He was subsequently posted to the 2/11th Armoured Car Regiment as the adjutant, followed by attendance at the Staff School. Promoted to captain in September 1942, Graham briefly served on the headquarters of the 1st Armoured Division before being attached to the British Army. Serving with the British 7th Armoured Division, he saw action with them in the North Africa and Italy 1943–44. Coming ashore on the first day of the Allied landing at Salerno, he was wounded but remained on duty. During this period he gained valuable operational experience in armoured warfare; while his service in North Africa may also have shaped his thinking about the use of tactical minefields which had been used extensively during the mobile infantry and armoured battles of 1941–42. After returning to Australia in February 1944, following a short period in staff positions Graham spent the remainder of the war in the South-West Pacific. Seconded to the infantry, in December 1944 he was given command of a company from the 24th Battalion and went on to distinguish himself during the Bougainville campaign in 1945. During an action on the morning of 17 April C Company, under Graham's command, encountered heavy resistance in thick jungle while attacking strong Japanese positions around Andersons Junction, astride Dawe Creek. Personally leading the attack, he placed a number of anti-tank guns to cover a river crossing and following heavy fighting the Australians finally secured a foothold by late in the afternoon which allowed a bridge to be erected across the creek for the tanks to move forward in support. After repelling a Japanese counter-attack overnight, the following morning Graham led his company forward and succeeded in seizing the high ground after another day of bitter fighting that resulted in heavy Japanese casualties. He was immediately awarded the Military Cross (MC) for his leadership. Graham was later wounded amid heavy fighting in difficult terrain as the Australian advance continued along the Buin Road in May. Promoted temporary major in October 1945, he finished the war posted to the 2/4th Armoured Regiment. ### Post-war period Following the war, Graham served in various staff positions in Eastern Command based in New South Wales, and in 1946 he was posted to Japan on the Headquarters of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Interim Army, he later briefly commanded the 2nd Battalion, Australian Regiment (2 AR) between 23 November 1948 and 10 January 1949. In 1949 Graham was again attached to Headquarters Eastern Command, before subsequently being posted as a tactics instructor to RMC during 1950–51. He later completed further training in the United Kingdom and Germany in 1952. Considered one of Australia's foremost tank experts, Graham commanded the 1st Armoured Regiment during 1952–53. He subsequently served as commandant of the Armoured School between 1953 and 1956, and filled the position of Director of Armour during the same period. He later wrote an influential paper on the successful use of armour in jungle warfare and its ability to reduce casualties among the infantry. Graham attended the United States Armed Forces Staff College and subsequently filled the role of Assistant Military Attaché in Washington, D.C. as an intelligence officer in 1957–58. His exposure to US military culture and intelligence during this period affected his own military thinking and would be influential during his later service. Graham was subsequently posted to Army Headquarters in Canberra in the Directorate of Military Operations and Plans in 1959. After being promoted to colonel, he served as Director of Military Intelligence between 1960 and 1964, and while the Australian Army was developing its own doctrine on counter-revolutionary warfare, Graham's ideas on counter-insurgency were influenced by a visit to South Vietnam in November 1961. Graham's understanding of the challenges of the prevailing Cold War environment allowed him to reform Australia's nascent military intelligence apparatus, encouraging developments in joint intelligence arrangements with Australia's allies and fostering liaison with his British and US counterparts, as well as establishing relationships with countries in South-East Asia. In recognition of his service to the Australian Staff Corps he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1963. He then took up an appointment as commandant of the Jungle Training Centre (JTC) at Canungra, Queensland in 1964. The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) was being prepared for deployment during this time, and Army officers were learning new tactics, techniques and procedures. Promoted to brigadier in 1965 he then commanded the 6th Task Force in southern Queensland, supervising the training of 2 RAR and 6 RAR, both battalions which would later serve under his command in Vietnam. In 1966, Graham studied at the Imperial Defence College in London. ### Vietnam War On 1 January 1967 Graham was appointed Commander 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) which was based in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, taking over from Brigadier David Jackson. According to Ian McNeill and Ashley Ekins, the official historians of Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, Graham quickly established himself, and developed a sound operational concept, yet the Viet Cong succeeded in preventing him from implementing it as he had intended. With just two battalions 1 ATF's ability to generate combat power was severely limited, while its location at Nui Dat isolated it from the main population centres and increased the burden of self-protection. During February 1967 1 ATF had sustained its heaviest casualties in the war to that point, losing 16 men killed and 55 wounded in a single week, the majority during Operation Bribie after 6 RAR had clashed with two companies from the Viet Cong D445 Battalion reinforced by North Vietnamese regulars, north-west of Hoi My on 17 February. To Graham such losses underscored the need for a third infantry battalion and tanks, yet with the Australian government unable to provide additional military resources at that time, they confirmed in his mind the need to establish a physical barrier to deny the Viet Cong freedom of movement. Graham subsequently established an 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) long barrier minefield from Dat Do to the coast during Operation Leeton (6 March – 1 June) in an attempt to regain the initiative. While largely forced on Graham by the inadequate forces available and the inherent contradictions of Australian strategic policy, his decision was contrary to the advice of the senior task force engineer, Major Brian Florence. A number of senior infantry officers had also resisted the idea, including one of Graham's battalion commanders, Lieutenant Colonel John Warr, commanding officer 5 RAR, who had served in the Korean War where the Australians had suffered a large number of casualties from mines originally laid by other UN forces. Yet unlike many of his colleagues, as an Armoured Corps officer Graham had not served in Korea, and many of the assumptions he developed about mine warfare in North Africa had remained unchallenged. For the first six months the barrier minefield had resulted in a dramatic decline in Viet Cong infiltration, reducing re-supply movement by up to 80 percent. However, recognising the threat the obstacle posed to them, the Viet Cong had immediately begun attempting to penetrate it, cutting gaps in the fence and clearing lanes through the minefield to restore the flow of supplies, as well as lifting mines for their own use. Conceived to hinder the movement of the Viet Cong between their jungle bases and the villages on which they relied for supplies, the failure of South Vietnamese forces to protect the barrier minefield ultimately allowed the Viet Cong to remove thousands of mines, many of which were subsequently used against 1 ATF. While in keeping with the orthodoxy of Australian counter-insurgency doctrine, Graham's strategy ultimately proved both controversial and costly, and despite initial success, the minefield became a source of munitions for the Viet Cong and later the decision was made to remove it amid growing casualties. Yet such flaws were not immediately obvious and by the second half of 1967 the Viet Cong in Phuoc Tuy Province seemed to have melted away, abandoning many of their bunker systems and avoiding the main roads and towns. The Battle of Long Tan and Operation Bribie had weakened the communist forces in the province, while further operations had restricted their movement and logistics. This prompted Graham to speculate that the Viet Cong may have fled to the border, perhaps leaving the province altogether. He reasoned that a succession of operations in the south-east of the province and the completion of the barrier minefield at Dat Do meant that no single, sizable threat remained to the populated areas of Phuoc Tuy. Meanwhile, despite allegations of corruption and ballot rigging by the ruling military junta, South Vietnam's presidential elections in September had been unhampered by security concerns and were largely considered successful, with 83 percent of eligible voters turning out nationwide; in Phuoc Tuy this number was higher still at over 90 percent. Graham believed that the large public turnout in Phuoc Tuy had been due to the long-term effects of Australian operations in the province which had increased the population's sense of security. During his tour of duty the task force had conducted 32 operations before he handed over command in October 1967. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). ### Senior command After returning to Australia, Graham was subsequently appointed Chief of Staff, Northern Command in December 1967. By 1969 a large percentage of Australian casualties in Vietnam were being caused by mines, including significant quantities of M16 anti-personnel devices removed by the Viet Cong from the barrier minefield at Dat Do. Total Australian casualties from such mines were later estimated as 55 killed and 250 wounded, a figure which constituted approximately 11 percent of those killed during the war. These losses increasingly became a political issue as support for the war in Australia waned, and the efficacy of the decision was later criticised, both within the military and in the media. As the controversy surrounding the minefield grew, in February 1969 Graham was promoted to major general and appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff (DCGS) and Fifth Military Member of the Military Board, positions he held until 1972. Meanwhile, after visiting Phuoc Tuy Province respected journalist Denis Warner concluded that although the original concept in laying the minefield had been sound, it was ultimately one of the greatest Australian mistakes of the war. By August 1969 work had begun to remove the minefield. Graham was forced to publicly defend his decision, while questions were raised about the knowledge and approval of his decision as the tactical commander by a number of senior Army officers, including then Commander Australian Forces Vietnam, Major General Tim Vincent, the Chief of General Staff (CGS), Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, and the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sir John Wilton, all of whom had acquiesced to its construction. Meanwhile, as DCGS Graham was second only to Daly in the daily running of the Australian Army. During this time Graham unsuccessfully sought the retention of national service following the eventual Australian withdrawal from Vietnam, arguing that it was necessary to further expand the Regular Army. He later managed the draw-down of Australian forces in Vietnam, and played a leading role in shaping the post-war Army. Graham was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) Northern Command in 1972 and a year later Commander 1st Division. He subsequently filled the position of head of the Australian Defence Staff in London over the period 1974–76. Graham was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 1975 Birthday Honours. He retired in March 1977. ## Later life In his later life Graham and his wife settled on the Gold Coast in Queensland and were involved in community activities and fundraising. He enjoyed swimming and fishing and was involved in work to help the blind. He died at his home on the Isle of Capri on 20 July 1996 and was survived by his widow and two sons. Despite the debate surrounding the laying of the barrier minefield, McNeill and Ekins later described Graham as a "clever and imaginative" commander, who was "widely regarded as having one of the best minds in the army", and whose "broad knowledge and fair approach earned him the respect of his subordinates." Yet even in death Graham remained a controversial figure. In his book, The Minefield, published in 2007, author and former Army officer Greg Lockhart argued that the decision to establish the minefield had been "reckless"; the product of a failure to understand the prevailing nature of the insurgency in Phuoc Tuy Province, it had ended in "strategic disaster". Lockhart argued that the decision ultimately cost Graham the position of CGS, even though he had been seen by some as being the likely candidate to replace Daly. He went on to describe Graham as ambitious and career-driven, "...a talented man who rose to a position of some importance and was undone by inescapable personal flaws."

Labyrinth (Taylor Swift song)

2022 song by Taylor Swift

"Labyrinth" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Swift wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff. It is a muted dance-pop and synth-pop song with prominent electronic and alternative elements, and has a production that consists of dense synthesizers, subtle guitars, and trap/house beats. Swift sings with a soft timbre and uses her upper-register vocals throughout most of the verses, until the end of the song where her vocals are manipulated to a lower pitch. Lyrically, the narrator expresses anxiety towards newfound romance. In reviews of Midnights, some critics praised the song for its vocal production and what they deemed an ethereal and subtle soundscape, but a few found the track underwhelming. "Labyrinth" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 12 on the Billboard Global 200, and in the top 20 of singles charts in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and Singapore. ## Background and production On August 28, 2022, during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year for All Too Well: The Short Film at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album and its impending release date on October 21. Soon after, Swift revealed the album's title Midnights and its cover on her social media, but did not immediately released the track list. On a September 6, 2022, video titled "The making of Midnights" on her Instagram, she revealed Jack Antonoff, a musician who had worked with Swift since 1989 (2014), as a producer on Midnights. On September 21, about a month before the album's release, Swift announced a thirteen-episode series called Midnights Mayhem with Me on the social media platform TikTok. In each episode of the series, Swift revealed the title of one album track. In the eleventh episode of the series, she announced the title of track number 10, "Labyrinth". Swift wrote and produced "Labyrinth" with Antonoff, who programmed the track, provided background vocals, and played instruments including percussion, electric guitars, and multiple synthesizers (Moog, Juno 6, Realistic Synth, and OB8). Antonoff and audio engineer Laura Sisk recorded the song at Rough Customer Studio, Brooklyn, and Electric Lady Studios, New York. "Labyrinth" was mixed by Serban Ghenea, assisted by Bryce Bordone, at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and it was mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey. ## Composition and lyrics "Labyrinth" is four minutes and seven seconds long. It is a muted synth-pop and dance-pop track that features prominent electronic stylings. The production is minimalist and incorporates dubstep-influenced bass, trap-and-house-influenced beats, and filtered synthesizer tones, alongside subtle guitars and an instrument that evokes the sound of a church organ. The outro is made up of repeated refrains until they fade out. The synths are dense and accompany Swift's vocals: Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork felt that the production mirrors the "ice melting around her heart" and compared each "synth quiver" to "a pump of new blood", and Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described how the synths are distorted "like the circuits are melting down". Swift sings with a soft timbre and uses her upper register throughout much of the track until her vocals are manipulated to a lower pitch later. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian commented that the vocal effects "warp [Swift's] voice to a point of androgyny". According to Ann Powers of NPR, the vocal production turns Swift's voice into "myriad light streams" that contain some parts resembling a Bon Iver song. In the Associated Press, Elise Ryan found "Labyrinth" to be an amalgamation of styles on Swift's past albums, namely the synth-pop of 1989 and the alternative of Folklore. In the lyrics, Swift sings about falling for a new romance while facing the anxiety that ensues. The narrator wonders if she is falling in love too fast; "Oh, I'm falling in love / I thought the plane was going down / How'd you turn it right around?" Planes are a lyrical motif that symbolizes the uncertainty evoked by romance, and recurs on many of Swift's songs such as "Last Kiss" from Speak Now, "Come Back... Be Here" from Red, and "Out of the Woods" from 1989. For Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone, the romance in "Labyrinth" has a potential to fade away. At one point, the lyric, "Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out", reference Swift's 2022 commencement speech at New York University. The lyrics, "You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back/ Just like that", according to Esquire journalist Alan Light, allude to Swift's fear and pressure of her fame and the resulting expectations. Petridis found the song's lyrics to defy gender stereotyping surrounding women. ## Critical reception "Labyrinth" was met with generally positive reviews from critics. Sheffield hailed it as a "stealth classic" and praised Swift's vocals. In the Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood picked the song as one of the album tracks where Swift experimented with vocal cadence and emphasized "the grain of her voice like never before". Konstantinos Pappis from Our Culture Mag praised "Labyrinth" as one of the highlights on Midnights for balancing between musical experimentation and lyrical craftsmanship. Mary Kate Carr from The A.V. Club picked "Labyrinth" as one of the most underrated Midnights tracks; she hailed it as one of "the most deceptively simple yet hauntingly beautiful tracks" in Swift's entire catalog. Writing for The Sentinel, Alaina Conaway found the lyrics and music of "Labyrinth" to be minimalistic and simple, which was a "risk" for Swift to showcase her "versatility as a writer, musician and individual". In disagreement, Callie Ahlgrim and Courteney Larocca of Insider describe the track as "an understandable inclusion on the album", despite their postulation that some might find the track boring. In The Times, critic Will Hodgkinson found the vocal manipulation "modish" and "off-putting". ## Commercial performance After the release of Midnights, all tracks of the standard edition debuted within the top 15 of the Billboard Global 200 chart simultaneously; "Labyrinth" was at number 12. In the United States, it debuted and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track peaked on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 14 and was certified gold from Music Canada on November 29, 2022. "Labyrinth" appeared on various single charts, at number 10 in the Philippines, number 13 in Australia and Singapore, number 22 in Malaysia, number 28 in Vietnam, number 32 in Portugal, number 52 in Sweden, number 58 in Switzerland, number 60 in the Czech Republic, number 64 in Lithuania, number 65 in Slovakia, and number 81 in Spain. ## Personnel Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Midnights. - Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriting, production - Jack Antonoff – songwriting, production, programming, percussion, Juno 6, Realistic Synth, OB8, Moog, electric guitars, background vocals, recording - Megan Searl – assistant engineer - Jon Sher – assistant engineer - John Rooney – assistant engineer - Serban Ghenea – mixing engineer - Bryce Bordone – assistant mix engineer - Randy Merrill – mastering engineer - Laura Sisk – recording - Evan Smith – mastering for vinyl ## Charts ## Certification

Nathan Smith (footballer, born 1996)

English footballer

Nathan James Smith (born 3 April 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Port Vale, where he is also club captain. He has won praise for mental attributes such as bravery, consistency and commitment, as well as for his pace and strength. Smith turned professional at Port Vale in June 2014 and spent the 2014–15 season on loan at Stafford Rangers and the 2015–16 season on loan at Torquay United, winning the Player of the season award at Torquay. He made his Football League debut for Port Vale in August 2016, and went on to win the club's Player of the Year award for the 2016–17 relegation season. He helped the club to win promotion out of League Two via the play-offs in 2022, and then was again named as Port Vale's Player of the Year in 2022–23. He was appointed as club captain in July 2023. ## Early and personal life Smith grew up in Madeley, Staffordshire and attended Madeley High School. He played for Madeley White Star; he helped his school to win the Sentinel Schools' Shield at Vale Park in 2012. He attended Stoke City games up until the age of sixteen, though stopped supporting the club as an adult. In 2021, he set up a coaching academy in Madeley with Port Vale captain Tom Conlon. Two years later, the pair set up a charity called Pro Level Vision to support disadvantaged children. ## Career Smith signed his first professional contract with Port Vale in June 2014, with his initial deal running for 12 months. He was loaned out to Northern Premier League Division One South club Stafford Rangers in October 2014. The loan was later extended until the end of the 2014–15 season. He featured 35 times throughout the campaign, scoring one goal. He joined National League side Torquay United on an initial three-month loan deal in July 2015. He impressed for the "Gulls" and the loan was later extended to cover the whole of the 2015–16 season. He made a total of 44 appearances at Plainmoor and was voted the club's Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season. Manager Kevin Nicholson described him as a "freak of nature". > "Stafford Rangers was my first taste of men’s football. I had been playing in our youth team against people my own age and probably been one of the strongest on the pitch. Then going to Stafford Rangers and playing against grown men at the age of 18, you find that you are not the biggest and strongest out there. You have to try to adapt your game and play a little bit smarter against bigger strikers. Then going away to Torquay was when I grew up a little bit. I moved out from home, mum wasn’t there to do the washing, cleaning and cooking." He made his League One debut for Port Vale on the opening day of the 2016–17 season, in a 0–0 draw with Bradford City on 6 August. His performance saw him named in the Football League Paper's League One Team of the Day. New manager Bruno Ribeiro had described him as the club's standout player during pre-season. He scored his first goal in the Football League on 16 August, with his header proving to be the only goal of the game against Rochdale. His performances saw him nominated for the League One Player of the Month award for August. This led chairman Norman Smurthwaite to open negotiations for a new contract as he admitted Smith was "on a boy's wage compared to the rest of the squad" and Smurthwaite anticipated offers for the player from Championship clubs in the January transfer window. Smith quickly agreed to a new contract to keep him at the club until June 2020. The Football League further recognized his performances by naming him as Young Player of the Month for August. Speaking in February 2017, caretaker manager Michael Brown said that Smith set a good example to his teammates by playing through a hamstring injury. He played every game of the campaign, mostly in a centre-back aoprtnership with Remie Streete, and picked up all five of the club's end of season awards, including the Player of the Year award. However, despite Smith enjoying success on an individual level, Port Vale were in turmoil as they suffered relegation and the chairman subsequently resigned. Brown was sacked early in the 2017–18 season after Vale slipped in the League Two relegation zone, and his successor, Neil Aspin stated that Smith was a "key player" but could improve in areas such as decision making. He started all 54 of the Vale's matches that season, making it two consecutive seasons of appearing in every game, though admitted he could have played better and that the team's finish of 20th in League Two was not good enough. After suffering a dip in form at the start of the 2018–19 season, Smith was dropped for the home game with Crawley Town on 18 August, putting to an end his run of 110 consecutive appearances that he had made since his debut two years previously. Smith said he would take being dropped as a learning experience. He returned to the starting line-up and formed a solid partnership with Leon Legge, whilst Connell Rawlinson was moved to right-back. The three centre-backs then went on to form a back three in a 3–5–2 formation, which was instigated after a 6–2 home defeat to Lincoln City on 13 October, and kept four clean sheets by the end of the month. By March he reached 150 appearances for the club before the age of 23, the youngest player to reach this landmark since Billy Paynter in 2005. Having played 51 of the club's 54 matches over the course of the campaign, he was named as Vale's Young Player of the Year for the second time in three years. He started the 2019–20 season in a central defensive partnership with Legge, though was criticised by Northampton Town manager Keith Curle for allegedly manhandling striker Harry Smith. On 25 August, he scored his first goal in 20 months in a 5–2 defeat at Grimsby Town. Speaking in January, club captain Legge said that Smith was more confident and much improved from the previous campaign. His form led to rumours on social media of him making a move to Birmingham City. He lost his first-team place to Shaun Brisley in January due to injury, but impressed coach Danny Pugh with his performance at right-back in a 3–0 win over Colchester United on 15 February. He was offered a new contract after he ended the campaign with five goals in 41 appearances. Tom Pope nominated Smith as his Player of the Year for the 2019–20 season in his column in The Sentinel. Smith signed a new two-year contract in July 2020, despite interest from League One clubs. He said that he stayed due to his faith in the new ownership of Kevin and Carol Shanahan, his family being settled in the area, and the offer of stability during the COVID-19 recession. Smith remained a consistent member of the defence during the 2020–21 season, only missing a run of games when he had to isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Speaking in April, recently appointed manager Darrell Clarke described him as a "genuine winner" following a good run of defensive form for the team. Smith scored four goals from 50 appearances and was singled out for praise by Clarke again at the end of the season, who said that "Nathan Smith is the sort of character I want in this football club". A consistent part of the back three during the 2021–22 season, he caused an opposition player to be sent off in two successive games as Crawley Town's Joel Lynch and Accrington Stanley's Colby Bishop were both dismissed for elbowing Smith in off the ball incidents. He started in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium as Vale secured promotion with a 3–0 victory over Mansfield Town; Michael Baggaley of The Sentinel wrote that "[Smith had] another solid performance at the heart of the back three after his outstanding effort in the second leg against Swindon had helped get Vale to Wembley". Smith was named in The Guardians League Two team of the season. The club invoked their option to extend his contract by a further 12 months in June 2022. On 8 October 2022, he helped Vale to win 2–1 at Derby County and caused opposition goalscorer James Collins to be sent off after he elbowed Smith during a scuffle on the ground. He was voted as the club's Player of the Month for December after he helped the team to record two clean sheets in victories over Plymouth Argyle and Morecambe. He continued his good form into the following month and won a second consecutive Player of the Month award, starting all four of his club's January fixtures playing alongside Connor Hall, Dan Jones, Will Forrester, Lewis Cass and Aaron Donnelly in the back three. He also played all seven games of February, scoring against Barnsley, helping to keep a clean sheet against Exeter City, and having a goal against Accrington Stanley controversially ruled out. He signed a new two-year contract in April following weeks of "laid back" conversations with director of football David Flitcroft. Smith was voted as the club's Player of the Year for the 2022–23 season, having missed just one league game throughout. New manager Andy Crosby appointed Smith as the club's new captain in July 2023. On 2 September, another opposition player was sent off for striking Smith, this time Oxford United's Mark Harris having lost his temper. ## Style of play Speaking in August 2016, Port Vale teammate Tom Pope described Smith as "brave as a lion" and a player who trained hard. Six months later, Port Vale coach Gary Brabin said Smith needed to work on his ball-playing abilities and to be more vocal, whilst praising his dependability, pace, strength and passion. Pope would later say that "he's a nightmare and will annoy you for 90 minutes". ## Career statistics ## Honours Individual - Torquay United F.C. Player of the Season: 2015–16 - Football League Young Player of the Month: August 2016 - Port Vale F.C. Player of the Year: 2016–17, 2022–23 Port Vale' - EFL League Two play-offs: 2022

Ottoman invasion of Albania (1452)

1452 Ottoman military campaign

The Ottoman invasion of Albania in 1452 was a campaign by the newly acceded Ottoman sultan Mehmed II against Skanderbeg, the chief of the League of Lezhë. Shortly after the first siege of Krujë, Murad II died in Edirne, and was succeeded by his son Mehmed II. Mehmed ordered nearly annual invasions of Albania which often resulted in multiple battles in one year. The first of these expeditions was sent in 1452 under the dual command of Hamza Pasha and Tahip Pasha, with an army of approximately 25,000 men. Albania at the time was suffering a crisis of power as Skanderbeg, the chief of the League of Lezhë, became a vassal of Alfonso the Magnanimous, the king of Aragon. Worried about another growing adversary in the Venetian Gulf, the Republic of Venice tried to turn Skanderbeg's allies against him in order to weaken Alfonso's influence. Realizing his opportunity, Mehmed ordered an invasion of Albania. Skanderbeg, knowing the impetuous nature of the new sultan and the effect it would have if his army were not immediately defeated, acted quickly. When the Ottoman army split into two separate forces, Skanderbeg attacked and defeated both Hamza and Tahip. Tahip was killed in battle and Hamza was captured and ransomed for 13,000 ducats along with his staff. Soon thereafter, Skanderbeg cajoled his former Venetian adversaries into easing Albanian-Venetic relations. ## Albanian relations with the west The siege of Krujë in 1450 resulted in heavy losses for both Murad II and the League of Lezhë. A large portion of Albanian territory laid waste by the long campaign where the Turkish forces had been stationed for more than half a year. The country was left with few resources to produce crops and a large famine was the result. In 1451, the year after Murad's forces had devastated the country, Mehmed II gained control of the Ottoman Empire following his father's death. Mehmed's great energy was already apparent during the previous years when he had accompanied his father to Albania. Skanderbeg realized that if Mehmed struck now, he would be in great difficulty since he lacked the resources and the support to successfully hold off a large invasion. One of Albania's most powerful princedoms, the Dukagjini, were in open negotiations with the Turks, suggesting that they would become Mehmed's vassals. With an internal conflict, a destroyed economy, and a weakened army, Skanderbeg realized that he needed to make an alliance with a powerful state so that the league would continue its existence. He first approached the Republic of Venice, offering a military alliance and a sort of vassalhood to the Republic of Venice, The republic was then enjoying good relations with the Ottomans and thus refused Skanderbeg's offer. Rome offered some monetary help, but Skanderbeg was looking for more. Skanderbeg then turned to Alfonso V of Aragon who then controlled Naples and Sicily. Alfonso wanted to expand his empire from Gibraltar to the Bosphorus. In order to realize his dreams, he would need a bridgehead in the Balkans from where he could march to Constantinople. Alfonso thus took up the offer to establish diplomatic relations with Skanderbeg and his Albanian allies. The Neapolitan nobles distrusted Skanderbeg since the Kastrioti family had previously been allied with Venice. Alfonso himself had been offended when he asked Skanderbeg to attack Venice along with Đurađ Branković and the Albanian refused. Alfonso was also a devout Christian and found it uneasy to ally with Skanderbeg who had previously practiced Islam in the Ottoman court. On the other hand, Skanderbeg had been disillusioned when Alfonso failed to send any troops to Krujë when they were most needed. But things changed once Skanderbeg had thwarted the Ottoman Army. Both Venice and Alfonso grew an interest in expanding their powers in the Adriatic and the Ionian. On 26 March 1451, the Treaty of Gaeta was signed, creating an Albanian-Aragonese alliance. Skanderbeg also sent diplomats to other Italian states. In August 1451, along with Venice he sent messages to Francesco Sforza, then duke of Milan, and Siena to inform them of his victory over the Turks and of the desperate need for supplies to continue combating the Ottoman armies, but no aid was received. Venice responded that she wished to see the Albanians and the Turks settle for peace, whereas Sforza's response hinged upon the excuse that his state was not financially sound and that his soldiers were not meant to help an Albanian prince. Only Ragusa offered a large amount of ducats. ## Conflict over control of Albania Skanderbeg's primary reason for allying with Alfonso was his fear of 21-year-old Mehmed II, whose ambition was to reconquer Justinian I's empire which stretched from Syria to Spain. Mehmed had been planning a campaign against Albania since Skanderbeg had defeated his father at Krujë in 1450. Another factor was that Krujë geographically dominated Durazzo, which was only 150 kilometers from Brindisi, the nearest Italian port. Mehmed's ambitions were symmetrical to Alfonso's and it was clear that there would be some sort of clash between the two in Albania, the epicenter of the conflict. Mehmed was one of the first monarchs since Roman times to keep a massive centralized army under his personal control. Besides controlling a huge army, Mehmed was widely acknowledged for his far-reaching wisdom which allowed him to produce a highly advanced military armed with the newest models of the cannon. The strength of the Albanian resistance was supposed to be fierce, but Alfonso wanted to see the league become powerful enough to seriously challenge the Ottoman Empire, much unlike the Venetians who were troubled by the growing Albanian state. In May, Alfonso sent two experienced Catalan officers with 200 men and plenty of supplies to Krujë and, on 7 June 1451, he established an alliance with George Arianiti, the most powerful League member from southern Albania. Later that same year, Alfonso created similar alliances with John Musachi, George Stres Balsha, Muzaka Thopia, Peter Himariot, and Simon Zenevishi, all important Albanian nobles allied to Skanderbeg. Skanderbeg was pleased with Alfonso, but dissension in the League over political issues was still present. Paul Dukagjini and Peter Spani remained aligned with Venice and established friendly relations with the sultan. In 1451, Mehmed was focused on defeating the Karamanids and Menteşe in the east, but it was in his intentions to return to Albania. During this brief period of rest, Skanderbeg took up the rebuilding of Krujë and erected a new fortress in Modrica in the Drin valley near Svetigrad (which had been lost in a 1448 siege) where Turkish forces had previously slipped through unhindered. The fortress was constructed in the heat of summer within a few months when few Turkish posts were present. This came as a huge blow to Ottoman efforts whose Albanian operations were thus inhibited. Meanwhile, the Venetian cities had been trying to antagonize Skanderbeg's allies against him in order to halt Aragonese expansion into the eastern Mediterranean. In response, Alfonso sent Bernard Vaquer to be the governor of Krujë, only to be replaced later by Ramon d'Ortafà, whereas the commander of the garrison was Pedro Scuder with 100 men. Alfonso thus became the nominal ruler of Albania, although Skanderbeg's men made up the dominant majority of the anti-Ottoman forces, leaving Skanderbeg in virtual command of Albania. Venice continued its efforts to turn Skanderbeg's allies against Alfonso and Skanderbeg. George Arianiti resisted the Venetian plots and even cut himself off from Albanian politics. Paul Dukagjini, however, prepared for war against Skanderbeg. To the north, Stefan Crnojević did not keep relations with Alfonso. Instead, he allied himself with Venice which gave him the Flag of St. Marc to bear. Crnojević thus became a Venetian vassal, who promised to protect Albania Veneta from Serbian and Turkish attacks. Skanderbeg grew agitated from the Venetian subtleties and threatened a renewed war against Venice under the pretext that the Senate had not been annually paying the 1,400 ducats promised to the Albanian in 1448. He had already moved his men towards Durazzo and Scutari, leaving the Republic with no choice but to ease their secretive diplomacy. ## War in the east In 1452, Turkish cavalry forces had begun raiding Albanian territories in the east, a common Ottoman tactic to weaken an enemy before beginning a full-scale invasion. On 23 April, Raimon d'Ortafà, Alfonso's governor in Albania, feared that the Turkish invasion would force many of the Albanians to turn to Islam and sent letters to Alfonso for aid. Mehmed, believing that the misunderstandings between the Albanian leaders was at its most critical point, ordered a force of 25,000-27,000 inexperienced men. His reasoning was that these could weaken Albanian forces enough so that he could then launch a concerted invasion. The force was under the main command of Tahip Pasha. Tahip would split his forces into two parts, one under his command, and the other under his subordinate, Hamza Pasha. Mehmed had been tied up in war in the east so he let Hamza ride back to the west. ### Battle of Modrič Skanderbeg gathered 14,000 men and marched against Tahip Pasha's army. Skanderbeg planned to first defeat Hamza and then to move around Tahip and encircle him. Hamza had 10,000-12,000 men under his personal command and was camped near the new fortress of Modrič. Skanderbeg did not give Hamza much time to prepare and, on 21 July, he assaulted immediately. The fierce attack made short work of the Ottoman force, resulting in them fleeing. Much of the force fell on the field and the parts that ran away were pursued. Hamza was captured in the battle as well as his staff. Francesco Sansovino, in Historia universale dell'origine et imperio de'Turchi, states that Hamza, fearing punitive measures, begged for mercy, arguing that he had only fought against Skanderbeg since he had been ordered to. According to Demetrio Franco, one of Skanderbeg's earliest biographers, Skanderbeg responded in such a way that the Ottoman officers began to cry and he offered to have dinner with them. After this, he ordered for his prisoners to be put under guard and to be treated properly. The men were freed in the end, but Hamza and his staff were ransomed for 13,000 ducats. Franco reports that Skanderbeg's magnanimity became known throughout Albania and the Ottoman Empire to the point where many of his men gained much more respect for him as a warrior. Skanderbeg's intention in doing so was to show that he would not take advantage of the unfortunate and that he had enough confidence in his ability to let his enemies fight him again another day. ### Battle of Meçad Skanderbeg had kept the captured Ottoman foot-soldiers under his control, however. The same day that he defeated Hamza's army he sent several men to Tahip's army (which had moved to the center of Albania) where they displayed the captives along with the captured Ottoman standards in order to demoralize Tahip's army. Tahip was not intimidated and split his forces in two in the plains of Meçad, with his elite forces covering his flanks. Skanderbeg, however, had sent Moses of Dibra around Tahip's rear flanks in order to weaken the Ottoman army before launching his main attack. After this was done, Skanderbeg then attacked with his own men. In the heat of the battle, Moses was able to spot out Tahip and after a fierce duel, managed to kill him. The Turks were thus left without their commander and they fled. ## Aftermath In the battles of Modrica and Meçad 7,000 Ottoman forces were left dead on the battlefield along with thousands of horses. The Albanians had suffered 1,000 casualties themselves and, in their exhaustion, they refused to pursue the fleeing Ottoman forces. Hamza Pasha and his staff were ransomed to the sultan. Raimon d'Ortafà reported Skanderbeg's victory to Alfonso who received it with great exuberance. Skanderbeg's victory over a ruler even more powerful than Murad came as a great surprise to the Albanians. Skanderbeg's reputation among his allies was redeemed and the Dukagjini opted for a reconciliation. In order to reduce the risk of Ottoman expeditions prompted by Venice, Skanderbeg took several steps to soften relations with the Republic. In the autumn of 1452, Đurađ Branković attacked the Venetian city of Cattaro. Skanderbeg sent a troop of men to aid the Venetians to thwart the attack, but Venice, despite thanking the Albanian, still held its animosity towards him. Skanderbeg took another step. He sent an "orator", Ezop Zguri, to Alfonso in order to ask for military aid and to convince Alfonso to urge for a reconciliation with Venice. The first request could not be fulfilled: Alfonso responded that he had neither the men nor the means to help Skanderbeg. The second request, however, was satisfied and on 5 March 1453, Alfonso sent a letter censuring Venice for not paying its dues to Skanderbeg and also for supporting Skanderbeg's enemies. He thus urged for a peremptory measure to all Albanian-Venetian conflicts. On 22 April 1453, Mehmed sent another expedition to Albania under Ibrahim Pasha, only to be defeated at Pollog with Ibrahim killed in action. The Albanian victory, however, was shadowed by Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople only five weeks after, which deeply troubled the Christian states of Europe. Mehmed, by then called el-Fātiḥ ("the Conqueror"), turned his attention to finally defeating the Kingdom of Hungary and crossing into Italy. The European powers were locked in internal conflicts: e.g. the war in Lombardy. Skanderbeg believed that the threat of Mehmed launching his withheld European campaigns was at its highest. He sent urgent requests to Venice to prepare for a new Ottoman offensive, thus attempting to develop an Albanian-Venetian alliance. While recognizing the threat and Skanderbeg's sovereignty over Albania, Venice withheld an establishment of an alliance. Alfonso promised to send men and an annual pension of 1500 ducats to Skanderbeg, whereas Pope Nicholas V sent 5,000 florins. Albania, Ragusa, Serbia, and Hungary then made a loose anti-Ottoman coalition to halt any future Turkish expansions.

Eric McCormack

Canadian actor (born 1963)

Eric James McCormack (born April 18, 1963) is a Canadian-American actor known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, Grant MacLaren in Netflix's Travelers, and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama Perception. Born in Toronto, McCormack started acting by performing in high school plays. He left Ryerson University in 1985 to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where he spent five years performing in many stage productions. During the late 1990s he lived in Los Angeles and had minor roles. He made his feature film debut in the 1992 science-fiction adventure film The Lost World. McCormack appeared in several television series including Top Cops, Street Justice, Lonesome Dove: The Series, Townies, and Ally McBeal. He later gained worldwide recognition for playing Will Truman in Will & Grace, which premiered in September 1998. His performance has earned him six Golden Globe nominations and four Emmy nominations, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2001. Aside from appearing in television, he made his Broadway debut in the 2001 production of The Music Man and starred in the 2005 film The Sisters. Following the series conclusion of Will & Grace in 2006, McCormack starred as the leading role in the New York production of Some Girl(s). He starred in the television miniseries The Andromeda Strain (2008) and returned to television in 2009 in the TNT drama Trust Me, which was cancelled after one season. Also in 2009, McCormack was cast in the science-fiction movie Alien Trespass. In addition, he starred as Dr. Daniel Pierce for three seasons of the TNT crime drama Perception, and provided the voice of "Lucky" on The Hub's Pound Puppies. From 2009 to 2010 he starred as Dr. Max Kershaw, the psychiatrist turned boyfriend of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' title character in The New Adventures of Old Christine. He is currently performing on Broadway in The Cottage. ## Early life McCormack was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Doris (1932–2006), a homemaker, and James "Keith" McCormack, an oil company financial analyst who died from cancer in 2008. He is the oldest of three siblings. Eric McCormack has Scottish ancestry. While he was growing up, he was shy and did not play sports but was involved in theatre from an early age: "I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through."He later attended Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario, where he was a classmate of David Furnish. He enrolled in theatre classes there and performed in high school productions of Godspell and Pippin. McCormack recalls that after performing in Godspell, his feelings toward becoming an actor solidified and he decided to pursue a career in acting. "I remember after the first performance of that... I knew where to fit in. That was the beginning of my life as an actor. It changed me in that the concept of any other options disappeared. From that moment there was no question. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I'm lucky that way." McCormack graduated from high school in 1982 and enrolled at Ryerson University School of Theatre in Toronto to further develop as an actor. He left Ryerson in 1985, several months before graduating, to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario where he spent five seasons performing. "It was all I wanted, to be a classical actor for the rest of my life, but during the last couple of years I was there, I started to realise that it wasn't for me. Perhaps I didn't have to give my Hamlet before I died, that the world might be an OK place without my Hamlet, in fact." He appeared in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V, Murder in the Cathedral and Three Sisters. He later performed with the Manitoba Theatre Centre in a production of Burn This, as well as with Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre in Biloxi Blues. ## Career ### Early work McCormack made his Canadian television debut in the 1986 movie The Boys from Syracuse." McCormack moved to Los Angeles and made his US television debut in a 1991 episode of the CBS crime series Top Cops. He appeared in the 1992 theatrical films The Lost World, based on Conan Doyle's novel of the same name and in its sequel, Return to the Lost World, also released in 1992. By 1993, he landed a recurring role as a detective in the crime drama Street Justice. Also in 1993, McCormack appeared in the television movie Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, playing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's father. He played the role of Colonel Francis Clay Mosby in 42 episodes of the Western television series Lonesome Dove: The Series (1994), which was later renamed Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (1995). McCormack commented that it was a "fantastic role". In an interview with The Guardian in 2003, he admitted to auditioning "two or three times" for the part of Ross Geller, which ultimately went to David Schwimmer, for the situation comedy Friends. In 1995, he appeared in the television film The Man Who Wouldn't Die. He was cast in the 1997 made-for-television movie Borrowed Hearts, where he portrayed a selfish businessman who learns to love, and in the HBO film Exception to the Rule, in which he played a cheating husband. Also in 1997, he had minor roles in the comedy shows Townies, Veronica's Closet, and Ally McBeal. Originally, McCormack was scheduled to appear as a series regular in the NBC sitcom Jenny, but was fired after the pilot due to the network cutting his character. In addition McCormack had a recurring role in season five of the comedy series The New Adventures of Old Christine, in which he played a therapist and love interest for Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character, Christine. ### Will & Grace McCormack received his breakthrough role in 1998 when he was cast as gay lawyer Will Truman on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. McCormack said that when the part came along, he was convinced he was right for the role. "At the end of the audition, Max Mutchnick, co-creator and executive producer of the show said 'That was perfect. Just to let you know, you never have to be more gay than that.'" He explained that when he first read the script, "what hit me immediately was that this was me. I mean, sexual orientation aside, Will was so much like me. He's a great host, he's relatively funny and he has great friends and he's a good friend to them... the gay issue just wasn't really a big thing." The show debuted on September 21, 1998, and was watched by almost 8.6 million American viewers. Will & Grace quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and McCormack receiving strong reviews. John Carman of the San Francisco Chronicle commented that McCormack and costar Debra Messing (who played Will's best friend Grace Adler) worked "nicely" together. Kay McFadden of The Seattle Times also praised McCormack, Messing, and the supporting cast as "very funny". For the performance, he earned four Emmy Award nominations (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005), one of which resulted in a win (2001), for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. In addition, he received five Golden Globe Award nominations. Also in 1998, McCormack appeared in Stephen Herek's comedy film Holy Man. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The next year he starred in the comedy movie Free Enterprise (1999), a movie about two filmmakers (McCormack and Rafer Weigel) obsessed with actor William Shatner and Star Trek. Film critic Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that McCormack and Weigel "both make a strong impression". In 2000, McCormack appeared in the ABC television movie The Audrey Hepburn Story, portraying actor Mel Ferrer. During the 2001 Broadway season, McCormack briefly portrayed Professor Harold Hill (replacing Craig Bierko) in the Susan Stroman revival of The Music Man at the Neil Simon Theatre. In August 2002, as part of the Hollywood Bowl's summer concert series, he reprised the role of Harold Hill for a one-night only appearance in which he and other actors recreated the songs from the production. McCormack hosted the fourth episode of the 28th season of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live on November 2, 2002. In 2004, he had a recurring role as Ray Summers on Showtime's comedy drama Dead Like Me. The following year, McCormack starred in the film The Sisters, based on Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters. The film premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. Will & Grace's eighth and (at the time) final season ended with the series finale on May 18, 2006. The finale garnered 18 million American viewers, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast in six years. In January 2017, NBC closed a deal for a new, 10-episode season of Will & Grace during the 2017–18 season. The new show has been branded as a "reboot", or "revival", taking place 11 years after the original series' finale episode, and McCormack has reprised his role of the beloved Will Truman. In April 2017, the episode order was increased to 12 episodes. In August 2017 it was extended again to 16 episodes, and a second 13-episode season was ordered. In March 2018, NBC ordered five more episodes for the revival's second season, bringing the total to 18 episodes, and also renewed the show for an 18-episode third season. Eric McCormack continued his role of Will Truman for all of the announced seasons of the revival. ### After Will & Grace After Will & Grace ended McCormack starred on the New York stage opposite Fran Drescher, Judy Reyes, Brooke Smith, and Maura Tierney in Neil LaBute's off-Broadway play Some Girl(s) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. He plays a writer who is ready to settle down and marry, but decides to visit four ex-girlfriends first. For his performance, McCormack received critical reviews. New York Times contributor Ben Brantley, in review of the production, wrote: "Playing a thoughtless, woman-despising heterosexual, Mr. McCormack isn't much different from when he was playing a thoughtful, woman-worshiping homosexual. As in Will & Grace, he italicizes every other line for maximum comic spin and punctuates his dialogue by earnestly furrowing his features". Brantley went on to say that McCormack's interpretation of the character is "certainly a more slickly sustained performance" than the one delivered by David Schwimmer in 2005. Melissa Rose Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly commented that McCormack and Tierney "have incredible chemistry". In the same year, McCormack produced the Lifetime comedy Lovespring International, a show that revolves around six employees at Lovespring International, a dating agency located in California as an "elite Beverly Hills" company. The series debuted to ambivalent reviews, with Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe commenting that Lovespring International is "a lively little cable exercise in over-the-top characters, bad taste, satire, and political incorrectness." The show was cancelled that same year. In 2008, McCormack co-starred in the A&E television miniseries The Andromeda Strain, a remake of the 1971 movie based on the novel by Michael Crichton. In the miniseries he played Jack Nash, a television reporter who battles an addiction to cocaine. The Andromeda Strain received mixed reviews, and McCormack's performance was criticized. Joanna Weiss of the Boston Globe wrote, "The presence of Eric McCormack, as an intrepid TV reporter, is especially extraneous (no disrespect to intrepid reporters)." Robert Bianco of USA Today commented, "The central cast is completed by... poor Eric McCormack as a crusading, coke-addicted journalist who spends the second half of the movie playing Rambo in the desert. Let's just say McCormack does the best he can with what he's given, and leave it at that." On September 5, 2008, McCormack made a guest appearance in the seventh season and 100th episode of the television series Monk, where he played an unctuous host of a television crime docudrama. In January 2009, McCormack returned to television in the TNT drama Trust Me, co-starring Tom Cavanagh. The series, set around a fictional advertising firm, starred McCormack as Mason McGuire who is the firm's newly promoted creative director, and deals with his best friend's (Cavanagh) unpredictable behavior. In an interview with USA Weekend, McCormack revealed he was not afraid of being typecast. His decision to do the show, he said, was due to "great writing". The show debuted on January 26, 2009, and was watched by almost 3.4 million viewers. Trust Me debuted to very positive reviews, with Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle writing that "the series is surprisingly solid." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote that McCormack and Cavanagh "manage to keep their characters sharply defined but low-key. They are opposites but not in an ash-smudged, Windex-wielding Felix and Oscar way." The series, however, was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings. McCormack starred in the science-fiction film Alien Trespass (2009); he played Doctor Ted Lewis, who gets possessed by an alien marshal, Urp, after he crash-lands on Earth. When asked about his interpretation on the character, McCormack commented that his first instinct was to make Ted Lewis more alien, sounding like Spock. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. In May 2009, he portrayed "El Gallo" in Reprise Theatre Company's revival of the 1960s musical The Fantasticks at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. McCormack had a supporting role in Richard Loncraine's comedy My One and Only, which was released in August 2009. On September 30, 2009, he guest-starred on the police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the second episode of its 11th season playing an owner of a dating website. McCormack portrayed con artist Clark Rockefeller in the Lifetime television movie Who Is Clark Rockefeller?, which premiered on March 13, 2010. Preparing for the role he read everything on the case, including coverage of the case and Rockefeller's jailhouse interview. Who Is Clark Rockefeller? received mixed reaction, but McCormack's performance was favored by critics, with Variety's Brian Lowry concluding that "the real kitsch factor resides in Eric McCormack's performance as the suave charmer, which adds an element of high camp to the proceedings." In June 2010, McCormack received the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction at the Banff TV Festival. In October 2010, he received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2018, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television industry. In October 2010, it was reported that he would star in a new TNT television drama, Perception, playing a crime-solving neuroscientist named Dr. Daniel Pierce, who works with the federal government to solve cases using his knowledge and imaginative view of the world. Perception premiered on July 9, 2012. McCormack also serves as producer for the show. He also provides the voice of "Lucky" on The Hub's Pound Puppies series, which premiered October 10, 2010. From March 6 through July 8, 2012, he played the role of Senator Joseph Cantwell in the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. In February 2015, he guest-starred on an episode of NBC's The Mysteries of Laura which stars Debra Messing, his former co-star on Will & Grace. He starred in Travelers, a science fiction drama which first aired in October 2016 and ran for three seasons. In 2020, he narrated a portion of the 8th Canadian Screen Awards. In 2022, McCormack was cast in the fifth season of the Shudder horror series Slasher and the first season of the Hulu mystery thriller series The Other Black Girl, which both premiered the following year. ## Other projects McCormack has set up his own production company called Big Cattle Productions to develop ideas for television. The projects produced by the company include Lovespring International and Imperfect Union. In 2003, it was confirmed that he would write, direct, and star in the romantic comedy What You Wish For. McCormack recorded a song, "The Greatest Discovery", which was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin in 1970, for the 2006 album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars. He also wrote and sang a song called "Living with Grace" for the 2004 soundtrack to Will & Grace with piano music provided by Barry Manilow. ## Personal life McCormack has been married to Janet Leigh Holden, whom he met on the set of Lonesome Dove, since August 1997. They have a son. McCormack maintains residences in Los Angeles and Vancouver. He became a US citizen in 1999 and holds dual Canadian and US citizenship. McCormack is involved in many Los Angeles and Canadian-based charitable organizations including Project Angel Food. The Wellness Community West Los Angeles Tribute to the Human Spirit Awards dinner presented an award to McCormack for his breast cancer awareness advocacy. He shared with the audience how his comedy helped his mother, Doris McCormack, endure her breast cancer treatments. Doris McCormack was honored at the Lifetime's Breast Cancer Heroes Luncheon in 2004. He serves as an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and was given the MMRF Spirit of Hope Award in October 2006. McCormack sang both the American and Canadian national anthems at the 2004 NHL All-Star game in St Paul, Minnesota. He is a supporter of same-sex marriage and attended a march in Fresno, California on May 30, 2009, after the Supreme Court of California upheld a ban on same-sex marriage approved by voters in November by ballot Proposition 8. McCormack is a Democrat. ## Filmography ### Film ### Television ## Awards and nominations

Abi Branning

Fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders

Abi Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lorna Fitzgerald. She was introduced by executive producer Kate Harwood on 3 July 2006 as an extension to the Branning family, along with father Max (Jake Wood), mother Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and older sister Lauren Branning (Madeline Duggan/Jacqueline Jossa). Her storylines involve her friendships and relationships with Ben Mitchell (Charlie Jones/Joshua Pascoe/Harry Reid) and Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick), her toxic friendship with Babe Smith (Annette Badland), faking a pregnancy so that Ben would not leave her for Paul Coker (Jonny Labey), being a suspect in the murder of Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater), her affair with Lauren's fiancé, Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), and falling pregnant by him. In September 2017, it was announced that Fitzgerald and Jossa had been axed by executive consultant John Yorke. Abi's exit storyline involved her and Lauren falling from the roof of The Queen Victoria public house on Christmas Day 2017, leading to Abi giving birth prematurely to daughter, also named Abi, and being confirmed brainstem dead in later episodes. Abi's final scenes aired on 19 January 2018 after her life support is withdrawn. The character's funeral took place on 16 February 2018. For her portrayal as Abi, Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Young Actor at the 2010 Inside Soap Awards, and went on to win Best Dramatic Performance from a Young Actor or Actress at the 2012 British Soap Awards. Kate White of Inside Soap praised her portrayal of Abi, saying that Fitzgerald is the "brightest young star in soap", adding "Abi's destined for great dramatic things". A writer from the Western Mail said that Abi's relationship with Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) is "Walford's answer to Romeo and Juliet". However, some critics were less positive, with one saying in 2012 that the audience were "not nearly" seeing as much of the "classic characters" due to the younger cast receiving more screen time. ## Storylines Abi moves to Albert Square with her parents Max Branning (Jake Wood) and Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), and sister Lauren Branning (Madeline Duggan), where she befriends Ben Mitchell (Charlie Jones). Soon after, when Max's affair with his son Bradley Branning's (Charlie Clements) wife, Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), is revealed, Max and Tanya separate and eventually divorce. Abi begins to live sporadically with each parent, frequently defending Max to Tanya and Lauren, until Max and Tanya reunite, however Abi leaves with Tanya after learning of Max's financial problems. Abi starts to take an interest in Max's lodger Darren Miller (Charlie G. Hawkins), who is left uncomfortable when she tries to kiss him, telling her she is too young. She later develops a crush on Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick), and the two begin dating. Jay and Abi cuddle up as they are watching television, but Max believes they are about to have sex, so he throws Jay out and rips Abi's bridesmaid dress to Greg and Tanya's wedding. They go to buy a new one, but they have a car crash on Greg and Tanya's wedding day. They suffer minor injuries and both recover. Despite Abi's insecurities over Jay's friendship with Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold), she and Jay remain together, and eventually Max comes to accept them as a couple. Jay proposes to Abi and she accepts, but she is faced with a dilemma when she is offered the chance to go to Costa Rica to help with sea turtle conservation. Jay gives Abi an ultimatum, threatening to break up with her if she goes to Costa Rica, but she goes regardless. She returns weeks later and the pair reconcile. Abi meets her cousin Dexter Hartman (Khali Best), not knowing they are related, and this causes Jay to be jealous until the truth of their relationship is revealed. Abi tries to support Lauren (now played by Jacqueline Jossa) with her drinking problem, however, this ends badly when Lauren destroys Abi's revision notes. Max is framed for causing a car crash that leaves Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) hospitalised. Abi and Lauren struggle to pay Max's legal costs, as well as their bills. Abi receives her exam results and discovers she has not gained the grades to go to university to become a vet, but Lauren, believing that Abi has passed the exams, throws a party, during which Abi blurts out that she blames Lauren for her poor results because she has an alcohol problem. Abi decides to continue studying, but when Max goes to prison, she has to take a job and struggles to find time for her studies. Max is proven innocent and returns home to support his family. In an argument between Jay and Dexter, Abi discovers that on a holiday, Jay kissed a barmaid. She also finds out that Lola knew and furiously confronts her. However, after a heart-to-heart with Jay, they decide to work through their issues and she fixes things with Dexter and Lola as well. She also takes in a stray dog, Tramp. Abi's final A Level results come through and she tells everyone that she has got what she needed to get into the University of Liverpool. However, she later confides in Jay that she has been lying, as not to disappoint her family. He encourages her to go through clearing and she gets a position doing a similar course at the University of Bolton. Jay decides to go with Abi. Ben returns from prison and reveals he thinks Jay is in love with Lola, and he confesses this to Abi when she confronts him. He then ends things to stay in Walford. Devastated, she wants to leave for Bolton immediately, but when Max refuses to take her, she drives the car herself, accidentally running over Tramp, killing him; she callously declares that "things die". After her break up with Jay, Abi becomes a much nastier and bitter person. She begins a relationship with Ben (now played by Harry Reid), which is discovered by Emma Summerhayes (Anna Acton) who informs Max of the relationship. Max demands that Abi does not see Ben any more, which Abi refuses to do. After she moves in with him, Ben reveals to her that he might still be gay and is worried he will never get over his homosexuality, but Abi assures him that they will make things work. Following Ben's arrest for Lucy Beale's (Hetti Bywater) murder, Abi tells Phil that Max assaulted Lucy to get Ben off. Despite being innocent, Max turns himself in and is formally charged while Ben is released. Stacey visits Max, who tells her that he thinks Abi killed Lucy. Stacey confronts Abi, who attacks Stacey, blaming her for her parents' split and Bradley's death. Ben and Abi continue their relationship, but Ben is secretly seeing Paul Coker (Jonny Labey). Babe Smith (Annette Badland) offers Abi work in the pub kitchen, and Abi tells Babe that she is able to turn a blind eye to Ben's homosexuality, as long as he loves her. However, when Abi finds a present that Ben has got for Paul, she realises he has feelings for Paul and confides in Babe, who helps her to publicly announce that she is pregnant. Ben asks Abi to have a termination but then changes his mind, saying he wants the baby. Abi then goes to Babe, panicking because she has lied and is not really pregnant. She decides to tell Ben the truth, but as she is about to do so, he tells her he has caught chlamydia. Abi later tests positive for chlamydia. Babe pushes Abi into Ben as he is pushed by Phil, knocking her to the ground. Babe takes Abi away from the square, and on their return, Abi tells Ben she has had a miscarriage. When she later sees Ben being comforted by Paul, she feels uneasy. Abi and Babe discover that Ben's half-sister Louise Mitchell (Tilly Keeper) has been using Phil's credit card, so they force her to return everything she has bought. After a spat with Abi, Babe sends Ben a letter, telling him of the fake pregnancy. Louise finds the letter and blackmails Abi, telling her to move away with Ben. Abi tries to persuade Ben into moving but he refuses, saying he needs to be there for alcoholic Phil. Abi accidentally confesses, after which Ben gets drunk and kisses Abi in the pub toilets and starts to undress her, but then drags her into the pub in her underwear and reveals via the karaoke microphone that she made up her pregnancy. Babe emotionally blackmails Abi, forcing her to resign. Abi exposes Babe's secrets to the pub's landlord, Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), so he tells Abi that she can keep her job. Abi locks Babe in the kitchen freezer room as an act of revenge, although Babe frames her sister, Sylvie Carter (Linda Marlowe). Abi is then reinstated at the Vic by a seemingly apologetic Babe but her behaviour, when alone in the kitchen with Abi, is threatening. Babe later leaves Walford after being thrown out by her family, so Abi runs the kitchen alone. Abi tells Lauren's boyfriend, Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), that they would make a good couple during a heart-to-heart. Abi and Steven have an affair and Abi learns that Steven is lying about having a brain tumour so that Lauren will not leave him. Despite being against the idea, Abi does not tell Lauren as Steven promises Abi he is planning to leave Lauren to be with her. Then Abi is stunned by Steven's public marriage proposal to Lauren. Jane overhears Abi and Steven talking about their relationship and confronts them. Abi then discovers she is pregnant by Steven. Abi helps Steven keep up the lie by giving him a brain scan from a dog and animal medication that will give him symptoms of an illness, as well as helping to keep Lauren away from doctor's appointments that Steven has invented. Abi discovers that Ian's restaurant is on fire and goes inside. She finds Jane on the floor struggling to breathe. A pipe falls onto Abi, knocking her unconscious, but Max and Steven soon find her and drag her out. She is taken to hospital with Lauren by her side in the ambulance. At the hospital, Abi tells Steven he is going to be a father. Steven declares his love for her and makes a promise that he will make their relationship work. Steven then dies from injuries inflicted by Max during the fire, leaving an unaware Abi devastated. Out of jealousy that Lauren is getting all the attention, Abi tries to tell Lauren about her pregnancy, but Lauren angrily mistakes this as gloating about her own abortion. Upset at the accusation, Abi says that she wishes Lauren died instead and that she never deserved Steven. Steven's tumour lie is revealed, so Abi attends Steven's funeral as the sole mourner and declares her love. Abi is fired from her job at the vets when they have CCTV evidence of her stealing medication. She asks Mick to extend her working hours at the pub, but he makes her redundant as they need to save money. Lauren eventually learns the truth about Abi and Steven's affair when she catches Abi wearing her wedding dress. Lauren is disgusted to learn that Abi is pregnant with Steven's baby, but over time, Lauren becomes more supportive. Abi goes away, and on her return, is confused when people are showing hatred towards Max, unaware that he was involved in a plan to redevelop Albert Square, including turning business into luxury flats and evicting people from their homes and places of work. Abi and Lauren discover that Max knows Abi is pregnant; Lauren disowns him while Abi tries to offer support, but he insults her. However, they later make amends. On Christmas Day, Tanya returns to take Lauren and Abi away from Walford, revealing that Max killed Steven and tried to kill Jane. Lauren and Abi reject Max. Max goes to the roof of the Queen Vic, planning to jump, so Lauren and Abi climb on to the ledge to try and stop him. As Max agrees to his daughter's pleas to not jump, Lauren slips on the wet surface and Abi grabs her hand to stop her falling; both sisters fall off to the ground. Still alive, they are taken to hospital, where an ultrasound shows Abi's baby is alive. Abi has a CT scan and Lauren has surgery. Lauren recovers but Dr. Harding (Nick Waring) tells Max that Abi is brainstem dead and has no chance of regaining consciousness. Abi's baby is delivered via cesarean section. Max is hopeful that Abi will recover and does not tell Lauren the truth, but she slaps Max when she finds out. Max obtains a court order to stop Abi's life support being withdrawn and plans to take her to the US for a treatment that will cost £2,000,000, but Harding urges Max to do the dignified thing for Abi as she is already dead and as Abi is not a minor, he has no legal right to take her. Max names her baby Abi Branning, in her memory. ## Character creation and development ### Introduction and characterisation Abi was introduced into the series in 2006, by executive producer Kate Harwood. The character and her casting was announced on 25 May 2006. She and her immediate family, father Max (Wood), mother Tanya (Joyner) and older sister Lauren (Duggan, recast to Jossa in 2010), are an extension of the Branning family, who have appeared in EastEnders since 1993. Fitzgerald, in her first major television role, began filming for the soap in May 2006 and made her first on-screen appearance in July. Fitzgerald's mother commented on her daughter's casting: "Personally, I feel I want to show how proud we are of her and to thank everyone who has prayed for her and helped her in any way. At first, it is just the look they go for. Then it is more intensive and she had to read from a script. By the second audition, she was still up against 60 or 70 people. You start thinking about it when she gets to the third audition, but when the agent rang up and said she had got the part it was an overwhelming feeling. You don't know what it means until that point". Fitzgerald was offered the part about three months after her final audition. As Fitzgerald was only 10 years old when she got the part, she was required to balance her filming requirements with schooling in Northampton, and learning lines. In 2012, she told Inside Soap that she thought she had messed up her audition, and did not realise how big the show was until she was older. In 2014, she told BBC Radio 1 that when she met Wood and Joyner, her on-screen parents, she realised it did not matter that she had messed up her lines in her last audition, because she looked like them both. Fitzgerald was required to cry on her first day of filming, and admitted in 2014 that this was embarrassing, and she was unable to produce tears, but was "just making noises". Fitzgerald was chaperoned by her mother until she was 16. > She may be young, but she's packed plenty of drama into her years. She's been hit by Deano's car, watched her parents' marriage unravel, ravel, unravel again etc. She also discovered Trina's dead body in Charlie's summer-house. Most kids would have nightmares for weeks after a sighting like that. Water off a duck's back when you're Derek Branning's niece, though. Abi has been described by the official EastEnders website as the family's "golden girl" compared to Lauren, hinting that she knows how to get her own way. She has been described as "bubbly" and "self-assured" with a nose for mischief. She has also been described as having the biggest heart in Walford, bringing out the best in the people around her. Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror said that Abi is a "real soft touch". Jon Wise from The People said that after Abi received a makeover in 2010, she "actually turned out to be quite pretty". In 2012, Fitzgerald told Inside Soap's Laura-Jane Tyler that Abi has grown up in her first six years on screen, and is now sensible, "like a mother hen" and has had to mature quickly because of the dramatic situations she has been involved in. Tyler added that Abi is the most level-headed and sensible member of the Branning family and "puts her [family] to shame with her mature approach to [their problems]." ### Early development Abi's earlier storylines consist of her parents fighting for custody of her and her siblings, being injured in a collision with Deano Wicks' (Di Angelo) car and helping her friend Ben (Jones) with his abuse from stepmother Stella Crawford (Thompson) In February 2011, Abi was involved in a car accident with Max and would suffer severe injuries after their car collides with a lorry on the way to Tanya's wedding to her new partner Greg (Booth). The crash scenes were filmed on 6 March 2011 and aired on 14 April 2011. After these minor storylines, Joyner said that Fitzgerald should be involved in more complex storylines in 2012. She said, "I think it's going to be an exciting year for Lorna. She's been a natural on the show ever since she was younger, and I think she's one of our best actresses. What's lovely about this year is that she'll be doing her GCSEs, and then once that's out of the way, she can get something that's a bit heavier and a bit bigger. She'll be old enough to work longer hours, so I think they'd be mad if they didn't give her something to sink her teeth into at some point this year". In November 2010, after sister Lauren was recast to Jossa, Jossa stated that she enjoys working with Fitzgerald, adding the two have a lot in common. Jossa, in 2012, wanted Lauren and Abi to bond more. She commented: "I think realistically they would when they're going through a family problem like this. It would bring the family a little bit closer. I think they are quite close already and they have a lot of family banter! They may not like each other as people, but they love each other as family". In December 2012, Fitzgerald conducted her first magazine interview and spoke of a storyline where Abi comforts Lauren over a relationship break up, saying "It's nice to see the little [sister] taking care of the bigger one." ### Jay Brown and Ben Mitchell In March 2011, Abi starts a relationship with Jay (Jamie Borthwick). Borthwick admitted that he is enjoying filming Jay and Abi's relationship. Speaking of Jay and Abi's relationship, Borthwick told Inside Soap, "I think Abi and Jay are a good couple," he said. "Jay's a right one – he's already had a crack at Abi's sister Lauren and now he's going for the younger one. He's got an eye for the Branning women". Fitzgerald said that Jay and Abi are "cute together" but she cringes at Abi because she is "lovey-dovey". The couple split in 2014 and Abi begins a relationship with Ben, knowing that he is gay but dismissing this and branding it a "phase". Speaking of his role, newcomer Harry Reid stated that Ben would "manipulate" Abi in his attempts to prove that he is straight. ### Departure On 10 September 2017, it was announced that Fitzgerald had been axed from the show by executive consultant John Yorke, along with Jacqueline Jossa. A spokesperson said: "We can confirm Jacqueline and Lorna will be leaving. They have been wonderful to work with and we wish them all the best for the future." Fitzgerald's final episode was broadcast on 19 January 2018, in which the character dies. At the end of the episode, instead of the usual closing title sequence, the image, focused on Abi's face, fades to black and no theme music is played. ## Reception Fitzgerald was nominated for the "Best Young Actor" at the 2010 Inside Soap Awards for her portrayal of Abi though lost out to Coronation Street'''s, Alex Bain, who plays Simon Barlow. Fitzgerald won the award for "Best Dramatic Performance from a Young Actor or Actress" at the 2012 British Soap Awards 2012 an award which Tony Stewart from the Daily Mirror said was "well deserved". Fitzgerald said she did not expect to win the award. In January 2012, Kate White of Inside Soap praised both Fitzgerald and her character, saying "In Fitzgerald, EastEnders has the brightest young star in soap. The rest of her family are getting all the juicy stuff right now, but Abi's destined for great dramatic things. Mark our words". Her colleague, Steven Murphy, said Inside Soap had "long admired" Fitzgerald. Stewart said, due to Max's past events with his family, what Abi might say when Max objects to her relationship with Jay, "It won't be her setting a gerbil on him", calling her a "goody-two-shoes". A writer from the Western Mail said that the Branning/Mitchell Feud makes Abi and Jay feel like "Walford's answer to Romeo and Juliet". Two writers from the Daily Mirror mocked the storyline where Abi turns down the trip to Costa Rica. One said, "An extreme case of soap agoraphobia as brilliant Abi sensibly turns down the chance to spend eight weeks in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. But in the tiny micro-world of EastEnders, even the three-mile odyssey from Walford to the West End is considered an epic journey. So Central America is simply out of the question" with another saying, "Abi was a little girl arranging tearful funerals for her pets. But now she's a young teenager, secretly engaged to boyfriend Jay and planning to run away together. He then gives Abi an ultimatum: him or her trip to Costa Rica. Best pass her the suncream, then". However, Abi, along with the younger members of the cast were thought to be the blame of declining ratings for the show; "In the last two months, viewers have seen lots of Lauren, Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater), Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Fatboy (Ricky Norwood), Ben Jay, Abi and Anthony Moon (Matt Lapinskas) – but not nearly so much of the classic characters". Inside Soap noted that Abi and Jay's relationship was popular with viewers. The 2016 storyline in which Abi lies that she has suffered a miscarriage to cover up a pregnancy lie was criticised by Zoe Clark-Coates, co-founder and CEO of The Mariposa Trust, who said, "To regularly see TV shows using fake miscarriages as light entertainment could make people question genuine losses." In August 2017, Fitzgerald was longlisted for "Best Bad Girl" at the 2017 Inside Soap Awards, while she and Aaron Sidwell (Steven Beale) were longlisted for "Best Partnership". Fitzgerald made the viewer-voted shortlist in the "Best Bad Girl" category, but lost out to Gillian Kearney, who portrays Emma Barton in Emmerdale. The scene where Lauren and Abi fell from the roof of The Queen Vic was awarded "Scene of the Year" at the 2018 British Soap Awards, tying with Doctors who also won the same award for "The Bollywood Proposal". Abi's death was nominated for "Most devastating Soap Death" at the 2018 Digital Spy Reader Awards; it came in seventh place with 6.4% of the total votes. ## See also - List of EastEnders'' characters (2006) - List of soap opera villains - "Who Killed Lucy Beale?"

Samuel J. Briskin

American film producer

Samuel J. Briskin (February 8, 1896 – November 14, 1968) was one of the foremost producers of Hollywood's Golden Age, and head of production during his career at three of the "Big 8" major film studios: Columbia Pictures (twice), Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures. In the late 1950s, he was briefly on the board of directors of another major, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During World War II, Briskin served in the army's Signal Corps as a film producer, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he co-founded Liberty Films with Frank Capra. They were later joined by William Wyler and George Stevens. The studio only produced two films, but both are now considered classics: It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union. All three of his brothers were also film producers, as well as one of his sons, and his sister was married to the eventual Chairman of Columbia, where Briskin spent the last decade of his life as a vice-president and head of production until his death in 1968 from a heart attack. ## Early life Briskin was born on February 8, 1896, in either Riga, Russia, or New York City. His parents were Benjamin and Rose Briskin. Two of his brothers, Irving and Murray, also became film producers, while his sister, Ida, married a film studio executive. Briskin also had one other brother, Barnett (Barney), who was also in the film industry as a theater manager and in sales capacities. While some sources have his birthplace is Riga, Russia, others indicate that he was born in New York, after his parents immigrated there. Briskin was a product of the public school system. He obtained his college degree in accounting from the College of the City of New York. ## Career ### Silent era After graduating college, Briskin worked as an accountant. Briskin entered the film industry as an accountant at Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales in 1920. In 1924, when the Cohn brothers incorporated CBC as Columbia Pictures, he left the studio and created an independent production company with George H. Davis named Banner Productions. The company was scheduled to produce 8 films, four on the east coast and four in California. The company was incorporated in May 1924, and produced over 20 films between 1925 and 1927. Briskin gave his brother, Irving, his start in the film industry, as an auditor for Banner. Irving would go on to be a film producer in his own right. The company's first film was The Truth About Women, a 1924 melodrama directed by Burton King, and starring Hope Hampton and Lowell Sherman. The picture was filmed at the Whitman Bennett Studios near Yonkers, New York. The next film Briskin would produce was The Man Without a Heart, again directed by King and filmed at the Bennett Studios, this time starring Kenneth Harlan and Jane Novak. In addition to producing the films, Briskin would also travel around the country making sales deals for the company's films. In 1925 Briskin would produce the melodrama, The Phantom Express, starring Ethel Shannon and George Periolat. This was followed in 1926 by the film Brooding Eyes, starring the legendary Lionel Barrymore. 1926 saw Briskin take a film crew on location to Sonora, Mexico, shooting for Whispering Canyon, starring Jane Novak and Robert Ellis. Late in 1926 Briskin's sister, Ida Briskin, was wed to Abe Schneider, an exec at Columbia Pictures. Late in 1926, George Davis died suddenly, and Briskin dissolved Banner. ### The advent of sound and Columbia Pictures After Banner, Briskin returned to work at Columbia Pictures, where he began producing for them in 1926, and in 1928 he was given control over 18 of their productions. By 1929, Briskin had risen to be a top executive at the studio, sharing honors with studio head Harry Cohn, in giving the closing address at Columbia's annual sales meeting in July 1929. By the end of 1929, Briskin was the assistant general manager of Columbia, and on a visit to New York City signed several Broadway playwrights to long-term contracts with the studio, including Elmer Harris, Jo Swerling, and Paul Hervey Fox. Not only was Briskin active in the production office at Columbia, but he also played on Columbia's baseball team, which competed in the Motion Picture Baseball League. It was while working at Columbia that Briskin met Frank Capra. In 1930, Briskin's brother Irving, who he had employed while at Banner, joined him as a producer at Columbia. By the early 1930s, Briskin had gained a reputation of being a very thrifty producer. However, he was also known for putting the quality of the product over saving money. Joseph Walker, the cinematographer for the 1931 film Dirigible, directed by Frank Capra, explained why the film had not used stock footage of blimps, which would have been much less expensive: > [Briskin], the studio's general manager, who personally supervised the making of the picture, and who is perhaps more keenly exacting in the matter of getting a full dollar's worth of production for every dollar spent than any other executive in the business, was wise enough to see that an otherwise superlative production would fall flat if such scenes were made "merely adequate". Therefore he spared no expense in assuring absolute authenticity in every detail of the production. In 1931 Harry Cohn became the first studio head to implement the new unit production system, wherein producers were given specific responsibility over individual films, rather than supervising dozens of pictures in a given year. Briskin was one of the first four of this new class of producer selected by Cohn, while still maintaining his assistant general manager status. In 1932 Briskin went from assistant general manager, to general manager at Columbia, the announcement being made by in early June by Sam Cohn. In February 1933, Briskin's home was burglarized, the thieves absconding with \$24,000 (in 1933 dollars) in jewels. Also in 1933, Briskin was appointed as the studios' representative for the producers-actors code committee. In February 1934 Briskin was named as the chairman of the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The following month Briskin was also appointed to the finance committee overseeing the Research Council. By 1934, Briskin's brother, Irving, was one of the Columbia's unit producers. In 1934 Briskin was selected to be one of the personnel representing the film studios in their negotiations with the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America. Among the others representing the producers included Louis B. Mayer, Hal Roach, Jack L. Warner, B. B. Kahane, and Harold Lloyd. By this point, Briskin was considered one of the most important studio executives in the industry, being included a group called by some "the brain trust", which also included Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner, B. B. Kahane, Harold Lloyd, Hal Roach, and Irving Thalberg. In June 1934 Briskin, acting as a representative for 8 major studios, met with representatives from film camera manufacturers, in an attempt to reach an agreement between the two sides to pool their resources in order to develop a silent film camera. In September 1934, Briskin signed a new contract with Columbia, after having been courted by Paramount. Later that month, he was elected to the producers branch of AMPAS, as well as being appointed a member of the executive committee. When the 1932 agreement between studios and freelance screenwriters expired in 1935, Briskin was selected as one of five producers, the others being Sol Wurtzel, Irving Thalberg, Hal Wallis, and Henry Herzbrun, to represent the studios in the negotiations. In addition to representing the producers in their negotiations with the writers, Briskin was also selected as one of six producers to negotiate the new contract with the actors' guild. In August 1935 Briskin was renegotiating his contract with Columbia. Speculation began that he was being approached by other studios, including MGM. ### RKO years In September 1935, after seven years, Briskin resigned from Columbia, failing to reach an agreement with Harry Cohn over stock options. For years, many in the film industry knew that Briskin was responsible for many of the successes at Columbia, even though studio head Harry Cohn was taking the credit. Shortly after, reports began to circulate that he was headed to 20th Century-Fox. Shortly after that report, he was offered a front-office position at MGM, but turned it down because he wanted to be more actively involved in film production, which was followed by a denial from Fox that he was headed to that studio. One of the rumors which circulated was that Briskin was part of a group aligned with Consolidated Film Industries, which was attempting a takeover of Universal. By year's end, Briskin had agreed to a deal with Warner Bros. to produce 12 films, however that deal never reached fruition and Briskin ended up agreeing to a deal with RKO to join the studio as their vice-president in charge of production. The position was newly created especially for Briskin. B. B. Kahane remained as the overall head of RKO Studios, running all aspects other than production, but there was concern that Briskin would have conflict with long-term RKO producer, Pandro S. Berman. Conflict was averted when Berman received a one-year extension on his contract, wherein he had sole authority over his productions, answering only directly to Kahane. That arrangement did not last long, and by February 1936, Briskin's role at the studio was changing. While still with the same title, he was no longer subservient to Kahane, having full control over all RKO production. In February 1936 Briskin was mentioned along with a handful of other producers as being in such demand that they could write their own ticket, the others mentioned included Thalberg, David O. Selznick, Darryl F. Zanuck, Hunt Stromberg, and Sol Wurtzel. By April of that year, Briskin was putting his mark on RKO. He purchased quite a few properties, signed numerous actors, and lured successful producers to the studio, such as Edward Small. Later that year, RKO gained the rights to the successful Irish play, The Plough and the Stars, by playwright Seán O'Casey. This led to Briskin being responsible for bringing Barry Fitzgerald to Hollywood for his American film debut. Fitzgerald was one of four members of the play's original cast at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, who Briskin signed to appear in the film version of the same name. By the middle of the year, RKO was solidly Briskin's, with the full backing of studio head Leo Spitz, This led to Kahane, who had been with the studio since its inception, resigning in August, several months prior to the expiration of his contract, and heading to a vice-presidency at Columbia. For the upcoming 1936–37 production season, Briskin announced that he intended to have at least three star-caliber performers in each film. In September, Briskin was elected to the AMPAS board of governors, along with several others including Clark Gable, Darryl Zanuck, and Cecil B. DeMille. The following month, Briskin initiated a policy wherein the younger players under contract to RKO could appear in stage productions in stock and little theater companies for short periods, in order for the actors to gain experience. Also in October, Briskin was chosen to succeed Louis B. Mayer as chairman of the motion picture community chest. In 1936 Briskin led RKO to its most productive year up to that date. Before the end of the year, a new medium was being introduced, television. When asked about the threat this new entertainment source might pose to the film industry, Briskin thought that TV would actually help films. He felt that it might be the "... greatest thing that could happen to the industry." Rationalizing that "... 10 years ago when radio broadcasting began many feared people would sit at home with earphones and listen to the free radio entertainment. Instead, the movies have had their best years since radio broadcasting came in ..." In December, reports began to surface that he was up for a long-term contract at RKO, however, due to an impending reorganization, he was only given a one-year extension, with a promise of a long-term deal once the reorganization was complete. Briskin made the decision to begin color films at RKO. He was also responsible for bringing the Poverty Row producer, Maury M. Cohen, into RKO. In 1937 Briskin was responsible for bringing Milton Berle to the screen. During a strike by the Federated Motion Picture Crafts union in 1937, there was concern that they would be joined by members of the Screen Actors Guild. Briskin was one of four producers chosen by the producers guild to negotiate with the actors' union to head off them joining the walkout. As the new film season started in the summer of 1937, Briskin announced that RKO would have a significant increase in their overall production budget from \$14.5 million in the 1936–37 season, to \$18 million for the 1937–38 season. In mid-July 1937, it was announced that Briskin had received a long-term extension on his contract, however, several months later it was revealed that the deal had never been finalized, and that Briskin was considering leaving RKO. In early November the change became official when Briskin resigned as RKO's head of production. Briskin had been offered a three-year deal by the studio, which he rejected. Rumors began to circulate about where Briskin was headed. In early December it was being reported that Briskin would be heading to Paramount, although he denied those reports. ### Return to Columbia As 1938 began, there was much speculation as to where Briskin would go next. He was considered one of the top film executives in the industry. In mid-May, it was reported that Briskin was in negotiations with Sam Cohn to return to his former studio, Columbia, in the role of general manager. However, his name was still being discussed for other major positions throughout the industry, such as the production head at Universal Pictures. On May 26 it was announced that Briskin and Columbia had reached a 7-year agreement for him to take over as the head of the production at the studio, where he resumed his former position of general manager on May 30. As part of the agreement, Briskin was issued stock options on 10,000 shares of Columbia stock, with a value of \$13.875 per share. Briskin's return to Columbia would also reunite him with his brother, Irving, who had been a producer at Columbia for several years. Samuel Briskin's would be one of the top money earners in Hollywood in 1938, his earnings topping \$106,000, putting him in the top 10 at Columbia. Later in 1938, when there was a pending hearing and lawsuit alleging unfair labor practices by the studios against directors, Briskin was chosen to be one of three producers representing the studios, alongside Darryl Zanuck and E. J. Mannix. Sitting across the table were W. S. Van Dyke, Howard Hawks, and Briskin's friend, Frank Capra. In 1939, Briskin was once again involved in potential legal proceedings, being one of a number of producers who were called to testify before the National Labor Relations Board, regarding alleged infractions by the studios against the Screen Writers Guild (SWG). During the hearings, it was alleged that Briskin had opposed the proposed merger between the SWG and the Authors Guild. After the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and Asia at the beginning of World War II, AMPAS created the Motion Picture Defense Committee, which was a sub-committee of the organization's Research Council. Headed by the council's chairman, Darryl F. Zanuck, Briskin was one of several producers named to the committee. The group was formed to advise various arms of the U.S. government in the creation and production of training films. Shortly after the committee's formation, it was decided that the facilities of Hollywood film studios would be made available to the army to use for filming and production. In mid-November 1940 Briskin, along with the committee's chair Major Nathan Levinson, participated in interviews with members of the Screen Writers Guild, in order to select writers to go to Monmouth, New Jersey to work with army personnel on developing scripts for training films. ### The war years In 1941 the U.S. Government announced an effort to increase cooperation between the different countries in North and South America, through the use of film. Nelson D. Rockefeller chaired the government committee, and requested the help of the Association of Motion Picture Producers. Y. Frank Freeman, the associations chairman, appointed Briskin the chair of the committee on South American Film Facilities. When the Motion Picture Defense Committee was expanded in 1941, Briskin continued to be one of the six producers. In April 1941, Harry Cohn promoted Briskin to Head of Production at Columbia. Briskin joined the Army Signal Corps as a reserve officer, commissioned as a major, and was put in charge of the film division of the War Committee. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, there was concern that film professionals in Hollywood who were officers in the armed forces reserves might be called to active duty. By May 1942, Briskin was acknowledged as the vice-chair of the Motion Picture Defense Committee. In that month, he and chair Nathan Levinson created a sub-committee in order to find more technicians to enlist in the Signal Corps. In June Briskin was rewarded with a six-year contract by Columbia, at a rate of \$2000 per week, as well as stock options. In August 1942 Briskin's duties at Columbia were divided between Harry Cohn and Sydney Buchman, in anticipation of his being called up to active duty in the army. Briskin was called to active duty by September, with Buchman resigning his position as President of the Screen Writers Guild to handle Briskin's responsibilities at Columbia. While on active duty, Columbia continued to keep Briskin under contract, although at a reduced salary of \$300 per week. One of Briskin's roles in the Army Signal Corps was recruiting industry personnel to serve as cameramen and photographers for the army. In a report lamenting the loss of talent from Hollywood to the armed services, Briskin was one of four producers cited, along with Darryl Zanuck, Hal Roach, and John Hay Whitney. In late March 1943 Briskin suffered a heart attack while on active military service. Briskin received a medical discharge from the Army Signal Corps in May 1944. During his military service, Briskin was awarded the Legion of Merit. In July 1944, Briskin returned to Columbia, detaching from the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Shortly after his return to civilian life, Briskin parted ways with Columbia in September 1944. ### Liberty Films Shortly after Briskin left Columbia, it was announced that he would begin a production company with his long-time friend, Frank Capra, the company's highlight to be an annual Capra film. Because Capra was still on active duty in the army, Briskin was in charge of opening the company offices, and negotiating distribution deals, preparing the company to begin production as soon as Capra was discharged. Initially, the company was simply known as Capra-Briskin. As this was happening, Briskin was asked to return to active duty, this time in the navy, for a brief stint in the beginning of March, 1945; he was assigned to the Photographic Sciences Laboratory, where he was to evaluate the Navy's filming activity. By the end of the month, he had finished his study, and submitted his findings to Captain Gene Markey, head of the Navy's Photographic Services, after which he returned to Hollywood to continue setting up Capra-Briskin. With Capra still in the service, Briskin incorporated the new film studio, with the name Liberty Films, in late April 1945. One of the first properties they went after was the hugely successful play, Harvey. In July, they convinced William Wyler to join their fledgling company, and he became part-owner, agreeing to start work for the company as soon as he was discharged from the army, and produce one film per year for the studio. In August, Briskin negotiated a deal with RKO Studios for Liberty Pictures to film 9 movies at the RKO studio, and in September Wyler announced that the company would produce 3 films a year for their deal with RKO. Before the end of the year George Stevens had also become a part owner in the venture. The company announced in November 1945 that its first production would be James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, produced and directed by Capra. In Spring 1946 it was announced that Liberty would be getting a fifth partner, producer-director Victor Fleming, although that deal never saw fruition. The film was released in November 1946, but was a financial failure. Although it was in the top 7% of that year's films as ranked by box office gross, it was unable to recoup its high production cost of \$2.3 million, much less show a profit. After the film's release, Briskin became an outspoken advocate for the policy of longer runs for films, allowing them to recoup the cost of production. Without longer runs, he told The Film Daily, the quality of films would decline, as production costs continued to escalate. While the studio was receiving positive critical reviews, it was struggling financially. In March 1947, rumors began to circulate regarding the company being taken over by one of the major studios. The studio's next film, State of the Union, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, was scheduled to be distributed by MGM. In addition to the MGM deal with Capra, Briskin sought out distribution deals with other major studios, including Paramount. The partners sought a major studio to buy Liberty Films before bank foreclosure, although Wyler and Stevens were "violently opposed" to the idea at first. In April rumors began to circulate that a deal was in the offing for a sale of the company to Paramount Pictures. Those rumors were confirmed the following month when Paramount bought Liberty. The four partners were given a total of between \$3,450,000 and \$4,000,000 in Paramount stock, and Capra, Wyler, and Stevens were offered five-picture contracts at Paramount. Briskin was given a studio executive position at Paramount which was specifically created for him, but Stevens decided not to accept the Paramount offer and continued as an independent producer. The deal took several months to reach fruition, finally culminating when the US Treasury signed off on the tax setup in September 1947. Briskin would stay at Paramount as a senior production executive through 1950. ### The Paramount years As the new decade dawned, it was speculated that Briskin would sign an agreement with Paramount Studios, in charge of production under Y. Frank Freeman, in the new position, Briskin would function as the de facto head of production for the studio. After accepting the position, his tenure was short lived, as he resigned in January 1951, due to an undisclosed illness, although he remained employed by the studio. By April, it was announced that Briskin would remain at Paramount, and had signed a five-year contract to produce for the studio. In July 1951 Briskin was selected to head up the "Movie Town U.S.A." radio advertising campaign for the Council of Motion Picture Companies (COMPO). The Movietime campaign was scheduled to debut on October 8, 1951, with over 200 acting stars and other Hollywood personalities volunteering their time to make personal appearances in all 48 of the U.S. State capitals, although those locations were later changed to 33 major cities, due to a scheduling conflict with many of the state governors. In addition to his responsibilities at Paramount and with COMPO, in late 1951 Briskin partnered with Sol Lesser to produce 6 films, which were distributed by United Artists. All the films were scheduled for a 1952 release, and Briskin was partly responsible for the financing along with Edward Small, as well as having production oversight. At the time, it was considered a very important independent partnership by the Hollywood community. The partnership, known as Associated Players and Producers, was short-lived, producing only one of the six films agreed to with Universal, Kansas City Confidential, a film noir starring John Payne. In January 1953, Briskin was appointed to the executive board of the Screen Producers Guild. While at Paramount, in 1955, he produced the highly commercially successful Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart. After the success of Strategic Air Command, Paramount obtained the rights to The Sons of Katie Elder, and assigned the project to Briskin to produce, with Alan Ladd starring. However, when Ladd brought out the remainder of his contract with Paramount, the film was put on hold, and would not be produced until 1965, by a different producer, Hal B. Wallis. In May 1956, Briskin asked to be released from the final two years of his agreement with Paramount, to which the studio agreed. The one condition was that Briskin finish work on his remaining film commitment to the studio, The Joker is Wild, starring Frank Sinatra, which was being produced by an independent film company, A.M.B.L. Productions, under an agreement with Paramount. ### MGM controversy and return to Columbia In 1957 Briskin was embroiled in a controversy related to the control of MGM. As part of a battle between Joseph R. Vogel and Joseph Tomlinson, Briskin was brought in as a member of the Board of Directors of MGM, along with MGM's former production head, Louis B. Mayer, and also as a producer for the studio. However, the special board meeting which was held to appoint the two executives was held to be illegal by the Delaware Chancery Court, and the Mayer and Briskin appointments were overturned. The conflict continued on throughout the year, until MGM held a stockholders' meeting in October. During the meeting, the shareholders agreed to expand the board by adding ten new directors. Tomlinson's group was clearly routed, gaining only a single seat of the ten; that single seat was Briskin. His seat on MGM's board would last less than a year. After the unexpected death of studio head Harry Cohn in late February 1958, Columbia's board of directors selected a committee to pursue hiring his replacement. In early April it was confirmed that Briskin was one of those who they were considering. In April 1958 Briskin resigned from MGM, in order to return to Columbia, this time as vice president in Charge of West Coast Activities. In addition to his executive production roles, Briskin was also made one of 9 members of Fico's board of directors. Fico was a company formed with the express purpose of buying up shares of Columbia stock on the open market as a way to display confidence in the company. By the end of 1958, Briskin was vice president and general manager of the studio. In April 1959, Briskin announced an ambitious plan for Columbia, wherein they scheduled 99 films for release over an 18-month span, and studio head Abe Schneider (also Briskin's brother-in-law) tagged Briskin to head the program. Among the films scheduled for production during this span included Anatomy of a Murder, A Raisin in the Sun, and Suddenly, Last Summer. Also in 1959, Briskin made Glenn E. Miller Productions a Columbia affiliate, the new arm specializing film production for military and defense purposes. Something Briskin had experience in during World War II. In July, Briskin's brother, Irving, sold his independent television production company to Screen Gems (now Sony Pictures Television), Columbia's wholly owned subsidiary. After the sale, he went back to work at Columbia, where he had been prior to forming his own company. Shortly after, Briskin, reunited with his brother, announced that he was re-integrating Screen Gems back into Columbia, and it would no longer operate as a separate entity. Under Briskin, in July 1959 production hit an all-time high at Columbia, with over \$11.5 million in production at one time. In August, despite rising production costs, Briskin took the unprecedented step of lowering the fees Columbia charged independent producers under contract to the studio. In September 1959 it was announced that Briskin had been elected to Columbia's board of directors, a position he held until his death. At the same time as Briskin was being elected to Columbia's board, it was announced that his son, Jerry, would be joining him at Columbia, working in the Screen Gems division as the producer for the television series, Manhunt. In December, Briskin's contract with Columbia was up for renewal by their shareholders. ## Filmography As the head of production for several film studios, Briskin was in overall charge of all productions at those studios, in an executive producer capacity. However, over his career he would directly produce several films. They are listed below. ## Personal life and death One of Briskin's children, Gerald (Jerry), also became a producer in the film industry, working at the same company as his father, Columbia. He also followed his father into the armed services during World War II, becoming a sergeant in the Signal Corps. Through Jerry, Briskin became a grandfather on May 23, 1944. Briskin's wife's name was Sara, and they had one other child, a son named Bernard. Throughout his life Briskin was a well-known philanthropist, and was quite active in Temple Israel in Los Angeles, as well as Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where he served as president. On Halloween 1968 (October 31), Briskin had a major heart attack and was admitted in critical condition to the hospital. He died two weeks later on November 14, 1968, at UCLA Medical Center, where he was under treatment.

Joanne Gair

New Zealand artist, born 1958

Joanne Gair (born c. 1958), nicknamed Kiwi Jo (alternatively Kiwi Joe), is a New Zealand-born and -raised make-up artist and body painter whose body paintings have been featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999 to 2017. She is considered the world's leading trompe-l'œil body painter and make-up artist, and she became famous with a Vanity Fair Demi's Birthday Suit cover of Demi Moore in a body painting in 1992. Her Disappearing Model was featured on the highest-rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not. She is the daughter of George Gair. In addition to achieving pop culture prominence and respect in the fashion and art worlds starting with her body painting of Demi Moore, she is a make-up artist in the rock and roll world who has helped several of her music clients win fashion and style awards. She is also considered a fashion and art trendsetter, and for a long time she was associated with Madonna. In 2001, she had her first retrospective and in 2005, she published her first book on body painting. At the peak of her pop culture fame after the Vanity Fair cover, she was seriously considered for an Absolut Vodka Absolute Gair ad campaign. She has done magazine editorial work, and in 2005, she became a photographer of her own body paintings in both books and magazines. ## Career Gair, who is New Zealand-born and was raised in Auckland, lives in the United States and is based in Los Angeles. In 1977, she began teaching dance at a New Zealand primary school. She moved from New Zealand at the age of 21 and had a variety of stops on her way to Los Angeles. Most of the time was spent in Australia and Amsterdam, until she ventured to Los Angeles at the time of the 1984 Summer Olympics, after five years away from home. With the help of the Cloutier Agency she obtained a work permit. She then approached the Chanel and Gaultier beauty salons to offer her already well-respected make-up artist services. They both accepted her and she further solidified her reputation to the point where instead of being asked if she was George Gair's daughter it was more common for her father to be asked if he was Joanne Gair's father. Her early work in the music industry included album cover and music video work for David Lee Roth, Tina Turner, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, and Mick Jagger. One of her early successes was being employed to do Roth's 1986 Eat 'Em and Smile album cover. These experiences led to work with Madonna, which started with music videos for "Express Yourself" and "Vogue". She has also done work on music videos for Aerosmith and Nine Inch Nails. Her work on the 1997 Nine Inch Nails video for "The Perfect Drug" won her the makeup portion of the best hair/makeup in a music video at the Music Video Production Awards. She had also won awards for Madonna's Frozen. Among the other notable musicians she has worked with is Gwen Stefani, who won Most Stylish Video at the 1999 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards working with Gair on the video for No Doubt's song "New". Gair also worked on ad campaigns and for photo features in efforts to exhibit the artistic visions of others. Eventually she expanded beyond make-up artistry to body painting to express her own artistic vision. In August 1991, Demi Moore caused international artistic commotion by appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue in the photo More Demi Moore, with Gair as the make-up artist and Annie Leibovitz as the photographer. Exactly one year later, she returned to the cover of the same magazine nude as a product of Gair and Leibovitz in a nearly equally as shocking body painting, Demi's Birthday Suit. Gair was the primary body painter of this art and the magazine cover art propelled Gair to fame. Fifteen years later, it continues to be considered the most well-known example of modern body painting. The 1992 cover that entailed a thirteen-hour sitting for Gair and her team of make-up artists was a commemoration of the August 1991 photo. The shooting was storied because photographer Annie Leibovitz could not decide where to shoot and reserved two mobile homes, four hotel rooms and five houses. The pop culture attention given to Gair and her body painting led Absolut Vodka to consider an Absolut Gair body painting promotion in 1993. Gair is considered a Trompe-l'œil body painter, but at times she describes herself more generally and colloquially as an illusionist. She also refers to herself and others refer to her as an image-maker for her contributions to people's perceptions of others. She was originally inspired to specialise in body painting by facial skin adornment of the indigenous Māori people of her native New Zealand. However, the glam rockers and heavy metal rockers as well as white-face geishas, Native American Indians and Indian mehndi all contributed to her inspiration. She began using Sharpies to draw on people in 1977. Her work, which became prominent with the August 1992 Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore, has transcended various media and involved her with leading photographers, directors, super models and celebrities. Gair has worked with leading celebrities (Madonna, Cindy Crawford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger, Christina Aguilera, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sophia Loren and Celine Dion) and been in editorial (Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy, BlackBook, and Harper's Bazaar), fashion campaigns (Donna Karan, Versace, Victoria's Secret, Guess, and bebe), cosmetic companies (L'Oréal, Maybelline, Revlon, Oil of Olay, and Rimmel) and mega-brands such as Evian. At one point she was beauty editor of Black Book. Her work with Madonna includes music videos such as Express Yourself, Vogue, Fever, Rain, Frozen, the Blonde Ambition Tour and its subsequent feature documentary Truth or Dare. When Madonna teamed up with Herb Ritts for black and white photographs, Gair did the eyelashes and make-up. Gair has been the subject of numerous television programs and magazine articles, including what was the highest-rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not?. Her first retrospective was exhibited at the Auckland Museum as part of the Vodafone Body Art exhibition in 2001 and early 2002. Gair has earned many motion picture credits for work as a make-up artist. In 1996 and 1997, she was employed on three of Moore's films (Striptease, If These Walls Could Talk & G.I. Jane). In addition, she earned a 1997 credit on Playboy: Farrah Fawcett, All of Me for Farrah Fawcett. In 2002, she earned a make-up credit on People I Know for working with Kim Basinger. She also earned a 2003 credit for work on the short documentary The Work of Director Chris Cunningham. ## Sports Illustrated In her first year in the Swimsuit Issue (1999), she painted Rebecca Romijn, Heidi Klum, Sarah O'Hare, Michelle Behennah, Yamila Díaz-Rahi, and Daniela Peštová in a variety of beachware. The first Gair Sports Illustrated body paintings occurred at Richard Branson's Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. Some of these also appeared in a 2001 Sports Illustrated calendar, and Heidi Klum's tie-dyed swimsuit bodypainting earned her and Gair the cover of the German edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2001, the Swimsuit Issue had a goddess theme. The cover featuring Elsa Benítez used the caption "Goddess of the Mediterranean". Gair contributed to this theme by body painting the models as statues of goddess: Klum (Athena), Díaz-Rahi (Thalia), Veronika Vařeková (Aphrodite, Venus), Molly Sims (Flora), Noémie Lenoir (Luna), Fernanda Tavares (Aurora), and Shakara Ledard (Diana) as goddesses. At about the same time in 2001, her work featuring Klum was featured on the cover of the tenth anniversary of Shape Magazine. In 2003, she painted a seven continent world map on Rachel Hunter, a fellow New Zealander, and purposely represented Australia and New Zealand "down under" (on the buttocks). In the 2004 issue, when she painted Jessica White, Petra Nemcova, Marisa Miller, Noemie Lenoir, Melissa Keller, and Hall, the paintings featured both body painting and real bathing suit portions in most images. However, bathing suit portions were not apparent in all images. In the 2005 issue, she painted Bridget Hall, White, Miller, Anne V, and Sarahyba with athletic team outfits. In the 2006 issue, she painted multiple bathing suits on Klum. One of these appeared on the cover of the German edition of Sports Illustrated. It was the ninth time that Gair and Klum worked together and the seventh time that they did so for Sports Illustrated. In the 2007 issue, where music was the theme and Beyoncé Knowles was featured on the cover, she painted rock and roll related tee shirts and bikini bottoms on Daniella Sarahyba, Miller, Praver and Ana Paula Araujo. In the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, when she painted bathing suits on Quiana Grant, Jessica Gomes, Marisa Miller, and Tori Praver, the average sitting time for the subjects/objects was thirteen hours. The photographers in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2004 were respectively Antoine Verglas, James Porto, Michael Zeppetello and Steven White for the Swimsuit Issue works. From 2005 to 2007 Gair took the photographs of her body paintings herself. Verglas again photographed the bodypainting for the 2008 Swimsuit Issue. No body painting pictures have been chosen as the exclusive main image on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. However, in the 2005 Swimsuit Issue in which Carolyn Murphy is the cover model, Jessica White was shown as an inset on the cover in a Miami Dolphins jersey body painting by Gair. Thus, as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue photographer Gair debuted on the cover in a sense. In 2006 a small cropped portion of her photograph of a bodypainting of Klum appeared in an inset on the cover, but no bodypainting was apparent. The 2016 Swimsuit Issue designated three cover models for three separate covers, one of which was a photograph of Ronda Rousey in a Gair-painted one-piece bathing suit, thus making it the first Swimsuit bodypaint cover (albeit not the exclusive cover for that year). One more round of bodypaint photos was done in 2017 (featuring models Anne de Paula, Hunter McGrady, Lisa Marie Jaftha, and McKenna Berkley); the magazine did not include a bodypaint feature in 2018 or 2019. ## Books Gair has produced two English books: Paint A 'Licious: The Pain-Free Way to Achieving Your Naked Ambitions (, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005) and Body Painting: Masterpieces By Joanne Gair (with foreword by Heidi Klum) (, Universem, 2006) as well as one Spanish book: Arte en el cuerpo (, Numen, 2007). In her first book, Paint A 'Licious, she was both the painter and photographer as well as the arranger who conceived the scenes. Paint A 'Licious has a theme of helping people achieve their fantasies. Among the works included were one called It's a Stretch but You've Still Got It, which shows an older woman in a pink tutu doing the splits on a golden stage, with the help of an assistant painted to blend into the curtains and 'No Sweat' which shows an overweight woman happily leading an aerobics class with her body painted so that she appears 30 pounds slimmer. In the book, washboard abs are achieved by sitting still for a few hours, as is an hourglass figure. The book was produced over the course of ten months in New Zealand. Her second book, Body Painting, includes seventy-five works and some of the photographers involved were Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts and David LaChapelle. The book includes many works from Gair's Auckland Museum exhibition as well as selected Swimsuit Issue images. Former model and current First Lady of France, Carla Bruni, was a subject of the book. Several Heidi Klum photos are included from various photo shoots, including the 1991 Shape magazine tenth anniversary shoot. Several photos of Demi Moore also appear including alternate photos from the Kauai, Hawaii portion of the 1992 Demi's Birthday Suit week of shooting as well as both photos of her 1994 pregnancy with Tallulah Belle Willis and subsequent 1995 Barbie body paintings. A photo from the Disappearing Model work from Ripley's Believe It or Not? is also included. The book also includes magazine work such as a May 1990 Fame shoot with Goldie Hawn and Matthew Rolston and a November 1998 Interview shoot with Pamela Anderson and David LaChapelle as well as some Pirelli calendar work with Herb Ritts, Carolyn Murphy and Alek Wek. Sports Illustrated produced Sports Illustrated: In the Paint (, Time, Inc. Home Entertainment, 2007) in November 2007. The book is subtitled The complete body-painting collection from the SI Swimsuit Issue: The Art of Joanne Gair. The book contains reproductions of photographs of all of the body paintings that have been included in the swimsuit issue since Gair has become involved and excludes all body painting that preceded Gair's involvement. Thus, she is the featured artist of the book that includes photographs by all of the aforementioned photographers. The book also contains stories that accompanied some of the issues by Sports Illustrated writers such as Rick Reilly who observed the process. The cover image of Sarah O'Hare was shot by Antoine Verglas who photographed Gair's 1999 bodypaintings for the Swimsuit Issue. The book includes images produced in Gair's earlier efforts for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999 to 2007. It also includes several behind-the-scenes images not include in the magazine. ## Television Although to many she is best known for Demi's Birthday Suit, art aficionados consider her most famous work Disappearing Model. The work appeared on Ripley's Believe it or Not!. In the trompe l'oeil body painting, the face and body of the model are almost indistinguishable from the red and blue and yellow flowers of the wallpaper in the background. Her first body paintings was also memorable as she painted a moko on a female Ford Modeling Agency fashion model named Jana, which is a tabooed employment of a traditionally male ritual face mask. An example from Gair's website of her ability to trick the eye into seeing a three-dimensional subject blend with a two-dimensional background is seen in a photograph of a pregnant Elle Macpherson. Other examples of this technique include the cover of her first book (pictured below) and images from within this book. She participated in Germany's Next Topmodel by painting and photographing the final four contestants in leopard prints. During the episode, which was Cycle 1 episode 6, she handled two models per day working for six to seven hours with each. The works covered the shoulders, legs, breasts and stomach and included long hair extensions. The episode resulted in work that was so successful that none of the contestants were eliminated. ## Style Gair has now developed a style as a body painter. Her typical job takes her and her team eight hours, but some jobs take twice that. She does not charge by the hour. Gair is always well prepared for her jobs, but does not generally sketch her work on paper. In fact, she claims to have only had to do so twice in over twenty years of body painting. When she needs to test something out she usually uses her opposite (left) arm or hand. In recent years, Gair has added photography to her professional skills. In addition to being the photographer of Paint A 'Licious, she has been the photographer in some years of her Sports Illustrated work. For example, she was the photographer of Heidi Klum in 2006. At the end of 2007, Gair was using a Canon 5D camera. ## Family Gair is from Takapuna in the North Island of New Zealand, but she now lives in both Los Angeles and New York City. Her father is Hon. George Gair, a former New Zealand politician, and her nephew Alastair Gair is a competitive Etchells racer. Her father was a long-time Member of the Parliament of New Zealand (1966–1990) and later Mayor of North Shore City (1995–1998). Her mother is Fay Gair, and her elder sister Linda Gair served both as a model and as a painting assistant in several of the paintings in her first book. Linda also has a daughter named Lauren. One of the paintings for which Linda assisted was the cover of Paint A 'Licious. Gair also has an older brother named Warwick.

Sunsets (song)

2004 single by Powderfinger

"Sunsets" is a song released as the third single from Australian rock band Powderfinger's fifth studio album, Vulture Street. The single was released on 4 January 2004 in Australia and New Zealand. "Sunsets" earned a mixed response from reviewers. Some reviewers praised its appeal and aggression, whilst others appreciated the power ballad elements within it. Others, however, described the song negatively as "lumbering". "Sunsets" charted moderately, reaching No. 11 on the Australian Singles Chart. ## Recording and production Vulture Street was recorded and developed over a seven-week period in Sydney, Australia. It was during this time that "Sunsets" was written and produced. Nick DiDia produced the album, as he had done on previous Powderfinger albums including Odyssey Number Five. "Sunsets" was mixed in Atlanta, Georgia, by Brendan OBrien, who had previously worked with DiDia. Fanning described the album during production stages as "a much more dry, direct rock", but also noted that "just because I rock, doesn't mean I'm made of stone". In that sense, "Sunsets" (and numerous other songs on Vulture Street) were seen as emotive, combined with the rock elements Fanning described. In an interview with Undercover magazine, Powderfinger guitarist Darren Middleton described "Sunsets" as one of (songwriter and lead vocalist) Bernard Fanning's older songs. He said it was similar to the acoustic songs on Odyssey Number Five, the band's previous album. Middleton also said the band worked hard to make "Sunsets" heavy, so that it shared the feel of other songs on the album. In an interview with Rove host Rove McManus, Fanning described Vulture Street as the band wanting to "make a change" and "go back to why [they] started playing". He cited rock and roll from the 1970s as a major influence on the album, especially the work of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. ## Response "Sunsets" was received with varying levels of enthusiasm from reviewers. MusicOMH reviewer Simon Evans described "Sunsets" and "Stumblin'" as some of the more "lumbering" moments on Vulture Street, but still said they contained "a certain earthy appeal". In his review of Vulture Street, Sputnikmusic contributor James Bishop agreed, calling "Sunsets" the "most successful single from the album", and praising its emotional impact. Meanwhile, Allmusic's Vulture Street reviewer, Jason MacNeil, described "Sunsets" as "adorable", and drew comparisons to The Verve's "Lucky Man". Sydney Morning Herald's Bernard Zuel agreed, praising "Sunsets" as "the new definition of power ballad", and saying the song contained "open-hearted feeling and well-constructed progression". ## Music video The music video for "Sunsets" was created by the animation studio Liquid Animation. It begins with the following dialogue in yellow: > In the time of the Chou Dynasty it was believed there existed Ten Celestial Suns. Each day, one sun would be harnessed to a jade dragon and drawn across the heavens, bringing life and light to the world. It was their duty, all they had known – but in their hearts a cold and secret fire grew... The visual theme for the video is the Chinese legend of Houyi. The video goes on to introduce King Di-Jun, his ten sons (who are also the Celestial Suns), Queen Xi and Warrior Yi. The video shows one of the King's ten sons being strapped to the back of the jade dragon, but breaks free and the sons made life on Earth unbearable, so the King send the warrior who was introduced earlier to kill them. He succeeds in finding them, and kills all but one. An acoustic video for "Sunsets" is also featured on bonus DVDs for Vulture Street, and Dream Days at the Hotel Existence, as well as the Sunsets DVD single and These Days: Live in Concert "low key" DVD. The video features Bernard Fanning and Darren Middleton playing the song in a rehearsal room. ## Accolades ## Track listing 1. "Sunsets" 2. "Sunsets" (acoustic) 3. "Rita" (Audio Airlock demos) 4. "Not the Only One" (studio outtake) ## Personnel Powderfinger - Bernard Fanning — Guitar and vocals - John Collins — Bass guitar - Ian Haug — Guitars - Darren Middleton — Guitars - Jon Coghill — Drums Additional musicians - Tony Reyes – Keyboards, guitar and backing vocals - Shauna Jensen and Maggie McKinney – Backing vocals - Lachlan Doley – Hammond organ and piano - Nick DiDia – Tambourine and anüsaphone Production - Nick DiDia – Producer, engineer - Tony Reyes – Producer - Brendan O'Brien – Mixer - Anton Hagop – Additional engineer - Catherine Claire – Assistant engineer - Paul Piticco, Brian Quinn, Annette Perkins, Janne Scott and Jean Reid – Managers - Steven Gorrow – Art and direction - Christopher Morris – Photographer ## Charts ## See also - Powderfinger songs - Full discography

Mississippi Highway 69

Highway in Mississippi

Mississippi Highway 69 (MS 69) is a state highway in eastern Mississippi. The route starts at the Alabama state line, and travels northwestward to Columbus. MS 69 then goes through downtown Columbus, and ends at U.S. Route 45 (US 45) and US 82 in the west side of the town. Before the road was designated as MS 69 in 1941, it was a gravel road from Columbus to the state line. The road was paved in asphalt in 1953. In 1992, US 82 was realigned, and MS 69 was extended through Columbus to its current northern terminus. ## Route description MS 69 starts at the Alabama state line, where Alabama State Route 14 ends. The route turns northwest at Spurlock Road. It travels through the forest, intersecting Weaver Road and Halbert Road. MS 69 moves westward for a short period between Concord Road and East Minnie Vaughn Road. The road then curves slowly towards Columbus, as small streets begin to appear. At Pickensville Road, MS 69 travels north into Columbus, and intersects Fabritek Drive, the entrance to Columbus-Lowndes County Airport. At Yorkville Road, the road meets MS 795's eastern terminus. It soon crosses over the McCrary Vernon Creek and the Alabama Southern Railroad. At MS 182, MS 69 becomes concurrent with it and travels westward. The road soon crosses over Luxapalila Creek and enters downtown Columbus. MS 69 and MS 182 changes into a divided highway at Thirteenth Street. The street then intersects Fifth Street, which becomes US 45 past US 82. MS 182 continues westward on Island Road, while MS 69 travels northwestward. The route ends at US 45 and US 82 at a diamond interchange. The road continues to East Plymouth Road, where it ends at a three-way junction. All of MS 69 is located in Lowndes County. The route is legally defined in Mississippi Code § 65-3-3, and all of it is maintained by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT). ## History A gravel road from Columbus to the Mississippi–Alabama state line has existed since 1928, and it was designated as MS 69 by 1941. A \$296,187.71 () contract awarded by the Mississippi State Highway Commission in 1951 was used to grade the road, add drainage, culverts, and bridges to the route. The road was paved with asphalt by 1953, after being proposed four years earlier by the city of Columbus' Chamber of Commerce. The highway caught on fire in 1957, after a wagon carrying coal tar spilled its contents, destroying multiple telephone lines. In 1958, the northern terminus was rerouted out of downtown Columbus, to east of US 82 and MS 50's intersection. In 1992, US 82 was realigned to the bypass around Columbus, and MS 69 was extended through Columbus to a diamond interchange in the western part of the town. ## Major intersections

Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line

Railway branch line in Buckinghamshire, UK

The Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line was a railway branch line in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom running from Wolverton on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) (today's West Coast Main Line) to Newport Pagnell. The line fully opened to passengers in 1867. An extension to Olney was planned in 1865, but this scheme was abandoned after partial construction. Earthworks along the route of the extension still exist in Bury Field (Newport Pagnell), and plaques exist detailing the history of the failed project. Competition from road traffic starting in the early twentieth century put pressure on the railway, and it was later a victim of the Beeching cuts. The line was seen as unprofitable, and it closed to passengers in 1964, and to goods traffic in 1967. Part of the trackbed today provides a section of the Milton Keynes redway system, a network of shared paths that serves the Milton Keynes urban area. ## Background The Newport Pagnell Canal had opened in 1817 between the Grand Junction Canal at Great Linford and Newport Pagnell. The canal carried a reasonable level of traffic but, in 1845, the LNWR attempted to buy the canal to use its route as a potential railway line. The offer was refused for two decades, until 1862, when the LNWR was able to purchase the canal for £9000. The canal closed in 1864. Despite this, the railway when built did not run on the line of the old canal. Two earlier proposals had been made in 1845 and 1846 for a railway serving Newport Pagnell: both schemes failed to attract sufficient capital. ## Construction and operation Permission to build the 4-mile (6.4 km) long single line branch railway was obtained on 16 June 1863. The line opened for goods in 1866, with passenger services commencing on 2 September 1867. The line was officially absorbed by the LNWR in 1875. The one engine that worked the single track branch was later nicknamed Newport Nobby. In 1865, powers were granted to extend the line from Newport Pagnell to Olney and then on to meet the Northampton and Peterborough Railway at Wellingborough. Construction was underway, and a bridge had been completed when the extension was abandoned in 1871. Olney was later served by a station on the Midland Railway's Bedford–Northampton line from 1872: that line closed in 1962. In 1900 a spur connecting the branch to the up slow line of the West Coast Main Line was constructed. The water supply for locomotives at Wolverton was insufficient, so a water column was built at the intermediate station in Bradwell. Water came from the town's own source, with many houses losing their supply. On Mondays, housewives were known to shake their fists at engine drivers when their weekly wash was interrupted Eventually drivers were forbidden from taking water from Bradwell on Mondays. In 1898, the first motor bus service in Buckinghamshire began running between Newport Pagnell and Olney, followed by numerous other routes, which took traffic away from the railway line. Despite this, the LNWR considered electrification of the line in 1904, believing such a scheme would bring about considerable savings, but the idea never materialised. ## Closure The branch was included in the Beeching report of 1963 which concluded that, since 30% of the railway network carried less than 1% of the total passenger traffic, much of it should be closed. The residents of Newport Pagnell resisted the closure, demanding an enquiry which took place on 7 June 1964. Despite many objections, it was determined that the line would close. The last passenger service was the 5:34 pm train from Newport Pagnell on 5 September 1964, just under a century after the line opened to passengers. The mourning of the line was so great that a bucket of water was poured over a double dressed as Richard Beeching, the man commonly associated with the closure of over 4,000 miles of the British railway network. The crowd cheered as this happened, a mark of the public's feelings about the closure. The line was finally closed to freight traffic in 1967, after which the tracks were lifted. ## See also - Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway

Kyrgyzstan at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Kyrgyzstan a delegation to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. This was Kyrgyzstan's fourth appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The delegation consisted of a single alpine skier, first-time Olympian Ivan Borisov. His best performance was 41st in the men's giant slalom, and he was disqualified from the men's slalom. ## Background Following the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1993. Kyrgyzstan has participated in every Winter Olympics since the 1994 Lillehammer Games, and every Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games. This was therefore Kyrgyzstan's fourth appearance at a Winter Olympics. The Kyrgyzstani delegation to Turin consisted of a single athlete, alpine skier Ivan Borisov. He was the flag bearer for both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. ## Alpine skiing Ivan Borisov was 26 years old at the time of the Turin Olympics, and was making his Olympic debut. On 20 February he took part in the men's giant slalom, posting run times of 1 minute and 59.49 seconds and 1 minute and 37.61 seconds; in both heats, he was the last finisher. He finished in 41st and last place with a time of 3 minutes and 37.10 seconds, nearly 30 seconds behind 40th place, but there were 40 other competitors who failed to finish both legs. On 25 February, in the slalom, Borisov finished the first run in 1 minute and 9.54 seconds. In the second run, he posted a provisional time of 1 minute and 21.07 seconds, but was disqualified for missing a gate. ## See also - Kyrgyzstan at the 2006 Asian Games

Bonville–Courtenay feud

English feud

The Bonville–Courtenay feud of 1455 engendered a series of raids, sieges, and attacks between two major Devon families, the Courtenays and the Bonvilles, in south west England, in the mid-fifteenth century. One of many such aristocratic feuds of the time, it became entwined with national politics due to the political weight of the protagonists. The Courtenay earls of Devon were the traditional powerbrokers in the region, but by this time a local baronial family, the Bonvilles, had become more powerful and rivalled the Courtenays for royal patronage. Eventually this rivalry spilled over into physical violence, including social disorder, murder, and siege. The Bonville–Courtenay feud is often given as an example of the degree to which law and order and respect for the king had broken down in the provinces. As a result, modern historians have often considered it a cause of the later Wars of the Roses; and indeed, the course of the feud often closely followed the sectarian politics of the day. The feud is perhaps most well known for culminating in an armed encounter at Clyst (called the fight, or sometimes the battle, of Clyst), near Exeter, which resulted in loss of life. The events at Clyst resulted in government intervention in the politics of the West Country. This was unusual, as the government did not have a good track-record of settling local disputes among the nobility. However, it is likely that this was done for reasons of higher politics; William Bonville was by 1455 a Yorkist, and Richard, Duke of York, had been made Lord Protector. Although in the short term it resulted in Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon's, incarceration, the Bonville–Courtenay feud did not come to an effective end until the protagonists were all killed in the early years of the civil wars. ## Background The mid-fifteenth century suffered greatly from the private feuds of the nobility, and the Wars of the Roses in general. Devonshire, whilst experiencing none of the pitched battles, was still ravaged by a private feud. This was between Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, whose family had been earls of that county since 1335 and William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville. Their feud became inextricably tied to the national political scene, but originated in regional Devon society. In 2003, historian Martin Cherry agreed that the south west was to a great degree lawless at this time. However, he suggested that the Bonville–Courtenay feud, whilst being the best-known, is not the sole example of political upheaval in the region, which was common throughout the century. ### National context In 1966, historian R. L. Storey suggested that the civil wars which racked England for much of the fifteenth century had their origins in the breakdown of both the king's ability to govern, and law and order in the localities, and gave the Courtenay–Bonville feud as one such example. The king, Henry VI, had been incapacitated by mental illness in August 1453. This led to the recall to court of the recalcitrant Richard, Duke of York, his closest adult relative and a potential claimant to the throne. York had been banished to his estates after a failed rebellion in 1452. The following year, with the king still incapacitated, York was appointed Lord Protector and First Councillor of the realm, for the duration of the king's illness. He used this position to move against his chief rival, the hitherto dominant Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who was imprisoned. By Christmas of 1454, King Henry had recovered from his illness, removing the basis for York's authority. Henry and a select council of nobles decided to hold a great council at Leicester. York and his closest allies, his brother-in-law Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and Salisbury's son Richard, Earl of Warwick, anticipated that charges might be brought against them at this assembly. They gathered an armed retinue and marched to stop the royal party from reaching Leicester, intercepting them at St Albans. Both militarily and politically it was a complete victory for York and the Nevilles. On 22 May 1455, at the First Battle of St Albans they captured the king and retook their places in government, while York's and the Nevilles' rivals, the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford were killed. Among the royalists wounded were the Duke of Buckingham and Somerset's son the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Devon, and the king's half-brother Jasper Tudor. York was appointed Protector of England, for the second time, by parliament a few months later. Professor Ralph A. Griffiths places the fault for the feud between the Courtenays and Bonvilles firmly in the lap of King Henry VI, through whose "thoughtless liberality and government carelessness ... personal jealousies in the west country had been exacerbated." However, more recently, Martin Cherry warned against seeing the feud as the same as the later civil wars writ small; they were, he says, "qualitatively" different, resulting in the ultimate disintegration of the earl's affinity, rather than symptomatic of his violence. Michael Hicks has pointed out that although there were many other regional feuds at this time (including the Lisle-Berkeley dispute, also waged in the west country), they did not have the same causes, or were necessarily caused by weak government at all: for instance, whereas the Bonville–Courtenay feud had territorial domination at its root, others, such as the Berkeley–Lisle dispute, were begun over contested inheritances. Cherry has also suggested that the main cause of the Bonville–Courtenay dispute was the desperation of the earl to "gain access to crown patronage for himself and his clients" – something he was gradually failing to do in the face of competition. ### Local politics As noted, the feud between the Bonvilles and Courtenays was rooted in local Devonshire politics. The rivalry between them stemmed from the fact that they were major estate holders in the south west, and further, because both had claims to crown patronage. For example, William Bonville had fought in the Hundred Years' War for both Henry VI and his father, Henry V, whilst Devon through his wife was the king's cousin. Although the earl was both the greatest landowner and the highest ranking nobleman in the county, he had in recent years seen members of the lesser gentry and nobility (such as William Bonville) receive advancement in his stead. Bonville had also furthered his own advancement by successively marrying into the lower nobility (a daughter of the Lord Grey of Ruthin) and then to an aunt of the Earl of Devon himself. The main royal office in the area – and therefore the main source of royal patronage – was the stewardship of the highly profitable Duchy of Cornwall. Both men had held the office alternately over recent years. Tensions between the two have been traced back to 1437, when the stewardship was taken from Courtenay and granted to William Bonville. Courtenay did receive a royal grant of £100 per annum life annuity at this time. But, says Griffiths, this is unlikely to have made up for loss of the main royal office in the county. Certainly, within two years, severe attacks were being launched on Bonville's property, and by 1440, relations between the two were, Griffiths says, "at breaking point." This tension became apparent in open manifestations of military strength; manifestations worrying enough to government to lead to them both being summoned before council. In 1441 the stewardship was returned to the Earl of Devon, although Radford questions whether Bonville actually ever physically surrendered the office, as in November that year an arbitration took place between them to "end all [of their] differences." There followed a four-year period of peace; but this could simply be accounted for by the fact that Bonville spent that time in service in Gascony, which, it has been suggested, may have been one of the conditions of the arbitration. It was, though, only a temporary peace for the region as by 1449 the earl besieged Bonville (now promoted to the baronage in recognition of his success in France) in his castle of Taunton for a year. Courtenay supported Richard, Duke of York in his 1452 rebellion at Dartford, even joining him in the field against the king. This treason resulted in him forfeiting his royal offices in the south west, including not only the stewardship of the duchy – which was finally granted to Bonville for life – but Lydford Castle, the Forest of Dartmoor, and the Water of Exe. Hence, as his ally the duke was eclipsed in government, Courtenay was eclipsed by Bonville in the south west. Courtenay had – in imitation of his ally – waged a local war against Bonville and Bonville's ally, James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire, between 1451–5. Raising an army of 5–6,000 men, he forced Wiltshire to desert his manor of Lackham, and then returned to the siege of Taunton. The siege was only lifted when the Duke of York arrived unannounced three days later, and took the castle into his own hands, forcing a peace upon the two parties. Bonville had, then, by April 1455, received much royal favour, including all the offices the earl had lost, as well as the constableship of Exeter Castle. He was – as one historian has called him – "the King's lieutenant in the west." The Earl of Devon had already reacted against this hegemony during the Duke of York's first protectorate (1454–5) and joined the royal council. However, it appears that even the council itself did not trust him to keep the King's peace, as they placed him under a bond of £1,000 to do so. This he had disregarded, and commenced another campaign against Bonville. This time, the Earl of Devon was accompanied by his sons, and, bringing a force of men into Exeter in April 1455, he attempted to ambush Bonville. This resulted in further government-imposed undertakings of good behaviour between the two parties. As the government was now headed by Courtenay's old ally, the Duke of York, it is likely that it was now that the earl decided to reject his alliance with York and give his support to the crown. He fought (and was wounded) at St Albans on 22 May that year, on the side of the king. Bonville, meanwhile, through his wife, was related to the Harrington family of Hornby, Lancashire, who had close links to the Nevilles – his father-in-law was Thomas Harrington, a feoffee and retainer to the Earl of Salisbury. Bonville's new-found Yorkist sympathies seem to have driven the Earl of Devon to even greater violence in the county. ## The murder of Nicholas Radford From October 1455, Devon and his sons were committing acts of social disorder, seemingly intending to disrupt the administrative machinery of the county (of which Bonville, of course, was a part), for instance by preventing the local justices of the peace from holding quarterly sessions by force; they then proceeded to raise a small army at Tiverton under the leadership of Devon's eldest son, Thomas Courtenay. It was this force that was to be guilty of what R. L. Storey has called "the most notorious private crime of the century," due not only to the violence involved but the fact that it was "so obviously premeditated." This force made its way to Upcott on 23 October 1455, the home of Nicholas Radford, a close associate and legal advisor to Bonville, and a respected member of the community who had previously been recorder of the city of Exeter and member of parliament. Storey has suggested that being an experienced lawyer, he was most probably targeted by Devon and his sons for the very reason that he had aided Bonville's escape from Devon's litigation in the past; and in January 1455 he had enfeoffed Bonville (and others) for land valued at £400. Thomas Courtenay's force attacked Radford's manor that night; they set fire to the wall and gates to draw him out. On their word, including Courtenay's solemn promise to do him no harm if he would speak with them, Radford let them in – although apparently he commented upon their large number. Whilst Radford and Devon's son drank wine, the latter's followers "ransacked" Radford's house, stealing goods up to the value of 1,000 marks, including all his horses and the sheets off his invalid wife's bed. On a pretext of meeting his father the earl, Courtenay persuaded Radford to accompany him when his force withdrew; however, he abandoned Radford on the road a short distance from the house, and six of Courtenay's men killed him. Devon subsequently dispatched a force to the chapel where Radford's body was; they performed, says Storey, a "mock inquest, one of them acting as coroner and others, with assumed names, as jurors. They brought in a verdict of suicide." They then forced Radford's servants to convey his corpse as if he had been a heretic to the graveyard, where it was deposited unceremoniously into an open grave; the stones laid ready to build his memorial were then dropped on the body, crushing it. By making recognition of the body impossible, this prevented an official inquest being held into Radford's death. ## Following the murder The murder of Nicholas Radford, says R. L. Storey, was only "the curtain raiser" for further military activities. Devon proceeded to raise a force and occupy Exeter – "as if they were the city's lawful garrison" – until just before Christmas, seizing the keys of the city; various houses in the city belonging to Bonville and his supporters were ransacked, and members of the Cathedral were arrested and forced to buy their freedom. In one case, a man was bodily removed from the choir whilst celebrating Mass. Both Bonville and Courtenay had 'extensive relations' with the Cathedral, dating back to the 1430s, but the Courtenays had greatly contributed to its expansion in the previous century. Their actions in 1455 were probably inspired by the fact that Radford had entrusted much of his wealth to the safe-keeping of the church, and Devon saw an opportunity to enrich himself; possibly, says Storey, he was forced to take such action to be able to pay his men. Martin Cherry has pointed to the lack of references to any martial expenses on the earl's behalf in the extant accounts, as indicating that his campaign effectively paid for itself. During the same period, Devon, "in warlike fashion and like an insurrection" also besieged Powderham Castle, which belonged to his distant cousin and Bonville ally, Sir Philip Courtenay; the latter resisted, and Bonville came to his assistance. Prior to doing this, however, he raided the Earl of Devon's house at Colcombe Castle and proceeded to ransack it. Bonville attempted to lift the siege at Powderham on 19 November, but was repulsed by Devon, and lost two men in the fight, which may have involved up to a thousand men. Meanwhile, Devon continued his attempts to persuade the city of Exeter to raise a force on his behalf – which they refused to do – before leaving Exeter on 15 December, as Bonville approached, on his way to Powderham. The two forces met at Clyst, just south west of Exeter. ## The fight at Clyst Devon marched from Exeter to encounter Bonville at Clyst Heath; there are very few extant sources for the event, and only one chronicler provides any details, saying he "departed out of the city with his people into the field of Clyst, and there bickered and fought with the Lord Bonville and put them to flight, and so returned again that night into the city." Many bones were discovered when the site was excavated in 1800, although some, Storey points out, must belong to those killed in the 1549 engagement on the same site. Although difficult to assess the extent to which the engagement can be described as a battle (one chronicler estimated the dead at twelve men) it does appear to have been decisive in Devon's favour. The earl returned to Exeter, where the mayor had "tactfully" laid on a celebration. Hannes Kleineke has described the mayor's decision to illuminate the city walls on the earl's return as "pragmatic", whilst Cherry explains the mayor's behaviour as being due to the fact that the earl, "in his peculiar manner, [had behaved] punctiliously" to the mayor. The earl subsequently sent a sortie led by Thomas Carrew to attack Bonville's manor at Shute where they faced no resistance and pillaged freely, stealing Bonville's cattle, furnishings, and food. The weeks preceding the battle had been accompanied by what has been called "exchange[s] of formal declarations of war disguised in the chivalric mode of challenges to a duel." Michael Hicks has suggested that, in spite of the earl's clear superiority in numbers, it was Bonville who "goaded the earl into a fair fight," and that "in the spirit of chivalry" the confrontation at Clyst was his fault. Cherry too has suggested that Bonville and Courtenay of Powderham deliberately attempted to recruit members of the earl's historical tenantry, further poisoning relations, and also that, although doubtless the earl has deserved the 'universally bad press' he has received from modern historians, he was still "reluctant to go to war," and that he did so "only after all other methods of achieving his aims ... had failed." ## Response from government However decisive the Earl of Devon's victory had been, it had also drawn the attention of the government. This was still under the control of Bonville's allies, York, Salisbury, and Warwick, but had up until that point the Yorkists had failed to intervene in this local feud. The feud has been described as an example of local activities influencing parliament itself, and Griffiths said it was used as "a pretext for demanding York's appointment as protector." When parliament reassembled on 12 November it was presented with reports that Devon was leading an army of about 4,000 men and including 400 cavalry to London. The king was still incapacitated. Unable to manage the situation; the Duke of York used the immediate necessity for intervention as a mechanism for being formally appointed Protector. He did not immediately hasten to the south west to punish the Earl of Devon, though. The earl was merely dismissed from his role on the commission of the peace in early December. Soon after, the local gentry were ordered to be ready to assist York. The duke did not set out until news was received of the Clyst confrontation. One chronicler states that following his defeat, Bonville "fled, and came to Grenewiche to the kyng, and the kyng sent him agayne to the lord protectour;" although it is also possible that he was committed to the Fleet Prison for a short time. When finally York left for the south west, he summoned the Earl of Devon to Shaftesbury where the earl was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. ## Aftermath The Earl of Devon remained imprisoned for only a few months. It is possible that an attempt was made to bring him to trial in February, but if so, it was probably – in Storey's words – "countermanded." This could have been, he suggests, indicative of York's "waning" position, as the protectorate was soon to come to an end: Cherry has said that the king's resumption of personal power in February 1456 must have come as "a considerable relief" to the earl. He seems to have taken the Yorkists' eclipse as a further opportunity to continue the feud, which provoked governmental admonishment in March, when his son John Courtenay, with 500 armed men, again prevented the Exeter justices of the peace from sitting, and evicted them. Commissions of oyer and terminer were issued in August, being led by Bonville's ally the Earl of Wiltshire. Although Bonville presented a long list of offences committed by Devon to the council (whilst mitigating his own involvement), the crown "was obviously unimpressed" by this, and eventually not only restored Devon to commission of the peace (12 September 1456) but also pardoned him and his sons for any involvement in the murder of Radford, eventually even appointing him to the lucrative office of keeper of the forest and park of Clarendon. The region subsequently remained quiet; Bonville was of advanced age and Devon was possibly unwell, as he died in Abingdon within eighteen months. His will was executed by some of the most important men on the Queen's council. The region took no active part in the ensuing civil wars until the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, but both parties to the feud were killed in the civil wars over the next few years. The new Earl of Devon, who had killed Radford, was a thorough supporter of the Lancastrian regime. After the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Northampton in June 1460, he took his troops northwards to Margaret of Anjou in York, where, in April 1461, he was executed by the new king, Edward IV after the Battle of Towton. Bonville's son and grandson had been killed with the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460, and Bonville himself, captured after the Second Battle of St Albans was summarily beheaded – probably, so the chroniclers tell us, after a mock trial directly instigated by the Earl of Devon.

History of Filipino Americans

Overview of the history of Filipino Americans

The history of Filipino Americans begins in the 16th century when Filipinos first arrived in what is now the United States. The first Filipinos came to what is now the United States due to the Philippines being part of New Spain. Until the 19th century, the Philippines continued to be geographically isolated from the rest of New Spain in the Americas but maintained regular communication across the Pacific Ocean via the Manila galleon. Filipino seamen in the Americas settled in Louisiana, and Alta California, beginning in the 18th century. By the 19th century, Filipinos were living in the United States, fighting in the Battle of New Orleans and the American Civil War, with the first Filipino becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States before its end. In the final years of the 19th century, the United States went to war with Spain, ultimately annexing the Philippine Islands from Spain. Due to this, the History of the Philippines merged with that of the United States, beginning with the three-year-long Philippine–American War (1899-1902), which resulted in the defeat of the First Philippine Republic, and the attempted Americanization of the Philippines. Mass migration of Filipinos to the United States began in the early 20th century due to Filipinos being U.S. Nationals. These included Filipinos who enlisted as sailors of the United States Navy, pensionados, and laborers. During the Great Depression, Filipino Americans became targets of race-based violence, including race riots such as the one in Watsonville. The Philippine Independence Act was passed in 1934, redefining Filipinos as aliens for immigration; this encouraged Filipinos to return to the Philippines and established the Commonwealth of the Philippines. During World War II, the Philippines were occupied leading to resistance, the formation of segregated Filipino regiments, and the liberation of the islands. After World War II, the Philippines gained independence in 1946. Benefits for most Filipino veterans were rescinded with the Rescission Act of 1946. Filipinos, primarily war brides, immigrated to the United States; further immigration was set to 100 persons a year due to the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, this though did not limit the number of Filipinos able to enlist into the United States Navy. In 1965, Filipino agricultural laborers, including Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz, began the Delano grape strike. That same year the 100-person per year quota of Filipino immigrants was lifted, which began the current immigration wave; many of these immigrants were nurses. Filipino Americans began to become better integrated into American society, achieving many firsts. In 1992, the enlistment of Filipinos in the Philippines into the United States ended. By the early 21st century, Filipino American History Month was recognized. ## Immigration history Migration patterns of immigration of Filipinos to the United States have been recognized as occurring in four significant waves. The first was connected to the period when the Philippines was part of New Spain and later the Spanish East Indies; Filipinos, via the Manila galleons, would migrate to North America. The first permanent settlement of Filipinos in the United States is at Louisiana specifically the independent community of Saint Malo. In the late 19th century, the author Ramon Reyes Lala became the first Filipino to naturalize and become an American citizen, settling in La Jolla The 1910 United States Census recorded only 406 people of Filipino descent in the mainland U.S., including 109 in Louisiana and 17 in Washington state. The second wave was during the period when the Philippines were a territory of the United States; as U.S. Nationals, Filipinos were unrestricted from immigrating to the US by the Immigration Act of 1917 that restricted other Asians. This wave of immigration has been referred to as the manong generation. Filipinos of this wave came for different reasons, but the majority were laborers, predominantly Ilocano and Visayans. This wave of immigration was distinct from other Asian Americans, due to American influences, and education, in the Philippines; therefore they did not see themselves as aliens when they immigrated to the United States. By 1920, the Filipino population in the mainland U.S. rose from nearly 400 to over 5,600. Then in 1930, the Filipino-American population exceeded 45,000, including over 30,000 in California and 3,400 in Washington. During the early 20th Century, anti-miscegenation laws began to impact Filipino Americans attempting to marry non-Filipinos, with some able to legalize their unions, and others not; in 1933 California amended its laws to specify that Filipinos could not marry Whites. During the Great Depression, Filipino Americans were also affected, losing jobs, and being the target of race-based violence. This wave of immigration ended due to the Philippine Independence Act in 1934, which restricted immigration to 50 persons a year. Beginning in 1901, Filipinos were allowed to enlist in the United States Navy. While serving, Filipino Sailors would bring over their spouse from the Philippines, or marry a spouse in the United States, parenting and raising children who would be part of a distinct Navy-related Filipino American immigrant community. Before the end of World War I, Filipino sailors were allowed to serve in a number of ratings; however, due to a rules change during the interwar period, Filipino sailors were restricted to officers' stewards and mess attendants. Filipinos who immigrated to the United States, due to their military service, were exempt to quota restrictions placed on Filipino immigration at the time. This ended in 1946, following the independence of the Philippines from the United States, but resumed in 1947 due to language inserted into the Military Base Agreement between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines. In 1973, Admiral Zumwalt removed the restrictions on Filipino sailors, allowing them to enter any rate they qualified for; in 1976 there were about 17,000 Filipinos serving in the United States Navy. Navy based immigration of Philippine citizens stopped with the expiration of the military bases agreement in 1992. The third wave of immigration followed the events of World War II. Filipinos who had served in World War II were given the option of becoming U.S. citizens, and many took the opportunity, over 10,000 according to Barkan. Filipina war brides were allowed to immigrate to the United States due to the War Brides Act and Fiancée Act, with approximately 16,000 Filipinas entering the United States in the years following the war. This immigration was not limited to Filipinas and children; between 1946 and 1950, one Filipino groom was granted immigration under the War Brides Act. A source of immigration was opened up with the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, that gave the Philippines a quota of 100 persons a year; yet records show that 32,201 Filipinos immigrated between 1953 and 1965. The laws prevented interracial marriage with Filipinos continued until 1948 in California; this extended nationally in 1967 when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the United States Supreme Court by Loving v. Virginia. This wave ended in 1965. The fourth and present wave of immigration began in 1965 with the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It ended national quotas, and provided an unlimited number of visas for family reunification. By the 1970s and 1980s the immigration of Filipina wives of service members reached annual rates of five to eight thousand. The Philippines became the largest source of legal immigration to the United States from Asia. Many Filipinas of this new wave of migration have migrated here as professionals due to a shortage in qualified nurses; from 1966 until 1991, at least 35,000 Filipino nurses immigrated to the United States. As of 2005, 55% of foreign-trained registered nurses taking the qualifying exam administered by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) were educated in the Philippines. Although Filipinos made up 24 percent of foreign physicians entering the U.S. in 1970, Filipino physicians experienced widespread underemployment in the 1970s due to the requirement of passing the ECFMG exam to practice in the U.S. In 2016, 50,609 Filipinos obtained their lawful permanent residency, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Of those Filipinos receiving their lawful permanent residency status in 2016, 66% were new arrivals, while 34% were immigrants who adjusted their status within the U.S. In 2016, data collected from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that the categories of admission for Filipino immigrants were composed mainly of immediate relatives, that is 57% of admissions. This makes the admission of immediate relatives for Filipinos higher than the overall average lawful permanent resident immigrants, which is composed of only 47.9%. Following immediate relative admission, family sponsored and employment-based admission make up the next highest means of entry for Philippine immigration, with 28% and 14% respectively. Like immediate relative admission, both of these categories are higher than that of the overall U.S. lawful permanent resident immigrants. Diversity, refugees and asylum, and other categories of admission make up less than one percent of Filipino immigrants granted lawful permanent resident status in 2016. ## Timeline - 1573–1811, Between roughly 1556 and 1813, Spain engaged in the Galleon Trade between Manila and Acapulco. The galleons were built in the shipyards of Cavite, outside Manila, by Filipino craftsmen. The trade was funded by Chinese traders, manned by Filipino sailors and "supervised" by Mexico City officials. During this time, Spain recruited Mexicans to serve as soldiers in Manila. Likewise, they drafted Filipinos to serve as soldiers in Mexico. Once drafted and posted to the Americas, Filipino soldiers were frequently not returned home. - 1587, First Filipinos ("Luzonians") to set foot in North America arrive in Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo), California, on board the galleon shipNuestra Senora de Esperanza, under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno; These Filipinos were the first known Asians to set foot in California, post-European colonization. - 1595, Filipino were among the crew aboard the San Augustine when it wrecked near Point Reyes, California. - 1763, The first small (but permanent) Filipino settlements were established in North America near Barataria Bay, southern Louisiana. - 1769, Filipino sailors aboard the San Carlos die aboard ship in San Diego Bay during the Portolá expedition, and are buried ashore. - 1779, A Filipino mariner (of the Spanish ship San Jose) received their confirmation at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo; the confirmation was conducted by Fr. Junípero Serra. - 1781, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez was chosen as a member of the first group of settlers to establish the City of Los Angeles, California. He and his daughter fell sick with smallpox while en route, and remained in Baja California for an extended period to recuperate. When they finally arrived in Alta California, it was realised that Miranda Rodriguez was a skilled gunsmith and he was reassigned in 1782 to the Presidio of Santa Barbara as an armorer. When he died, he was buried at the presidio's chapel. - 1796, The first American trading ship the Astrea reaches Manila, under the command of Captain Henry Prince. - 1814, During the War of 1812, Filipinos residing in Louisiana, referred to as "Manilamen" residing near the city of New Orleans, including the Manila Village, were among the "Baratarians", a group of men who fought with Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The battle was fought after the Treaty of Ghent was signed. - 1861–1865, Approximately 100 Filipinos and Chinese enlist during the American Civil War into the Union Army and Navy, as well as serving, in smaller numbers, in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America. - 1870, Filipinos mestizos studying in New Orleans form the first Filipino Association in the United States, the "Sociedad de Beneficencia de los Hispanos Filipinos". - 1888, José Rizal arrives at the port of San Francisco for his trip through the United States. - 1898, on May 1, the United States Navy decisively defeated Spain in the Battle of Manila Bay, the first battle of the Spanish–American War, beginning the American Colonial Era in the Philippines. On June 12, Filipino revolutionaries declare independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite. Prior to this year, Ramon Reyes Lala becomes the first naturalized Filipino American. - 1899, Philippine–American War begins. - 1901, United States Navy begins recruiting Filipinos. - 1902, Philippine–American War ends. Philippine Bill of 1902 passed by the U.S. Congress. - 1903, First Pensionados, Filipinos invited to attend college in the United States on American government scholarships, arrive. - 1906, First Filipino laborers migrate to the United States to work on the Hawaiian sugarcane and pineapple plantations, California and Washington asparagus farms, Washington lumbercamps and Alaska salmon canneries. About 200 Filipino "pensionados" are brought to the U.S. to get an American education. - 1907 Benito Legarda, and Pablo Ocampo, becomes the first Resident Commissioners, from the Philippines, in the United States House of Representatives. - 1910, First Filipino, Vicente Lim, attends West Point. - 1911, José B. Nísperos becomes the first Asian American to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Nevada became the first state to include Filipinos, referring to them as "Malays", in their miscegenation law. - 1912, Filipino Association of Philadelphia (now known as Filipino American Association of Philadelphia, Inc., or FAAPI) is founded by Agripino Jaucian; it is perhaps the oldest Filipino organization in continuous existence in the United States. The name change came about to include the growing number of American wives. - 1913, Several months after the Battle of Bud Bagsak, armed resistance ended, finishing the Moro Rebellion. - 1915, Telesforo Trinidad becomes the only Asian American sailor, as of 2010, to earn the Medal of Honor. - 1917, Philippine National Guard mustered into federal service - 1919, USS Rizal is commissioned into the United States Navy. On August 31 lawyer and community leader Pablo Manlapit organizes the Filipino Labor Federation to demand higher wages and better working conditions for sakadas. - 1920s, Filipino labor leaders organize unions and strategic strikes to improve working and living conditions. Among the union organizers there were individuals who had harbored communist sentiments, as well as those who were nationalistic and anti-communist. - 1924, during a labor strike in Hawaii, as a result of violence by Visayans strikers against Ilocano non-strikers, 16 strikers and four law enforcement officials were killed during the Hanapepe massacre. - 1927, Anti-Filipino riots occur in the Yakima Valley, Washington. - 1928, Filipino Businessman Pedro Flores opens Flores yo-yos, which is credited with starting the yo-yo craze in the United States. He came up with and copyrighted the word "yo-yo". He also applied for and received a trademark for the Flores Yo-yo, which was registered on July 22, 1930. His company went on to become the foundation of the later Duncan yo-yo company. Anti-Filipino riots occur in the Wenatchee Valley. - 1929, An anti-Filipino riot occurs in Exeter, California. - 1930, Anti-Filipino riots break out in Watsonville and other California rural communities, in part because of Filipino men having intimate relations with white women, which was in violation of the California anti-miscegenation laws of the time. The Filipino Federation of America building in Stockton was bombed. A Filipino labor camp was bombed in the Imperial Valley. - 1933, After the Supreme Court of California found in Roldan v. Los Angeles County that existing laws against marriage between white persons and "Mongoloids" did not bar a Filipino man from marrying a white woman, California's anti-miscegenation law, Civil Code Section 60 was amended to prohibit marriages between white persons and members of the "Malay race" (e.g. Filipinos). - 1934, The Tydings–McDuffie Act, known as the Philippine Independence Act, limited Filipino immigration to the U.S. to 50 persons a year (not to apply to persons coming or seeking to come to the Territory of Hawaii); A Filipino Labor Union Incorporated camp was attacked in Salinas after a failed strike. - 1935, Philippines becomes self-governing with the Commonwealth of the Philippines inaugurated. - 1936, Fe del Mundo continues her education at Harvard Medical School. - 1941, Washington Supreme Court rules unconstitutional the Anti-Alien Land Law of 1937 which banned Filipino Americans from owning land. - Early 1942, Filipinos communities in the United States began to designate themselves as Filipinos to avoid anti-Japanese discrimination - April 1942, First and Second Filipino Regiments formed in the U.S. composed of Filipino agricultural workers. - May 1942, After the fall of Bataan and Coregidor to the Japanese, the U.S. Congress passes a law which grants U.S. citizenship to Filipinos and other aliens who served under the U.S. Armed Forces. - 1946, President Truman signs the Rescission Act of 1946, taking away the veterans benefits pledged to Filipino service members during world War II. Only four thousand service members were able to gain citizenship during this period. The United States recognizes Philippine Independence through the Treaty of Manila. America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan published. Filipino Naturalization Act allows naturalization of Filipino Americans, granted citizenship to those who arrived prior to March 1943. - 1948, Vicki Draves wins two Olympic gold medals; as of 2010 is the only Filipino to have won a gold medal. California Supreme Court rules California's anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in the case of Perez v. Sharp, ending racially based prohibitions on marriage in the state (although it wasn't until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that interracial marriages were legalized nationwide). Celestino Alfafara wins California Supreme Court decision allowing aliens the right to own property. - 1955, Peter Aduja becomes first Filipino American elected to office as a member of the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives. - 1956, Bobby Balcena becomes first Asian American to play Major League baseball, playing for the Cincinnati Reds. - 1965, Congress passes the Immigration and Nationality Act which facilitates entry for skilled Filipino workers. Delano grape strike begins when members of Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Dulay Itliong, Benjamin Gines, Andy Imutan and Pete Velasco with mostly Filipino farm workers. The last Filipino village, Manila Village, in the Louisiana Bayou is destroyed by Hurricane Betsy. - 1967, The Philippine (now Pilipino) American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) founded at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University). - 1969, Filipino Students Association (FSA) founded by Filipino American students at University of California, Berkeley during the Third World Movement; later renamed the Pilipino American Alliance. Dr. Antonio Ragadio, President of the Filipino Dental Association of Northern California, and Estrella Salaver, President and Founder of the Philippine American Cultural Foundation, work with Assemblyman Willie Brown and Senator Milton Marks to pass bill allowing Filipino and other foreign dentists to take the California qualifying examinations to practice in California. - 1972, United States Coast Guard discontinued its program to enlist Filipinos from the Philippines. - 1973, Larry Asera becomes the first Filipino American elected in the Continental United States, being elected to the city council of Vallejo. - 1974, Benjamin Menor appointed first Filipino American in a state's highest judiciary office as Justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court. Thelma Buchholdt is the first Filipino American, and first Asian American, woman elected to a state legislature in the United States, in the Alaska House of Representatives. - 1975, Kauai's Eduardo Enabore Malapit elected first Filipino American mayor in the United States. - 1977, Evictions are carried out of elderly Filipinos from the International Hotel in Manilatown, San Francisco, effectively ending the community. - 1978, Alfred Laureta becomes the first Filipino American federal judge, serving on the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. - 1981, Filipino American labor activists Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes are both assassinated June 1, 1981, inside a Seattle downtown union hall. International Hotel in Manilatown, San Francisco is demolished. - 1983, California Governor Jerry Brown appoints Ronald Quidachay as first Filipino-American judge to the San Francisco Municipal Court. - 1990, David Mercado Valderrama becomes first Filipino American elected to a state legislature in the Continental United States, serving Prince George's County in Maryland. Immigration reform Act of 1990 is passed by the U.S. Congress granting U.S. citizenship to Filipino World War II veterans; more than 20,000 veterans naturalized due to the act. - 1992, Velma Veloria becomes first Asian American elected to the Washington State Legislature. Bobby Scott becomes the first person with Filipino heritage elected to the United States House of Representatives. Eleanor Mariano becomes the first female Physician to the President; later Mariano becomes the first female director of the White House Medical Unit (1994), and the first Filipino American flag officer (2000). The United States Navy ends its program to enlist Filipinos from the Philippines, due to the end of the Military Base Agreement. - 1994, Benjamin J. Cayetano becomes the first Filipino American governor in the United States. - 1995, The nation's largest Filipino mural, Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy) in Los Angeles is unveiled and dedicated with over 600 people attending. Edward Soriano becomes the first Filipino American general officer. - 1999, US Postal worker Joseph Ileto was murdered in a hate crime in Chatsworth, California, and whose death is often overlooked outside of the Filipino American community. The Carlos Bulosan Memorial Exhibit opens in Seattle's Eastern Hotel in the International District, honoring the Filipino novelist and poet Carlos Bulosan. A street on Fort Sam Houston is named after Medal of Honor recipient Jose Calugas. - 2000, Robert Bunda elected Hawaii Senate President, the First Filipino American to hold the position. Angela Perez Baraquio becomes first Filipino American crowned as Miss America. John Ensign, who has a Filipino great-grandparent, is elected to the United States Senate. - 2002, in April, the Bataan Death March Memorial, is dedicated in Las Cruces, New Mexico; it is the first, and only, federally funded memorial for the Bataan Death March. In August, Historic Filipinotown is designated by Los Angeles - 2003, Philippine Republic Act No. 9225, also known as the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003 enacted, allowing natural-born Filipinos naturalized in the United States and their unmarried minor children to reclaim Filipino nationality and hold dual citizenship. - 2005, Hurricane Katrina impacts New Orleans, damaging or destroying the work of Marina Espina, research of Filipino history in New Orleans dating back to the 18th century; it also displaced many Filipino American families that lived in the area for over 7 generations. - 2006, First monument dedicated to Filipino soldiers who fought for the United States in World War II unveiled in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, California. A portion of California State Route 54 is named the Filipino-American Highway. Congress passes legislation that commemorates 100 Years of Filipino Migration to the United States. Hawaii celebrates the centennial of Filipinos in Hawaii. - 2007, First American public park built with Filipino themed design features unveiled in LA's Historic Filipinotown. - 2008, Bruce Reyes-Chow, 3rd generation Filipino and Chinese American was Elected Moderator of Presbyterian Church (USA). - 2009, Filipino American History Month is recognized in California. Steve Austria becomes "the first, first-generation Filipino to be elected to the United States Congress." Mona Pasquil becomes first Filipino American, and first Asian American, lieutenant governor of California. - 2011, Amado Gabriel Esteban becomes the first Filipino American president of a university, Seton Hall University, in the United States. - 2012, Lorna G. Schofield becomes a Filipino American federal judge. Rob Bonta, becomes the first Filipino American elected to the California State Legislature. - 2013, California passed legislation that required that Filipino contributions to the state's history be included in the curriculum. - 2014, an overpass on the Filipino-American Highway is named Itliong-Vera Cruz Memorial Bridge, named for two prominent Filipino American leaders of the Delano Grape Strike, Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz - 2015, Ralph Deleon, who was later highlighted in a 2016 speech about immigration by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, is convicted of provide material support to terrorists. Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School, in Union City, California becomes the first school in the United States named for a Filipino American. - 2017, Oscar A. Solis becomes the first Filipino American Catholic diocesan bishop in the United States; he was elevated to a bishop in Los Angeles in 2004, being the first Filipino American bishop. - 2018, Erin Entrada Kelly becomes the first Filipino American to win the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Robert Lopez becomes the first person to earn a double Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards winner (EGOT). - 2019, Darren Criss becomes the first Filipino American to win a Golden Globe. - 2020, Dozens of Filipino American healthcare workers have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the New Jersey-New York area, and elsewhere. Of all nurses who died with a COVID-19 infection nationally in 2020, almost a third were Filipino Americans. ## See also - History of Asian Americans - Filipino American history in San Diego - Filipino American military history in World War II

Guam at the 2012 Summer Olympics

The United States' unincorporated territory of Guam competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, held from July 27 to August 12, 2012. This was the territory's seventh consecutive appearance at the Olympics. Guam National Olympic Committee sent 8 athletes to the Games, five men and three women, to compete in five sports. Half of them were Olympians who had competed in Beijing, including judoka Ricardo Blas Jr. and wrestler Maria Dunn, the latter who was honored as the territorial flag bearer at the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremonies of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Olympian Mountain biker Derek Mandell competed after his 12-year absence. Swimmers Pilar Shimizu and Benjamin Schulte, have the distinction of being the youngest Olympians of the team, at age 16. Guam has yet to win an Olympic medal. ## Background The National Olympic Committee for Guam was officially recognized on November 25, 1987, after a six year campaign. Guam's inaugural appearance was at the 1988 Winter Olympics, their inaugural Summer Olympics immediately followed in the next Games. They sent their largest delegation to the 1992 Summer Olympics, with 22 athletes. Guam has yet to win an Olympic medal. ## Athletics Derek Mandell was given a universality placement to this Games and the 2008 Summer Olympics. Earlier in 2012, Mandell quit his job so he could train full-time in Australia. He trained under Mark Ladbrook, an Australian former national champion. Mandell competed in the 800 metres. He started the race well, finishing the first lap in 54 seconds, although he was well behind the pack. Halfway through the second lap, he was on pace to beat his personal record of 1:56.10, but his last 200 meters were slow. He finished with a time of 1:58.94, behind the winner's time in his heat of 1:45.90. Amy Atkinson was given the other universality allotment, competing in the 800 metres. There were five competitors in Atkinson's heat. She kept near the lead pack, and moved into second place after the first lap. She fell behind and into last place, where she finished the race. Atkinson broke a Guamanian national record which stood for over 22 years, with a time of 2:18.53 in the 800 meter. Although she was last in her heat, she was excited about setting the national record. Women ## Cycling Olympian Derek Horton qualified for these games because of his performance at the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships. The 2000 Summer Olympics was his inaugural competition in the men's cross country bike. Horton was 39 years old at the time of competition. Horton used a Canondale Flash 29er Carbon bicycle for the event. At the start of the race, riders were released in waves of eight, according to their world ranking. Horton, ranked 424 in the world, was in the sixth wave. Horton described the course as "crazy" and "intimidating". Horton was eliminated after completing two of the six laps. He fell too far behind the leader, and was eliminated per the event rules. Mountain biking ## Judo Ricardo Blas Jr. was the inaugural Guamanian to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Blas—nicknamed 'the little mountain from Guam'—competed in the +100 kg category, weighing in at 481 pounds (218 kg). Blas defeated Facinet Keita from Guinea. He won by ippon after sweeping Keita's leg. Blas was the first Guamanian athlete in any sport to advance to the second round of competition through a victory. In the Round of 16, Blas lost to Óscar Brayson of Cuba. ## Swimming Benjamin Schulte competed in a qualifying event in 2011, but failed to qualify. He learned a month prior to the Olympics a New Zealand swimmer declined a spot reserved for Oceania, and was able to use that to qualify. He was the youngest Guamanian athlete for the 2012 Olympics. He trained by swimming nine kilometres (5.6 mi), ten times per week, going to the gym, and attending yoga classes. He finished last in the 10 km race, with a time of 2:03:35, 14 minutes behind the winner. Due to his determination to finish the race, he was nominated for the Swimming Man of the Year award. Christopher Duenas qualified for the Games with a universality placement. Duenas swam the 100 meter freestyle and finished the race with a time of 53.37. After the race, Duenas said he was "disappointed", and that he thinks with additional training in Guam he can get his time back in the 51s. Duenas went from being ranked top three in the world for his age group to a poor showing at the Games. He planned to continue training for the Olympics to compete in Rio in 2016. Pilar Shimizu qualified for the Games with a universality placement and competed in the 100 meter breaststroke. She entered the Games with the goal of replacing her own Guamanian national record. Shimizu finished the race with a time of 1:15.76, finishing 42nd overall and not advancing to the next round. She did not set the national record, but she did set a new personal best for the year. Men Women ## Wrestling Maria Dunn required a tripartite invitation to qualify for the Olympics. If the qualification were the same as the 2008 Olympics, Dunn would have qualified after she won the 2012 Oceanic Championships. Since the rules changed, she did not automatically qualify. Dunn trained in England, in the city of Wigan, with coach Roy Wood. Dunn was the flagbearer for the Opening Ceremonies. She drew Lubov Volosova in her first match and lost to Volosova by pin. Dunn believed only one of her shoulders was down, and the official called the pin because it was near the end of the period. She hoped that Volosova would make it to the final match because that would advance Dunn into the loser's bracket. Volosova failed to do so, which eliminated Dunn from contention. Women's freestyle

Beatriz Michelena

American actress (1890-1942)

Beatriz Michelena (February 22, 1890 – October 10, 1942) was a Venezuelan American actress and singer during the silent film era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre. She was one of the few Latina stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was a leading lady in each film project she was involved in and, after the failure of California Motion Picture Company, co-founded a production company with her husband George E. Middleton, producing four of her movies. She wrote popular articles for newspapers, including an advice column for girls, describing what it was like to be an actress, and answering questions from readers. For adult readers, Michelena wrote other pieces such as a history of the moving picture industry. In 1920 when she stopped making films, she returned to her career as a singer. Michelena faded from historiography for many years, but her place in history has recently been re-examined; she was mentioned in 2002 in a presidential proclamation and her 1914 film Salomy Jane enjoyed a limited re-release in 2008. ## Early life Beatriz Michelena was born in New York City in 1890, six years after her sister Vera Michelena. Her father was a noted tenor Fernando Michelena, whose Spanish parents had settled in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was born. Her mother, Frances Lenord, was an operatic soprano and pianist. Over much of her childhood, Michelena’s parents toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company a traveling theatre company that performed famous operas translated into English for American audiences. Beatriz's father in later life taught music and worked as a vocal coach and, at the time of his death, was serving as president of Arrillaga Musical College, San Francisco. Beatriz and her sisters Vera and Teresa Luisa were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own. Vera first appeared onstage in the Princess Chic Opera company (1901) at 17, taking a leading role in The Man from China (1904). Beatriz, too, performed with Princess Chic in 1901, taking chorus roles suitable for a child of 11. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena settled in San Francisco, California to teach voice. There, he raised Beatriz and continued to train her, a soprano, in operatic vocal techniques. He passed his stage experience to his daughter: the way to move as another person, the way to make simple but authoritative gestures, and the way to build intensity over the span of a performance. Maria Antonia Field, a Californian writer, would later chronicle her time as a student of Michelena’s father in her book, Five Years of Vocal Study under Fernando Michelena. ## Marriage and stage career On Sunday, March 3, 1907, Michelena married George E. Middleton, a prominent San Francisco automobile dealer, the "happy culmination" of a romance that had begun in their school days. The private wedding took place at 232 Divisadero Street, the home of the parents of bridesmaid Margaret McGovern, "a lifelong friend of the bride". Judge Thomas F. Graham performed the ceremony. The couple spent a few weeks in Los Angeles for their honeymoon. Middleton was the manager of the local Middleton Motor Car Company and the son of a California timber baron. He introduced Michelena to his society friends and business partners, including the trustees of Charles Crocker's estate who had rebuilt the St. Francis Hotel after the 1906 earthquake and fire. After two years spent absent from the stage, in October 1910, "Beatriz Michelena Middleton" received a "full ovation" at the Garrick Theater for her role in The White Hen, a musical comedy set in Austria. Rotund comedian Max Dill, leader of the acting company, was the star of the show, given 14 minutes of applause upon entering the stage. For her performance, Michelena was sent flowers worth "a small fortune", according to the San Francisco Call's theater writer, Walter Anthony. Starring actress Lora Lieb, native to San Francisco but unknown as a performer, took less applause. Middleton and Michelena gave an interview to Anthony after The White Hen was an established hit. Middleton said that he had kept his wife off the stage, that he "didn't like the idea of musical comedy", but would not have objected to her appearance in "grand opera". Nonetheless, he agreed to an offer from Max Dill. Michelena said that she had so far spent her married life studying to perform three operatic roles: Carmen and Micaëla in Carmen, and Violetta Valéry in La traviata. She said that prior to appearing at the Garrick Theater, she had been afraid that her stage training had been lost. Michelena said she had to overcome her fears as well as her husband's objections. At the end of November, Michelena quit Dill's company, reporting that she had been billed underneath Lora Lieb in theater publicity, against the arrangement she had made with company manager Nat A. Magner. She said she refused to put her famous family name in second place. On December 6, 1910, a story in the Call talked about Michelena and her sister having been "discovered" seven years previously by John Slocum, the manager who worked with the girls in the Princess Chic company. According to the story, Slocum had been trying to get Michelena to sign a long-term contract, but was beaten out in that regard by Middleton, "the athlete and clubman about town", whom she had married. A week earlier, Michelena had "caused a sensation" by resigning from the Max Dill company, but subsequently agreed to appear for four performances in Slocum's traveling production of The Kissing Girl, normally featuring Michelena's good friend, the actress Texas Guinan, who was willing to step down for a few days while Michelena covered the starring role of Christina. Michelena was quoted as saying, > "Leo Cooper, seven years ago, insisted that Mr. Slocum should hear two youngsters sing. The youngsters were Vera and myself. He was good enough to have confidence in us and gave us positions in his 'Princess Chic' company, where we rose afterward, through his encouragement and help, to prima donna posts. In memory of these kindnesses of the past and because I love the work, I have been happy to say 'yes' to his request that I appear with his company a few times for auld lang syne before 'The Kissing Girl' goes on her osculatory way." Following the three performances in San Francisco and one in Oakland, Michelena and her husband took seats in the audience to watch Guinan perform the play's title role in San Jose's Victory Theater on December 15. Michelena excelled in a singing role in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 1913. That year, during the autumn season, Michelena was a featured star of the Mechanics' Fair, an engineering and auto show in San Francisco. Following that, she sang at the inauguration of the Lincoln Highway, the nation's first transcontinental road. The western terminus celebration at the Valencia Theatre in San Francisco was organized by the Motor Car Dealers' Association, October 31, 1913. ## California Motion Picture Company Middleton set up the California Motion Picture Company in San Rafael in 1912 for the purpose of shooting promotional footage of the automobiles he was selling. He determined that his pretty wife could star in movies made by his company. By 1914, Middleton and Michelena were making three major films at the same time. The first feature completed by CMPC was Salomy Jane, screened initially at the St. Francis Hotel by invitation only. Michelena's role was Bret Harte's Salomy Jane Clay, an energetic daughter of an emigrant miner. She is wooed by four men but prefers a fifth played by British heartthrob House Peters. The movie saw limited nationwide distribution and was judged a hit by viewers who were impressed by the wild California scenery: giant redwood trees, winding roads hugging rocky bluffs and the Russian River Michelena's dominant portrayal of the title role was also an appeal. Journalist Josephine Clifford McCracken wrote of her in the June 1915 issue of Overland Monthly: > "Daughter of a renowned tenor of San Francisco's pioneer days, herself a prima donna with an assured place on the modern operatic stage, a girl with a wealth of artistic tradition behind her, Miss Michelena's gifts do not stop there. She has rare beauty, vivacity, wit, intellectual attainments and athletic grace." One CMPC shooting location was on family property near Boulder Creek, California where Middleton's father had established a timber holding now known as the Middleton Tract. Other filming locations included undeveloped portions of Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Marin counties. In San Rafael, the studio boasted a large glass-walled and -roofed building that let in light but not wind so that shooting for indoor scenes could take place in full light without the telltale flapping of tablecloths and clothing blown by gusts. Considered expensive at the time, the company used a US\$1,250 Bell & Howell movie camera, worth about \$ in current value. The camera held two reels of film so that two negatives were made of each scene. A second \$700 camera provided a third reel of the same scene, from another perspective. Even though Salomy Jane didn't return a profit (likely due to second-string distribution channels), its favorable reception convinced Middleton that his wife could challenge the world's top movie star, Mary Pickford. Every CMPC movie was from that time forward intended to be a star vehicle for Michelena. Unfortunately, Michelena's ego expanded with the glowing reviews of her skill, and her demands for star treatment brought heavier expenses to productions that continued to lose money. Mignon, The Lily of Poverty Flat, A Phyllis of the Sierras, Salvation Nell, and The Rose of the Misty Pool all failed to turn a profit, and a lavish production of Faust which was in production in 1915 was given until the end of the year to be completed. Faust wasn't done by January 1916, and CMPC president Herbert Payne shut the film company down and filed for bankruptcy. Faust was never released. ## Writer In 1915 and 1916, Michelena wrote the regular newspaper column "Talks with Screen-struck Girls", carried at first by the San Rafael Independent on Tuesdays but then appeared on Sundays in other newspapers: San Francisco Examiner and the Prescott Journal-Miner (Arizona). She wrote about the ideal qualities found in an actress, and what girls might do to develop them. She received a torrent of letters from readers—many were from girls asking "Must I be able to ride" and "Must I be able to swim". In response, Michelena described in the column how those skills were helpful to a movie actress, but not absolutely necessary; she said they "are accessories to, rather than the substance of the thing ... I would advise every girl entering motion pictures to learn to ride and swim and do all the rest of it, but I would have her realize their subordination to the really artistic side of the profession."' On May 7, 1916, Michelena wrote to caution girls wishing for fame on the silver screen that many like themselves ended up "broken in spirit", with shattered expectations. She advised them to stay home and avoid "bitter disappointment" in movie making. In July, she discussed some of the specifics of the mental challenges of acting: > "There are a hundred little peculiarities that index the character of practically every type of person, and it is the effectiveness with which one grasps, understands and utilizes these peculiarities that makes him or her a great dramatic artist ... The truly great actress ... must not only recognize the traits as she sees them outwardly manifested, but she must also get beneath the skin and recognize the conditions of thought or emotion that give rise to them. Then, and this is the really great test of her talents, she must so lose herself in those conditions of thought and emotion, and feel through them, that her mimicry of their outward manifestations comes naturally and without conscious endeavor." In addition to her column, Michelena wrote occasional articles intended for a wider readership. She wrote in October 1916 about the history of the moving picture industry in a multiple-article series, beginning her account with a retelling of Eadweard Muybridge's action photograph of Governor Leland Stanford's racehorse named Occident. She defined this high-speed image as essential to the development of moving pictures. ## Michelena Studios Middleton and Michelena bought their bankrupt film company for "a few thousand dollars" in 1917 and renamed it Michelena Studios. Their new company was called Beatriz Michelena Features, and shooting began on their next feature-length film, Just Squaw. Michelena's lead character was a white woman raised by American Indians, a woman who does not realize her racial heritage until after she falls into forbidden love with a white man. The movie played for only a week in San Francisco in 191, and did not return a profit. The moviemakers' new distributor, Robertson-Cole, was unable to find the right market for Heart of Juanita and The Flame of Hellgate in 1920. American audiences had grown more sophisticated, yet Michelena Studios was still employing their earlier production techniques. After shooting The Flame of Hellgate, Middleton a,nd Michelena stopped making movies altogether. She returned to her singing performances and he returned to his car sales. They reportedly divorced in the mid-1920s, though Middleton told the 1930 US Census that they were married. The union produced no children. ## Retirement and final years After leaving film work, Michelena continued with her singing career, and toured Latin America (1927) where she was warmly received as part of a 30-person troupe of singers and dancers performing the operas Carmen and Madama Butterfly. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that this was "the first invasion of those countries by an American operatic star in repertoire performances". Afterward, she retired from singing, and returned to San Rafael to live near her old film studio. Between 1937 and 1941, she sold 10 of the 26 real estate parcels that together had formed her studio lot. On October 10, 1942, after a surgical operation in San Francisco, she died at the age of 52. Her sister Vera Michelena and her ex-husband George Middleton survived her. ## Legacy The Michelena Features studio facility in San Rafael sat empty through the 1920s with its solitary metal-clad brick vault housing all the company's nitrate films, including the earlier ones shot by CMPC. In 1931, boys playing with a firecracker at the deserted lot set the vault and all of its flammable contents spectacularly on fire. Every known copy of Michelena's movies was destroyed, a loss that Middleton estimated at \$200,000; worth about \$ million today. In 1996, an 82-year-old nitrate copy of Salomy Jane was found in Australia; it was sent to the Library of Congress for preservation. Awareness of Michelena's contribution to early film, and her role as a groundbreaking Hispanic star, rose in 2002 with a proclamation made by President George W. Bush upon the occasion of National Hispanic Heritage Month in which he listed her as one of America's influential Latino actors. In 2008, a new print of Salomy Jane was released for limited distribution. ## Filmography ## See also - Myrtle Gonzalez - List of Hispanic and Latino American actors

Futures (album)

Futures is the fifth studio album by American rock band Jimmy Eat World, released on October 19, 2004, through Interscope Records. After touring in support of Bleed American (2001) for two years, the band returned home and began working on new material by mid-2003. Following fruitless sessions with producer Mark Trombino, the band re-grouped and recorded with Gil Norton. The sessions lasted from February to May 2004 and were held at various studios in California and Arizona. Described as encompassing several rock styles, Futures included more solos and complex guitar parts than past releases, intended to expand on the atmosphere of their third studio album Clarity (1999). The songs on the album were compared to the work of Jets to Brazil and Maritime, while some of the guitar parts echoed the sound of Fugazi and Hüsker Dü. Futures was met with favorable reaction from music critics, many of whom found it an enjoyable listen and praised the songwriting. It charted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200 after selling 98,000 copies in its first week. It would go on to sell over 615,000 copies, and was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Pain" was released as the album's lead single in August 2004. Futures was promoted with headlining tours of the US, Europe, and Japan, before the band toured with Green Day in the US, the UK, and Australia. Jimmy Eat World followed the album with two further singles, "Work" in December 2004 and "Futures" in May 2005. Some publications, such as Blender, Rolling Stone, and Spin included the album on their list of the year's best releases. "Pain" was later certified gold by the RIAA and peaked at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Work" and "Futures" both reached the top 30 of the radio-only Alternative Airplay chart, with the former peaking higher at number six. ## Background and development In July 2001, Jimmy Eat World released their fourth studio album, Bleed American, through major label DreamWorks Records. It became a commercial success, selling over 1.3 million copies, being certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Two of its singles charted on the Billboard 200, namely, "Sweetness" at number 75 and "The Middle" at number five. Due to the album's popularity, the band promoted it with two years of touring, which made it hard for the members to unwind after returning home. In May 2003, vocalist and lead guitarist Jim Adkins said that the band had a lot of new material and would record sometime thereafter with Mark Trombino in Los Angeles, California. Trombino worked with the band previously, having produced Static Prevails (1996), Clarity (1999), and Bleed American. Jimmy Eat World began pre-production in mid-July with Trombino, where they worked on 18 songs. Recording began in early August, with the aim of working on 14 songs. By September 2003, after five weeks, recording sessions were nearly finished. The group reached a breaking point with Trombino as they ran out of song ideas; their disagreements led to Trombino's departure from the project, with Adkins saying, "I wouldn't want to work with people who aren't extremely passionate about their ideas and their contributions." The band subsequently took a break and performed a few shows. Believe in What You, a stop-gap video/live-album, was released in October. The following month, the band's label, DreamWorks, was bought by Universal Music Group and absorbed into Interscope Records in January 2004. ## Production Jimmy Eat World regrouped sometime after and wrote "Work", "Pain", "Polaris", and "23". The band had been working with Trombino for around 10 years and wanted to see what ideas another producer would suggest. Bassist Rick Burch said they felt it was too soon to work on an album, having spent a considerable amount of time touring Bleed American, suggesting that they should have taken a six month break. The members had liked albums by the different acts that producer Gil Norton had previously produced, such as the Pixies, The Distillers, and Dashboard Confessional. Lind said that while Trombino was able to handle recording, mix and be a producer, Norton preferred to focus his efforts on the production. He added that Norton's long career producing aided the band's direction. Norton spent two days at the band's own studio, where they showed him demos they had done. Norton enjoyed the demos and was enlisted by the band to produce their next album. Pre-production started and lasted for a month before recording sessions began in February 2004 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles. When they entered the studio, they had accumulated about 30 tracks to work with; Norton and engineer David Schiffman were assisted by Jason Grossman and Steven Rhodes. The drum parts and a few basic tracks were completed over the course of three weeks. Drummer Zach Lind said he fell into the habit of doing simple drum patterns during the making of Clarity and Bleed American, but Norton pushed Lind to challenge himself. Sessions then moved to the home studio of Harvey Moltz, a friend of the band, in Tucson, Arizona, where most of the album was recorded. Adkins said the group simply wanted a change of scenery from California, as Tucson helped them work without distractions; guitars and vocals were done there. During the course of the sessions, the band recorded up to 9 or 10 versions of each track. Additional recording was done by the band at Tempe Studio in Tempe, Arizona, where they recorded vocals. Strings were recorded at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles with Jake Davies, who was assisted by Greg Burns. Rich Costey and Davies acted as additional engineers; the latter also did digital editing. While recording strings for "Drugs or Me", there were 30 minutes remaining for the session. Davies transcribed a synthesizer placeholder part for "23" into string notation and had the musicians record it with the time left over. Sessions were concluded in May 2004, with mixing taking place from mid-June over the course of a month, with Costey at Cello Studios. He was assisted in this process by Claudius Mittendorfer with secondary engineer Dan Leffler. Costey mixed "Drugs or Me" at Avatar Studios in New York City with secondary engineer Ross Petersen. Ted Jensen then mastered the recordings at Sterling Sound in New York City. ## Composition ### Overview Musically, Futures has been described as alternative rock, arena rock, emo, pop-punk, pop rock, and power pop. The album saw the band shy away from the pop-influenced sound of Bleed American and expand on the mood of Clarity. The band incorporated more guitar solos, which rhythm guitarist Tom Linton had been insisting on, and complex guitar lines. Adkins viewed the release as a sequel to Clarity, with which Futures shared greater musical density. When working on material, Adkins would show the band a rough outline of it, which the rest of the members would flesh out and potentially add further instrumentation, such as piano. Discussing the title, Adkins said it could be perceived in different ways: "It's pessimistic, it's optimistic, and hopeful, and greedy all at the same time." Lind compared its darker sound to the middle portion of Clarity and said the album's second half was more atmospheric than their previous work. Some of the material on the album dated back to when the band was recording Bleed American, while other material had existed for only two weeks prior to the band entering the studio for Futures. Linton said producer Norton provided a number of "really good" song ideas in regards to the sound and final arrangements. Norton helped the band think about transitions between sections in songs; previously Adkins felt "the best transition was none... I always thought it was more powerful not to do one." The album drew comparisons to the bands Jets to Brazil and Maritime, while some of the guitar lines recalled Hüsker Dü and Fugazi. The lyrics delve into darker subject matter, such as despair, politics, drug abuse, and self-loathing. Adkins said several tracks were influenced by the presidency of George W. Bush; he said he was "reacting to the political climate of that period". ### Tracks The opening song, "Futures", was a mid-tempo track that was compared to other acts Norton had worked with, such as Foo Fighters and the Pixies. The song starts with two harmonizing guitar riffs, shifting into verses that put the vocals at the forefront. A tremolo-affected guitar line in the pre-chorus leads into the half-time chorus section, complete with echo-enhanced vocals. In an earlier iteration of the song, the bridge section was a wall of loud guitars, instead of the final version where it shifts to acoustic guitars and a Rhodes piano. Adkins said the track was about Bush as well as disillusionment. One of lines from the song's chorus – "Trade up for the fast ride" – is taken verbatim from "In the Same Room", a track from Static Prevails. "Just Tonight..." was in the vein of "Run to You" by Bryan Adams, and recalled the group's Static Prevails material. "Just Tonight..." was one of the earliest songs written for the album, and ended up receiving constant minor changes during the writing process. The track was originally called "Sex You Up"; Lind said its final name "Just Tonight..." was a reference to Color Me Badd. "Work" is a pop-rock track with vocal harmonies that recalled "The Middle". Liz Phair contributed backing vocals to it; the group felt it would be a song she should sing. The band's A&R representative personally knew Phair, and eventually got in contact with her. Adkins, who wrote the song while having Phair's "Divorce Song" (1993) in mind, said the track was simply about "doing something you know you shouldn't be doing". "Kill" opens with a piano and acoustic guitar intro, which builds to crescendos in the vein of the Pixies. Burch's bassline plays a counter-melody to the acoustic guitar; strings are barely audible during the bridge section. Adkins set himself a challenge to write a track that had no repetitive lyrics, which became "Kill"; it features a reference to the Heatmiser song "Half Right". Lind had discovered a piece of music that became "Kill" partway through writing when looking through their ideas on a computer. It was had scratch vocals from Adkins and a 30-second acoustic guitar part. Lind was impressed that out of all the ideas they had, this section had fallen by the wayside. He showed the clip to Adkins, when the pair quickly expanded it into a full song. "The World You Love" was initially titled "Suicide" and went through many versions before the band landed at the final one. The AC/DC-indebted track, "Pain", discusses the pros and cons of self-medicating through the use of alcohol and drugs. It was the last track written for the album, done just before they entered the studio. Adkins came up with the lyrics while walking around the University of Arizona campus. "Drugs or Me" is a piano-and-feedback-led ballad about Adkins's friend choosing him or drugs. It features strings that were arranged by David Campbell and was compared to the work of Death Cab for Cutie. An earlier version included an acoustic guitar playing eighth notes, which the rest of the song was then based upon. They later re-made it, building the song around Adkins' vocals and swapping the acoustic eighth notes for arpeggiated guitar and piano parts. "Polaris" was done in the vein of U2; the guitar part was a mix of "Frontwards" by Pavement and "Hysteria" by Def Leppard. Norton persuaded the band to end the song with another chorus breakdown instead of concluding early as they intended. The following track, "Nothingwrong", was the most reminiscent of Bleed American, specifically the track "Get It Faster". The power ballad "Night Drive" opens with an "ooh" vocal melody; it talks about an alcoholic person in Adkins's life. Adkins said with the track, the listener "get[s] the feeling of a verse, chorus and bridge", despite only one chord progression being present throughout it. The album's closer, "23", recalled the 1989 album Disintegration by The Cure. It starts with a bass part and echo-affected acoustic guitars, before the drums and Adkins's vocal part accompany them. Adkins said it is about discovery and taking chances on opportunities that arise. The song was an attempt to match both the atmospheric material on Clarity and the intentionally simplistic songs found on Bleed American. ## Release On July 15, 2004, Futures was announced for release in three months' time; alongside this, the band emailed three songs, namely "Pain", "Just Tonight..." and "Polaris", to their street team. On July 30, the album's track listing was revealed. Samples of three new tracks—"Futures", "Nothingwrong", and "Night Drive"—were posted on the group's website shortly afterwards. "Pain" was released as the album's lead single on August 24, 2004. Two versions of the CD single were released: one included demos of "When I Want" and "Shame" and the music video for "Pain"; while the other featured the demo "Shame", a live recording of "Yer Feet", and the video for "Pain". The video, which premiered on September 14 through Launch.com, was directed by Paul Fedor and roughly followed the theme of the 1985 film Better Off Dead. It was shot in North Bridge, California. On October 11, Futures was made available for streaming through MTV's website before being released on October 19 through Interscope Records. The artwork was a photograph taken by Christopher Wray-McCann at Burning Man. According to Adkins, the event had a phonebooth "in the middle of nowhere with a sign above it that says 'Talk to God'". Bonus tracks were added to various versions: "Shame" on the vinyl and European CD versions; "Shame", "When I Want", and "You" on the Japanese edition. Some promotional copies featured the extra track "Jen", which was left off the album, as Adkins felt it was out of place. A deluxe edition of the album was released showcasing the album's songs in demo form. The UK deluxe edition included "Shame" and "When I Want", and demo versions of both of them, as bonus tracks, while the Japanese version featured "Shame", "When I Want", "You", demos of these three tracks, alongside "Sparkle", an acoustic version of "Work", and a cover of "The Concept" by Teenage Fanclub. "Work" was released to radio on December 7, 2004. To coincide with the UK stint of a European tour, "Work" was released as a single there in March 2005. The CD single included the glitch musician Styrofoam's remix of "Drugs or Me" and an acoustic version of "Work", as well as the song's music video. The 7" vinyl featured a cover of the Teenage Fanclub track "The Concept". Futures was released to radio on May 10, 2005. In 2013, an iTunes Sessions EP was released, which featured a rendition of "Kill". In 2014, the band went on a celebratory 10th anniversary tour for the album, where they played it live in its entirety, touring the US, Australia, and New Zealand. To coincide with this, Futures, alongside Static Prevails and Clarity, was re-pressed on vinyl. In 2021, the band performed the album in its entirety again, alongside 2019's Surviving and 1999's Clarity. ## Touring In late August and early September 2004, the band performed at the Street Scene and Summerfest festivals. Later in September, the group played two shows in the UK. To promote its release, the band played in-store gigs, held listening parties at Fast Forward chain stores, and a session for Launch.com. They appeared on Daily Download, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In October and November, they embarked on a US tour with the likes of Recover, Emanuel, and Razorlight. Throughout December, the band played a series of radio festivals. In January 2005, they went on a brief, two-week US tour with Elefant and Reuben's Accomplice. In February and March 2005, the group went on a European tour, which ended with a stint in the UK. At the end of March, the band performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A short series of shows in Japan led into a two-month US arena tour, co-headlining with Taking Back Sunday in April and May. Some shows featured supporting acts the Format and Mates of State. Jimmy Eat World supported Green Day for two shows in the UK in June, which was followed by a European tour in June and July. In late August, the group performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Following this, between late August and October, the band had a supporting slot on Green Day's three-month US arena tour. In December, the group again supported Green Day, for two shows in Australia. ## Reception ### Critical response Futures was well received by music critics upon its release. On the review aggregating website Metacritic, the album obtained an average score of 73, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Sputnikmusic staff member Adam Knott wrote that each second of the album "is direct in its accessible, spirited approach and brilliantly executed." Its "[g]ut-wrenching guitar lines, rhythmic releases and poignant songwriting are not even consistent; they're constant." In a review for Punknews.org, Scott Heisel said the tracks "toe the ever-so-thin line between commercial success and artistic integrity", thanks in part to Norton. E! Online found in the album a return to the group's early beginnings, "sporting 11 sparkling gems that carefully balance balladry ... with bombast". Bram Teitelman of Billboard said it contained the "same trademarks that made [Bleed American] so enjoyable ... upbeat pop-punk, tempered with moodier, slower songs, great melodies and vocal harmonies". Entertainment Weekly writer Brian Hiatt opined that "if Jimmy are in the middle of a long ride, Futures retains just enough tunefulness to keep us from jumping out of the car." At The Guardian, Betty Clarke noted that the record was "the ultimate pop-rock break-up album", with Adkins "jump[ing] neck-deep into heartbreak. His lyrics are his strength." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone found the band to be "rid[ing] their bighearted radio rock into O.C.-worthy teen turmoil on Futures, their fifth and finest album." Drowned in Sound's Gareth Dobson said the album would not "break the mould, it's not too radical, but then, JEW never were." It was "an inviting, maturing album that still shows enough vitality to still be classed as a good rock album." AllMusic reviewer Tim Sendra stated "Futures will most likely not be the sensation that Bleed American was – it is too dark and inwardly focused for that." Sendra, however, noted that the album shows a sound progression that fans should accept. IGN writer Todd Gilchrist criticized it as "music for adults trying to be kids, and, well, I'm an adult." He added that it was not "a bad album, but merely an unspecial one". ### Commercial performance and accolades Futures sold 98,000 copies in its first week, charting at number six on the US Billboard 200. Prior to the release of Chase This Light (2007), Futures had sold over 615,000 copies. Futures was certified gold in the US by the RIAA in March 2005, which was followed by gold certification of "Pain" two months later. Outside the US, Futures reached number seven in Canada, number 27 in Australia, number 33 in Germany, and number 65 in Switzerland. The album was certified gold in Canada, and silver in the UK. "Pain" charted at number one on Alternative Airplay, number 27 on Digital Song Sales, and number 93 on the Hot 100. "Work" charted at number six on Alternative Airplay, and number ten on Bubbling Under Hot 100. "Futures" charted at number 27 on Alternative Airplay. Blender, Rolling Stone, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, and Spin included the album on their best-of-2004 album lists. It was ranked at number 44 in Kerrang!'s "50 Albums You Need to Hear Before You Die" list. Mayday Parade drummer Jake Bundrick cited the album as an inspiration, while Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low has expressed admiration for it. Three of the album's songs, namely, "Just Tonight...", "Work", and "Nothingwrong", were covered by Australian acts for the tribute album Sing It Back: A Tribute to Jimmy Eat World (2015). ## Track listing All songs written by Jimmy Eat World. All recordings produced by Gil Norton. ## Personnel Personnel per booklet, except where noted. Jimmy Eat World - Jim Adkins – vocals, lead guitar - Rick Burch – bass guitar - Zach Lind – drums - Tom Linton – rhythm guitar Additional musicians - David Campbell – string arrangement (track 7) - Liz Phair – backing vocals (track 3) Production - Gil Norton – producer - David Schiffman – engineer - Rich Costey – mixing, additional engineer - Jake Davies – additional engineer, digital editing, string recording - Jason Grossman – assistant - Steven Rhodes – assistant - Jimmy Eat World – additional recording - Claudius Mittendorfer – assistant - Dan Leffler – second engineer - Ross Petersen – second engineer - Greg Burns – assistant - Ted Jensen – mastering - Christopher Wray-McCann – front cover photograph - Kevin Scanlon – photography - Ben Allgood – art direction ## Charts and certifications ### Weekly ### Certifications

ASM-A-1 Tarzon

The ASM-A-1 Tarzon, also known as VB-13, was a guided bomb developed by the United States Army Air Forces during the late 1940s. Mating the guidance system of the earlier Razon radio-controlled weapon with a British Tallboy 12,000-pound (5,400 kg) bomb, the ASM-A-1 saw brief operational service in the Korean War before being withdrawn from service in 1951. ## Design and development Development of the VB-13 Tarzon began in February 1945, with Bell Aircraft being awarded a contract by the United States Army Air Forces for the development of a very large guided bomb. The VB-13 was a combination of a radio-command guidance system as used on the smaller VB-3 Razon ('Range And azimuth only') guided bomb with the British-developed Tallboy 12,000-pound (5,400 kg) "earthquake" bomb, known to the USAAF as M112. The 'Tarzon' name was a portmanteau, combining Tallboy, range and azimuth only, describing the weapon and guidance system; and was pronounced similarly to that of "Tarzan", the popular "ape-man" fictional character. The VB-13, redesignated ASM-A-1 in 1948, was developed under the project code MX-674. It had an annular wing around the midsection of its body, mounted near the weapon's center of gravity. At the rear of the bomb was an octagonal tail surface containing the Razon control surfaces. Intended to be carried by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, the Tarzon bomb used the combination of AN/ARW-38 [Joint Army Navy, Piloted Aircraft, Radio, Automatic Flight or Remote Control] command link transmitter on the B-29 and an AN/URW-2 [Joint Army Navy, Utility, Radio, Automatic Flight or Remote Control] receiver on the Tarzon to provide manual command guidance of range and azimuth. This was done with visual tracking of the bomb's course, aided by a flare mounted in the tail of the weapon. Gyroscopes on board the ASM-A-1 aided in stabilisation, while a pneumatic system drove the bomb's control surfaces. The guidance system was considered effective; Tarzon proved in testing to have an accuracy of 280 feet (85 m). In addition to the 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg) nominal weight of the Tallboy it was based on, the annular wing and control surfaces boosted the weight of Tarzon by an additional 1,100 pounds (500 kg). This made the ASM-A-1 too large and heavy to fit inside the bomb bay of a Superfortress; instead, the weapon was carried in a semi-recessed mounting, half the weapon being exposed to the airstream. This increased drag on the carrying aircraft, and caused turbulent airflow that could affect the handling of the B-29. ## Operational history Although the VB-13 project had not reached the testing stage by the end of World War II, it avoided being cancelled, proceeding as a low-priority project. Limited testing was conducted during 1948 and 1949; additional testing at Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1950 led to the Tarzon being approved for operational service in the Korean War. Tarzon saw its first combat use in December 1950, the ASM-A-1 replacing the Razon in operational service; the smaller weapon had been determined to be too small for effective use against bridges and other hardened targets. Used solely by the 19th Bomb Group, which had previously conducted the Razon's combat missions, the first Tarzon drop in combat took place on December 14, 1950. The largest bomb used in combat during the war, Tarzon was used in strikes against North Korean bridges and other hardened targets, the Tarzon's improved accuracy over conventional 'dumb bombs' led to the confirmed destruction of at least six high-priority targets during approximately six months of combat use; these included a hydroelectric plant, proving the effectiveness of guided weapons against conventional targets as well as bridges. Thirty Tarzon missions were flown between December 1950 and March 1951; the weapon's success led to a contract for the production of 1,000 additional ASM-A-1 missiles. On March 29, 1951, however, a Tarzon strike against Sinuiju went awry; the group commander's aircraft was destroyed as a result of the premature detonation of the bomb when, the aircraft suffering mechanical difficulties, the weapon was jettisoned in preparation for ditching. The thirtieth, and as it proved final, mission, three weeks following the Sinuiju mission, also suffered an unintentional detonation of a jettisoned, "safed" bomb, although this time without the loss of the aircraft. An investigation proved that the fault lay in the construction of the bomb's tail; breaking up on impact, a 'safed' bomb would have its arming wire removed, rendering it 'unsafe' and detonating the weapon. Modifications were made to solve the problem, but the damage had been done; the safety issues, increased maintenance costs compared to conventional bombs, the fact that the bomb's guidance system required clear-day use only, rendering the bombers vulnerable to enemy fighters, and required that the weapon be released at a prime altitude for the aircraft to be in danger from enemy flak. These combined with the weapon's poor reliability – only six of twenty-eight bombs dropped successfully destroyed their targets – to result in the production order being canceled by the USAF; following this, the Tarzon program as a whole was terminated in August 1951. ## See also - Azon - Bat (guided bomb) - Fritz X - Grand Slam (bomb) - Tallboy (bomb)

European polecat

Species of mustelid native to Eurasia and north Morocco

The European polecat (Mustela putorius), also known as the common polecat, black polecat and forest polecat, is a mustelid species native to western Eurasia and North Africa. It is of a generally dark brown colour, with a pale underbelly and a dark mask across the face. Occasionally, colour mutations including albinos, leucists, isabellinists, xanthochromists, amelanists and erythrists occur. It has a shorter, more compact body than other Mustela species, a more powerfully built skull and dentition, is less agile, and is well known for having the characteristic ability to secrete a particularly foul-smelling liquid to mark its territory. It is much less territorial than other mustelids, with animals of the same sex frequently sharing home ranges. Like other mustelids, the European polecat is polygamous, with pregnancy occurring after mating, following induced ovulation. It usually gives birth in early summer to litters consisting of five to 10 kits, which become independent at the age of two to three months. The European polecat feeds on small rodents, birds, amphibians and reptiles. It occasionally cripples its prey by piercing its brain with its teeth and stores it, still living, in its burrow for future consumption. The European polecat originated in Western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, with its closest living relatives being the steppe polecat, the black-footed ferret and the European mink. With the two former species, it can produce fertile offspring, though hybrids between it and the latter species tend to be sterile, and are distinguished from their parent species by their larger size and more valuable pelts. The European polecat is thought to be the sole ancestor of the ferret, which was domesticated more than 2,000 years ago for the purpose of hunting vermin. The species has otherwise been historically viewed negatively by humans. In Britain especially, the polecat was persecuted by gamekeepers, and became synonymous with promiscuity in early English literature. During modern times, the polecat is still scantly represented in popular culture when compared to other rare British mammals, and misunderstandings of its behaviour still persist in some rural areas. Since 2008, it has been classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to its wide range and large numbers. ## Etymology and naming The word "polecat" first appeared after the Norman Conquest of England, written (in Middle English) as polcat. While the second syllable is largely self-explanatory, the origin of the first is unclear. It is possibly derived from the French poule, meaning "chicken", likely in reference to the species' fondness for poultry, or it may be a variant of the Old English ful, meaning "foul". In Middle English, the species was referred to as foumart, meaning "foul marten", in reference to its strong odour. In Old French, the polecat was called fissau, which was derived from the Low German and Scandinavian verb for "to make a disagreeable smell". This was later corrupted in English as fitchew or fitchet, which itself became the word "fitch", which is used for the polecat's pelt. The word fitchet is the root word for the North American fisher, which was named by Dutch colonists in America who noted similarities between the two species. In some countries such as New Zealand, the term "fitch" has taken on a wider use to refer to related creatures such as ferrets, especially when farmed for their fur. A 2002 article in The Mammal Society's Mammal Review contested the European polecat's status as an animal indigenous to Britain on account of a scarce fossil record and linguistic evidence. Unlike most native British mammals, the polecat's Welsh name (ffwlbart, derived from the Middle English foulmart) is not of Celtic origin, much as the Welsh names of invasive species such as the European rabbit and fallow deer (cwningen, derived from the Middle English konyng and danas, derived from the Old French dain, respectively) are of Middle English or Old French origin. Polecats are not mentioned in Anglo-Saxon or Welsh literature prior to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, with the first recorded mention of the species in the Welsh language occurring in the 14th century's Llyfr Coch Hergest and in English in Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale (1383). In contrast, attestations of the Welsh word for pine marten (bele), date back at least to the 10th century Welsh Laws and possibly much earlier in northern England. ### Local and indigenous names #### Dialectal English names > Probably no other animal on the British list has had as many colloquial names as the polecat. In southern England it was generally referred to as 'fitchou' whereas in the north it was 'foumat or foumard... However there were a host of others including endless spelling variations: philbert, fulmer, fishock, filibart, poulcat, poll cat, etc. Charles Oldham identified at least 20 different versions of the name in the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire area alone. ### Latin name As well as the several indigenous names referring to smell (see above), the scientific name Mustela putorius is also derived from this species' foul smell. The Latin putorius translates to "stench" or "stink" and is the origin of the English word putrid. ## Evolution The earliest true polecat was Mustela stromeri, which appeared during the late Villafranchian. It was considerably smaller than the present form, thus indicating polecats evolved at a relatively late period. The oldest modern polecat fossils occur in Germany, Britain and France, and date back to the Middle Pleistocene. The European polecat's closest relatives are the steppe polecat and black-footed ferret, with which it is thought to have shared Mustela stromeri as a common ancestor. The European polecat is, however, not as maximally adapted in the direction of carnivory as the steppe polecat, being less specialised in skull structure and dentition. The European polecat likely diverged from the steppe polecat 1.5 million years ago based on IRBP, though cytochrome b transversions indicate a younger date of 430,000 years. It is also closely related to the European mink, with which it can hybridise. ### Domestication Morphological, cytological and molecular studies confirm the European polecat is the sole ancestor of the ferret, thus disproving any connection with the steppe polecat, which was once thought to have contributed to the ferret's creation. Ferrets were first mentioned by Aristophanes in 450 BC and by Aristotle in 350 BC. Greek and Roman writers in the first century AD were the first to attest on the ferret's use in bolting rabbits from their burrows. The first accurate descriptions of ferrets come from Strabo during 200 AD, when ferrets were released onto the Balearic Islands to control rabbit populations. As the European rabbit is native to the Iberian Peninsula and northwest Africa, the European polecat likely was first domesticated in these regions. The ferret and European polecat are similar in both size and portions, to the point that dark-coloured ferrets are almost indistinguishable from their wild cousins, though the ferret's skull has a smaller cranial volume, and has a narrower postorbital constriction. Compared to the European polecat, the ferret has a much smaller brain, though this comparison has not been made with Mediterranean polecats, from which ferrets likely derive. The theory of a Mediterranean origin is further strengthened because the ferret is less tolerant of cold than northern polecat subspecies. Unlike other subspecies, which are largely solitary, the ferret will readily live in social groups. The ferret is also slower in all its movements than the polecat, and hardly ever makes any use of its anal scent glands. Overall, the ferret represents a neotenous form of polecat. ### Subspecies As of 2005, seven subspecies are recognised. ## Description ### Build The appearance of the European polecat is typical of members of the genus Mustela, though it is generally more compact in conformation and, although short-legged, has a less elongated body than the European mink or steppe polecat. The tail is short, about 1⁄3 its body length. The eyes are small, with dark brown irises. The hind toes are long and partially webbed, with weakly curved 4 mm-long, nonretractable claws. The front claws are strongly curved, partially retractable, and measure 6 mm in length. The feet are moderately long and more robust than in other members of the genus. The polecat's skull is relatively coarse and massive, more so than the mink's, with a strong, but short and broad facial region and strongly developed projections. In comparison to other similarly sized mustelids, the polecat's teeth are very strong, large and massive in relation to skull size. Sexual dimorphism in the skull is apparent in the lighter, narrower skull of the female, which also has weaker projections. The polecat's running gait is not as complex and twisting as that of the mink or stoat, and it is not as fast as the mountain weasel (solongoi), stoat or least weasel, as it can be outrun by a conditioned man. Its sensory organs are well developed, though it is unable to distinguish between colours. The dimensions of the European polecat vary greatly. The species does not conform to Bergmann's rule, with the pattern of size variation seeming to follow a trend of size increase along an east–west axis. Males measure 350–460 mm in body length and females are 290–394 mm. The tail measures 115–167 mm in males and 84–150 mm in females. Adult males in middle Europe weigh 1,000-1,500 grams and females 650-815 grams. Gigantism is known among polecats, but specimens exhibiting this are likely the products of polecat-mink hybridisation. ### Fur The winter fur of the European polecat is brownish black or blackish brown, the intensity of which is determined by the colour of the long guard hairs. On the back and flanks, the dark tone is brightened by bright whitish-yellowish, sometimes yellowish-greyish underfur which shows through. The lightly coloured underfur is not equally visible on different parts of the body. On the back and hindquarters, the underfur is almost completely covered by the dark guard hairs. On the flanks, though, the lightening is well defined, and contrasts sharply with the general tone of the back. The throat, lower neck, chest and abdomen are black or blackish brown. The limbs are pure black or black with brown tints, while the tail is black or blackish brown, completely lacking light underfur. The area around and between the eyes is black-brown, with a longitudinal stripe of similar colour along the top of the nose. The ears are dark brown and edged with white. The summer fur is short, sparse and coarse. It is greyer, duller and lacking in the lustre of the winter fur. The underfur is more weakly developed in the summer fur, and has a brownish-grey or rusty-grey colour. The polecat is a good swimmer, but its fur is not as well insulated against cold water as the American mink's; while a mink will take 118 minutes to cool in a water temperature of 8 °C (46 °F), the polecat cools down much faster at 26–28 minutes. Polecats were found in two major phenotypes a typic one and a dark fur one with no black mask. Colour mutations include albinos, leucists, isabellinists, xanthochromists, amelanists, and erythrists. In typical erythristic individuals, the underfur is usually bright reddish. The guard hairs on the trunk are bright reddish or reddish brown. Black guard hairs are absent on the lower body and head. In some rare cases, the guard hairs are so light, they are almost indistinguishable from the pale-yellow underfur. These individuals are called "amelanistic". In these cases, the whole animal is a very light golden-yellow colour. These individuals are called "isabelline" or "xanthochromistic". ## Behaviour ### Social and territorial behaviours Unlike the steppe polecat, the European polecat has a much more settled way of life, with definite home ranges. The characteristics of polecat home ranges vary according to season, habitat, sex and social status. Breeding females settle in discrete areas, whereas breeding males and dispersing juveniles have more fluid ranges, being more mobile. Males typically have larger territories than females. Each polecat uses several den sites distributed throughout its territory. Occasionally, abandoned European badger or red fox burrows are used. Rabbit warrens are often areas of intense polecat activity. In winter, the polecat may use farm buildings or haystacks as daytime resting sites. The polecat is not as territorial as other small mustelids, having been known to share territories with other members of the same sex. Evidence of polecats marking their territories is sparse. Like other mustelids, the polecat is usually a silent animal, though it will growl fiercely when angered, and squeak when distressed. It also emits a low, mewling cry to its mate or offspring. ### Reproduction and development The European polecat is a seasonal breeder, with no courtship rituals. During the mating season, the male grabs the female by the neck and drags her about to stimulate ovulation, then copulates for up to an hour. The species is polygamous, with each male polecat mating with several females. The gestation period lasts 40–43 days, with litters usually being born in May-early June. Each litter typically consists of five to 10 kits. At birth, the kits weigh 9-10 g and measure 55–70 mm in body length; they are blind and deaf. At the age of one week, the kits are covered in silky, white fur, which is replaced with a cinnamon brown-greyish woolly coat at the age of 3–4 wk. Weaning begins at three weeks of age, while the permanent dentition erupts after 7–8 wk. The kits become independent after two to three months. Females are very protective of their young, and have even been known to confront humans approaching too closely to their litters. ## Ecology ### Diet The European polecat's diet consists of mouse-like rodents, followed by amphibians and birds. Its most frequent prey item in the former Soviet Union is the common vole and rarely the red-backed vole. In large river floodlands, water vole are common prey. In spring and winter, amphibians (especially grass frogs and green toads) become important food items. Selective predation on male frogs by the polecat decreases the occurrence of polyandry in frog populations. However, because amphibians have little calorific value, the polecat never grows fat on them, no matter how many it consumes. In Central Europe, the diet in winter months is dominated by birds including quail, grey partridges, grouse, chickens, pigeons and passerines. Seasonal changes in the activity rhythm is synchronised with the activity of the main prey. Some species only rarely preyed upon by the polecat include European hedgehogs, asp vipers, grass snakes, lizards and insects. In Britain, it commonly kills brown rats and European rabbits, and is capable of killing larger prey, such as geese and hares. One polecat was reported to frequently wait at a riverbank and catch eels, which it took back to its burrow. The European polecat hunts its prey by stalking it and seizing it with its canine teeth, killing the animal with a bite to the neck. This killing method is instinctive, but perfected with practice. The polecat sometimes caches its food, particularly during seasonal gluts of frogs and toads. Sometimes, the polecat does not kill these, but bites them at the base of the skull, thus paralyzing them and keeping them fresh for later consumption. Although they are normally shy around humans, naturalist Alfred Brehm in his Brehms Tierleben mentions an exceptional case in which three polecats attacked a baby in Hesse. During winter, some European polecats raid beehives and feed on honey. ### Enemies and competitors Although the European polecat can coexist with the European mink, it suffers in areas where the invasive American mink also occurs, as the latter species feeds on the same mammals as the polecat much more frequently than the European mink, and has been known to drive the polecat out of wetland habitats. In areas where the European polecat is sympatric with the steppe polecat, the two species overlap greatly in choice of food, though the former tends to consume more household foods and birds, while the latter preys on mammals more frequently. There is at least one record of a beech marten killing a polecat. The European polecat may prey on the much smaller least weasel. ## Hybridisation In some parts of Britain, the abandonment of domestic ferrets has led to ferret-polecat crossbreeds living in the wild. Ferrets were likely first brought to Britain after the Norman Conquest of England, or as late as the fourteenth century. Crossbreeds between the two animals typically have a distinct white throat patch, white feet and white hairs interspersed among the fur. Typically, first generation crossbreeds between polecats and ferrets develop their wild parents' fear of humans if left with their mothers during the critical socialisation period between 71⁄2 and 81⁄2 weeks of age. The European polecat can hybridise with the European mink, producing offspring termed khor'-tumak by Russian furriers and khonorik by fanciers. Such hybridisation is very rare in the wild, and typically only occurs where the European mink population is in decline. A polecat-mink hybrid has a poorly defined facial mask, yellow fur on the ears, grey-yellow underfur and long, dark brown guard hairs. It is fairly large, with a male attaining the peak sizes known for European polecats weighing 1,120–1,746 g (2 lb 7+1⁄2 oz – 3 lb 13+9⁄16 oz) and measuring 41–47 cm (16–18+1⁄2 in) in length; a female is much larger than a female European minks weighing 742 g (26+3⁄16 oz) and measuring 37 cm (14+1⁄2 in) in length. The majority of polecat-mink hybrids have skulls bearing greater similarities to those of polecats than to minks; they can swim well and burrow for food like polecats, but are difficult to tame and breed, as males are sterile. The first captive polecat-mink hybrid was created in 1978 for fur, but breeding of these hybrids declined as European mink populations decreased. Studies on the behavioural ecology of free-ranging polecat-mink hybrids in the upper reaches of the Lovat River indicate that hybrids stray from aquatic habitats more readily than minks, and tolerate both parent species entering their territories, though the hybrid's larger size, especially the male's deters intrusion. During summer, the diets of wild polecat-mink hybrids are more similar to those of minks than to the polecats, as they feed predominantly on frogs. During winter, their diets overlap more with those of polecats, and will eat a larger proportion of rodents than in the summer, though they still rely heavily on frogs and rarely scavenge ungulate carcasses as polecats do. The European polecat can also hybridise with the Asian steppe polecat or the domestic ferret to produce fertile offspring. European-steppe polecat hybrids are very rare, despite their sympatry in several areas. Nevertheless, hybrids have been recorded in southern Ukraine, the Kursk and Voronezh Oblasts, the Trans-Carpathians and several other localities. ## Range, history and conservation The European polecat is widespread in the western Palaearctic to the Urals in the Russian Federation, though it is absent from Ireland, northern Scandinavia, and much of the Balkans and eastern Adriatic coast. It occurs only marginally in northern Greece. It is found in Morocco in the Rif Mountains, from sea level to 2400 m. Its domesticated form, the ferret, was introduced in Britain, and some Mediterranean islands and New Zealand. ### Britain > There are ... some extreme examples, but the fact remains that throughout England and Wales polecats were consistently persecuted at a greater intensity than any other species of mustelid. Did this level of persecution have an effect on overall numbers or did it purely satisfy local vengeance? ... The polecat may be the best example of a species for which the level of killing really did make a difference to the population. The developing sporting estates then administered the coup de grâce. In Britain, the European polecat was regarded as a serious poultry predator prior to the introduction of wire netting, therefore eliminating it was considered the only option to protect stock. This extreme enmity does not appear to have been universal however. Speaking of Merioneth (Gwynedd) Peter Hope Jones reported that "for a county supposedly well-placed within the known past distribution of this species, Merioneth has relatively very few records of Polecats amongst its parish bounty payments. Perhaps this animal was not generally considered to be an important pest, but whatever the real reason, in only two parishes are direct references made to this species by the name by which we know it today. In the years from 1729 to 1732 about twenty were killed in Towyn parish, where 2/6 was paid for a full-grown polecat and half this sum for a young 'kittin'. Records for Llanfor.... show that only 42 were killed in the 39-year period from 1720 to 1758, the payment being exactly half the going rate for a fox, i.e. 2/6 for a full-grown polecat, and 1/3 for a young animal". In Kent, for example, at least 42 parishes paid bounties for polecats, of which three extended into the 19th century, though by this time only single individuals were recorded, and usually after gaps of many years. In the Kingdom of Scotland, during the reign of David II, an export duty of 4d. was imposed on each polecat fur trimmer, which was raised to 8d. in 1424. The species held an important place in Scotland's fur markets; the annual Dumfries Fur Fair (1816–1874) sold 400 polecat pelts in 1829 and 600 in 1831. The following year, a contemporary account described polecat skins as "a drug on the market". In 1856, the number of sold pelts decreased to 240, 168 in 1860, 12 in 1866 and none in 1869. The decline was halted with the decrease in the intensity of gamekeeping during the 20 year interval between the First and Second World Wars. The European polecat is afforded both national and European protection; it is listed on Schedule 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and Regulation 41 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 and is listed on Annex V of the Habitats Directive. A survey carried out by the Vincent Wildlife Trust in 2015 found that the polecat had spread into areas (such as East Anglia and South Yorkshire) where they had not been seen for 100 years. Naturalist Chris Packham termed the spread "...one of the great natural recoveries." ### France The European polecat is present in all of France's territories, excepting Corsica, and has been in a state of decline for several decades. Nevertheless, it is listed as Least Concern on France's Red Data Book. The European polecat is rare in numerous regions or départements. In the Rhone-Alps region, its population has undergone a sizeable decline since the 1990s, largely as a consequence of poisoning campaigns against muskrats. A 1999 study on the decline of polecats in this region indicated the species has little chance of surviving there. Elsewhere, it is considered either rare or sporadic in 22 districts and absent or extirpated in 22 others. In Drôme, for example, polecat populations have been decreasing since 1975, and have disappeared in 27 communes in Isère. Its numbers are declining in Morvan and Ariège, and is thinly distributed in Brittany. Although present in Aquitaine, its numbers have been dropping since the 1950s, and is very rare in the mountain regions. In Normandy, the speed of the polecat's decline has somewhat decreased. In the alpine départements, its range is limited by altitude, as the species relies on more Mediterranean climates to thrive. It is, however, especially abundant in the irrigated Crau, but is absent on the eastern part of the area, apparently being restricted by the valleys of the Durance and Rhone Rivers. The largest populations occur in Northern France: Pas de Calais, Central France; Alsace, Lorraine and the areas of the Loire with the Vendée, which holds the largest record of polecat observations. It is common in all the départements of Champagne-Ardenne. ### Former Soviet Union The western border of the European polecat's range in the former Soviet Union begins from the mouth of the Danube in the south approximately to northwest of Suoyarvi, on the Finnish border in the north. In Karelia, its northern border extends from the former point towards the southeast to the Spassk Bay of Lake Onega, thereby passing around the West Karelian uplands from the south and then, passing around these uplands from the east, it suddenly ascends directly to the north passing in particular, near the western shore of Segozer and reaches Rugozer. From there, the border line turns northeast, crossing the Lakhta and reaching Kem on the White Sea. From Archangelsk, the border reaches Mezen, thus attaining the species' most northerly range. From the Mezen River's mouth, the border abruptly returns south, approaching closer to the upper Mezen near 64° lat. From there, the polecat's northern border goes on to the upper Vychegda River, and descends further on southwards and in the Urals. Its eastern range apparently extends along the Urals, embracing Sverdlovsk from the west. It is probably absent in the southern Urals, where the steppe polecat occurs. The southern border of the polecat's range starts in the west of the Danube's mouth and extends eastward along the coast of the Black Sea reaching the mouth of the Dnepr, from which it moves back from the shore of the Azov Sea and, along it, goes to the mouth of the Don. From the mouth and lower course of the Don, its range passes into the steppe region of western and middle Ciscaucasia. The European polecat is absent from the Saratov steppes of Transvolga, instead being encountered only in the extreme lower Bolshoy and Maly Irgiz Rivers. Further on, the border goes to the north along the Volga River. It steeply returns east somewhat south at the Samara bend, passing around Obshchy Syrt, reaching the Urals at the latitude of Magnitogorsk. The range of the polecat within the former Soviet Union has expanded northwards. From 1930 to 1952 for example, the polecat colonised northwestern Karelia and southern Finland. Prior to the First World War, the Russian Empire produced more than 50% of global polecat skins. The harvesting of polecats in Russia increased substantially after the October Revolution, which coincided with Western Europe's decline in polecat numbers. The Russian population of polecats decreased somewhat after the Second World War, and their hunting was subsequently discouraged, as polecats were acknowledged to limit harmful rodent populations. ## Diseases and parasites The European polecat may suffer from distemper, influenza, the common cold and pneumonia. Occasionally, it is affected by malignant tumours and hydrocephaly. It commonly has broken teeth and, on rarer occasions, fatal abscesses on the jaw, head and neck. In mainland Europe, it is a carrier of trichinosis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis and adiaspiromycosis. Incidences of polecats carrying rabies are high in some localized areas. Ectoparasites known to infest polecats include flea species such as Ctenocephalides felis, Archaeospylla erinacei, Nosopsyllus fasciatus and Paraceras melis. The tick Ixodes hexagonus is the polecat's most common ectoparasite, which is sometimes found in large numbers on the neck and behind the ears. Another, less common species to infest polecats is I. canisuga. The biting louse Trichodectes jacobi is also known to infest polecats. Endoparasites carried by polecats include the cestodes Taenia tenuicollis and T. martis and the nematodes Molineus patens, Strongyloides papillosus, Capilliaria putorii, Filaroides martis and Skjrabingylus nasicola. ## Relationships with humans ### Hunting and fur use European polecat hunting was once a favourite sport of the Westmorland dalesmen and the Scots, who hunted them at night in midwinter. However, the majority of polecat deaths caused by humans have been accidental, having mostly been caused by steel traps set for rabbits. Hunting polecats by moonlight was also a popular diversion among midland schoolboys. Until the mid-19th century, polecats in Britain were hunted from early February to late April with mixed packs of hunting dogs on the Welsh hills and Lakeland fells, though otterhounds were used on the fells, the Border country and the Scottish Lowlands. John Tucker Edwardes, the creator of the Sealyham terrier, used captured wild male polecats to test the gameness of yearling terriers. In the former Soviet Union, polecats are hunted chiefly in late autumn and early winter with guns and hunting dogs, as well as foothold traps and wooden snares. However, even in season, hunters rarely catch more than 10-15 polecats. The species does not constitute an important element in former Soviet commercial hunting, and is usually only caught incidentally. The European polecat is a valuable fur bearer, whose pelt (fitch) is more valuable than the steppe polecat's. Its skin is used primarily in the production of jackets, capes and coats. It is particularly well suited for trimmings for women's clothing. The tail is sometimes used for the making of paintbrushes. One disadvantage of polecat skin, however, is its unpleasant odour, which is difficult to remove. The European polecat was first commercially farmed for its fur in Great Britain during the 1920s, but was only elevated to economic importance in Finland in 1979. It never became popular in the United States and Canada, due to import laws regarding non-native species. It did gain economic importance in the USSR, though. ### Tameability Unlike the stoat and least weasel, the European polecat is easy to breed in captivity. According to Aubyn Trevor-Battye, the European polecat is difficult to tame, but is superior to its domesticated form, the ferret, in bolting rats from their holes due to its greater agility. It is prone to attempting escape once finished bolting rats, but can be easily outrun. Polecat kits can be successfully raised and suckled by mother cats. According to Owen's Welsh Dictionary, the Gwythelians (early Irish settlers in northern Wales) kept polecats as pets. Attempts to tame the European polecat are generally hampered by the adult's nervous and unsociable disposition. First generation hybrids between polecats and ferrets, conceived to improve the latter's bloodlines, produce animals with personalities similar to their wild parent's. ### In culture In Britain, the polecat historically has had a negative reputation. References to the polecat in early English literature are often vilifying, usually being synonymous with prostitutes and generally immoral people, as is the case in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat, you runyon!" In some rural areas, the belief persists that the polecat chews off the ears of sleeping sheep and can paralyse or kill men by jumping on them from behind and biting their necks. However, in some regions, it was widely believed among farmers that allowing a polecat to nest in a chicken coop would ensure the animal would not kill the poultry out of gratitude, and instead kill vermin. Cases in which polecats did kill poultry were attributed to animals which were guests at other farms. In Wales, polecats were widely believed to migrate in large numbers every spring to the great peat bog of Tregaron to feed on the breeding frogs there. This was later proven to be incorrect, as the climate in Tregaron is too wet for the European polecat, and it does not hold large frog populations. Compared to other British carnivores, such as otters and badgers, the polecat has received little exposure in popular media. A study conducted on rural school children showed only 3.8% of the surveyed children could identify polecats in photographs, whereas 83.7% correctly identified otters. ## Gallery

Ismail II of Granada

Sultan of Granada from 1359 to 1360

Abu al-Walid Ismail II ibn Yusuf (أبو الوليد إسماعيل بن يوسف, 4 October 1339 – 24 June or 13 July 1360) was the ninth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula. He reigned from 23 August 1359 until his death. The second son of Yusuf I, he was initially the favourite of his father due to the influence of his mother Maryam, of whom he was the first son. His half-brother Muhammad V succeeded in 1354 after their father's assassination, and Ismail lived in a palace provided by the new Sultan. He dethroned his half-brother on 23 August 1359 in a coup that was masterminded by his mother Maryam and his brother-in-law Muhammad el Bermejo. With Muhammad V exiled in North Africa, Ismail's rule came to be dominated by el Bermejo. They had a falling out, which resulted in the violent overthrow of Ismail by his brother-in-law after less than a year as sultan. Ismail was executed along with his brother Qays and his ministers. ## Geopolitical background The Emirate of Granada was the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, founded by Muhammad I in the 1230s. Through a combination of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, the emirate succeeded in maintaining its independence, despite being located between two larger neighbours: the Christian Crown of Castile to the north and the Muslim Marinid Sultanate in Morocco. Granada intermittently entered into alliance or went to war with both of these powers, or encouraged them to fight one another, in order to avoid being dominated by either. From time to time, the sultans of Granada swore fealty and paid tribute to the kings of Castile, an important source of income for Castile. From Castile's point of view, Granada was a royal vassal, while Muslim sources never described the relationship as such. Muhammad IV allied himself with the Marinid Sultanate against Castile, and Ismail's father, Yusuf I, continued this diplomatic policy early in his reign. However, after the disastrous Battle of Río Salado in 1340, he cautiously avoided confrontation and focused on the independent defense of his realm. Castile, Granada, and the Marinids agreed to a peace treaty between the three kingdoms in 1350. ## Early life Abu al-Walid Ismail ibn Yusuf was born on 4 October 1339 (28 Rabi al-Awwal 740 AH). His father was Sultan Yusuf I and his mother was the Sultan's concubine Maryam. He was the second son of his father, born nine months after Muhammad, the first son of another concubine, Buthayna. Ismail had at least three younger full siblings: his brother Qays and sisters Shams and Zaynab. Other than Muhammad, he had a half-sister Aisha, also a child of Buthayna. Maryam seems to have had more influence over the Sultan than Buthayna, and Ismail was also his favourite son. Yusuf's hajib (chamberlain), Abu Nu'aym Ridwan, was responsible for the education of Ismail and the other princes. Ismail learned some Greek from the Ridwan, who was a former Christian. The Nasrid dynasty did not have a predetermined order of succession; initially, Yusuf designated Ismail as his heir, but, a few days before his death, he named Muhammad instead. Yusuf I was assassinated during prayer in the Great Mosque of Granada on Eid al-Fitr, 19 October 1354. To Maryam's and Ismail's disappointment, the vizier Ibn al-Khatib immediately declared Muhammad (now Muhammad V) as the next Sultan. Due to Muhammad's young age, the government and the army were controlled by Ridwan, who still held the guardianship of Muhammad, Ismail, and their siblings. Ismail, Maryam, and his full siblings lived in a palace assigned to them by Muhammad and located in the Alhambra, the Nasrid royal compound, near the Sultan's own palace. Their movements were restricted but they lived comfortably and were treated with dignity and generosity. Muhammad continued the policy of peace with all neighbours, and had good relations with both Abu Salim of the Marinids (r. 1359–1361) and Peter I of Castile. However, in 1358, he was embroiled in the War of the Two Peters between Peter I and Peter IV of Aragon. Castile demanded Granada's financial and military contributions as its vassal. Muhammad's decision to enter the war angered many at court and was one factor that facilitated Ismail's rise to the throne. ## Rule Ismail came to the throne on 23 August 1359 (28 Ramadan 760) in a coup masterminded and financed by his mother Maryam and supported by his father's cousin Abu Abdullah Muhammad—called el Bermejo, "the Red-haired"—who was also his brother-in-law, as he had married one of his full sisters several years before. Under cover of the night in the holy month of Ramadan, one hundred men scaled the Alhambra's walls and overwhelmed the guards. They killed the hajib Ridwan, demolished his house, and took his rich possessions. Muhammad V happened to be outside the Alhambra, and fled to the eastern city of Guadix after failing to retake the palace compound. The conspirators found Ismail in his assigned palace and declared him as the new Sultan. However, soon much actual power was held by his brother-in-law el Bermejo, who as high-ranking royalty was customarily titled al-rais (arráez). Muhammad V's authority was recognised in Guadix, and he was supported by the commander of the Volunteers of the Faith garrisoned there, Ali ibn Badr ibn Rahhu. However, the dethroned sultan failed to gain the loyalty of the eastern port of Almería or to secure help from his ally Peter I of Castile. He then left the Iberian Peninsula for North Africa after he was offered asylum by the Marinid Sultan Abu Salim. He sailed from the western port of Marbella to Ceuta, and thence to the Marinid capital of Fez on either 28 October 1359 or 4 November 1359 along with his retinue, his vizier Ibn al-Khatib—whom Ismail agreed to release—and his katib (secretary) Ibn Zamrak. Ismail replaced many of the Granadan high officials known or suspected to be loyal to his predecessor. He appointed Ibn al-Hasan al-Nubahi as the chief judge (qadi al-jama'a), replacing Ibn Juzayy, one of the most celebrated men in the city, whom Ismail suspected of supporting Muhammad V. Ismail appointed Idris ibn Uthman ibn al-Ula as the Chief of the Volunteers in Granada. His predecessor, Yahya ibn Umar ibn Rahhu, remained loyal to Muhammad V and fled to Castile, along with 200 of his cavalry. Yahya was given asylum in Cordoba until he joined the Sultan-in-exile in 1361. ## Downfall With a civil war averted, Ismail renewed his predecessor's alliance with Castile against Aragon. In response, Peter IV of Aragon sent Granadan knights in his service to Granada in an attempt to destabilise Ismail's reign. Ibn al-Khatib, one of the main historical sources on Granada in this period, wrote in his al-Lamha al-Badriyya that Ismail—whom he nicknamed al-Mutawattib ("the Usurper")—was a weak, lazy, and effeminate ruler, who braided his hair with silk to below his waist and lacked any personal quality. Historian L. P. Harvey commented that this negative portrayal might have been biased by Ibn al-Khatib's allegiance to Muhammad V. In any event, el Bermejo increasingly held the real power, to the extent that Ismail began to oppose his brother-in-law. Before Ismail could act, el Bermejo mounted a second coup, which resulted in his own accession and the dethronement of Ismail, either on 24 June 1360 (8 Shaban 761) or the night of 13 July (27 Shaban). Ismail was surrounded by el Bermejo's men and barricaded himself in a tower overlooking the capital, likely one of the towers in the Alcazaba of the Alhambra. Forced to surrender, he offered to live in seclusion, but el Bermejo took him to a dungeon, where he was executed. Next, el Bermejo found Ismail's brother Qays, who was still a child, and executed him, too. Both their bodies were dumped in public covered only with rags. Ismail's ministers were also executed. According to historian Francisco Vidal Castro, el Bermejo's actions were motivated by fear that either royal could be used in a future court intrigue against him, as Ismail had been used to dethrone Muhammad V. Thus, el Bermejo took the throne as Muhammad VI. The next day, the bodies of Ismail and Qays were recovered and they were buried in the rawda (royal cemetery) of the Alhambra, next to their father Yusuf I. ## Aftermath The reign of Muhammad VI (el Bermejo) did not last long: Muhammad V returned from North Africa on August 1361, set up a rival government in Ronda, and deposed his brother-in-law in March 1362. Muhammad VI threw himself at the mercy of Peter I, an ally of Muhammad V. Peter refused to give asylum to the dethroned Sultan and instead personally executed him in Seville on 25 April 1362. Muhammad V went on to rule until his natural death on 16 January 1391. His relatively long reign is considered one of the highest points of the Nasrid dynasty, together with the reign of Yusuf I before him.

Australia and the American Civil War

Involvement, and relations of the British colonies that would become Australia in the U.S. Civil War

Despite being across the world from the conflict, the Australian colonies were affected by the American Civil War both economically and by immigration. The Australian cotton crop became more important to England, which had lost its American sources, and it served as a supply base for Confederate blockade runners. Immigrants from Europe seeking a better life also found Australia preferable to war-torn North America. The Australian public was shocked by the revelation by a turncoat Russian officer, who claimed that a direct engagement was secretly planned by Russia in case the Confederacy was recognised by Britain. The Russian navy had just paid Australia a visit in preparation for launching attacks. Fear of a possible military confrontation led to a massive buildup of coastal defences and to the acquisition of an ironclad warship. Australia became directly involved when the Confederate navy visited in order to repair one of their warships. This led to protests from the Union representative at Melbourne, while the citizenry of nearby Williamstown entertained the Confederates and some Australians joined the crew. Accounts disagree as to whether Australians generally favored the Union or the Confederacy. ## Economics Together, 140 Australians and New Zealanders were veterans of the American Civil War, 100 of whom were native-born. Some of these were originally Americans who came to Australia during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. Officers during the war included one who gave Tasmania its first telegraph service, and another officer who mined for gold in Ballarat. Confederate blockade runners occasionally obtained supplies there, despite a historic fear of possible naval attack by Americans, a fear rooted in the actions of American privateers during the War of 1812. The war also caused the Lancashire Cotton Famine. As a result, Queensland saw a rise in its cotton industry, while the National Colonial Emigration Society in Britain was founded, although it had little ongoing relevance. This came about as a result of so many individuals from northern England being affected by the inability of the Southern United States to ship cotton during the war. Once the war ended, little cotton from southern Australia was imported to England. Another impact was the competition with Canada that Australia and New Zealand had with Irish immigration. The increasing Irish immigration was seen as an economic boon by these countries. One of the reasons for the increase was due to many Irish deciding against emigrating to the warring nations of North America. ## Imperial Russian Navy During the Civil War, the Union and Russia were allies against what they saw as their potential enemy, Britain. The Russian blue-water navy was stationed in San Francisco and from 1863 in New York—with sealed orders to attack British naval targets in case war broke out between the United States and Britain. This was threatened if Britain gave diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. The flagship of the Russian Pacific squadron, Bogatyr under Rear Admiral Andrey Alexandrovich Popov, officially made a friendly visit to Melbourne in early 1863. According to information passed on to Australian authorities in June 1864, Rear Admiral A. A. Popov had in the first half of the year 1863 received orders and a plan of attack on the British naval ships positioned near the Australian shore. The plan also included shelling and destruction of the Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart coastal batteries. The information was attributed to the Polish lieutenant Władysław Zbyszewski of the Bogatyr, who had deserted from service in Shanghai soon after Bogatyr left Australia, and found his way to Paris to join the Polish January Uprising. This information about Popov's plans was forwarded by a fellow Pole, S. Rakowsky. Similar attack orders are known to have been given to the Atlantic squadron under Rear Admiral Lessovsky, that was sent to New York at the same time. ## CSS Shenandoah Having crossed the Indian Ocean, the CSS Shenandoah arrived in Australian waters on 17 January 1865. Off the coast of South Australia at , her crew spotted an American-made sailing ship named the Nimrod and boarded it. Having ascertained it was an English ship, the Shenandoah left it alone. On 25 January 1865, the Shenandoah made harbor at Williamstown, Victoria, near Melbourne, in order to repair damage received while capturing Union whaling-ships. At seven o'clock in the evening, Waddell sent Lieutenant Grimball to gain approval from local authorities to repair their ship; Grimball returned three hours later saying they were granted permission. The United States consul, William Blanchard, insisted that the Victorian government arrest the Confederates as pirates, but Victoria's governor, Sir Charles Henry Darling, ignored his pleas, satisfied with the Shenandoah’s pleading of neutrality when requesting to be allowed to undertake repairs. Aside from a few fist fights between Americans, there was no direct conflict between the two warring sides in Melbourne. However, there were eighteen desertions while ashore, and there were constant threats of Northern sympathisers joining the crew in order to capture the ship when it was at sea. The local citizenry expressed great interest in the Confederate ship in Port Phillip Bay. While at Williamstown, James Iredell Waddell, the captain of the Shenandoah and his men participated in several "official functions" which the local citizens arranged in their honour, including a gala ball with the "cream of society" at Craig's Royal Hotel in Ballarat and at the Melbourne Club. Thousands of tourists came to see the ship every day, requiring special trains to accommodate them. After being treated as "little lions", the officers of the Shenandoah later reflected that the best time of their lives was given to them by the women of Melbourne. After leaving Australia, the Shenandoah sailed north into the Pacific Ocean and captured twenty-five additional Union whaling ships before finally surrendering at Liverpool, England in November 1865. Those surrendering included 42 Australians who had joined the crew at Williamstown; sources differ as to whether the Australians were stowaways or illegally recruited. Waddell had refused Australian authorities permission to see if Australians were aboard the ship prior to sailing from Williamstown on 18 February 1865. Four Australians had been arrested by police to prevent them from joining the Confederate ship, and Governor Darling allowed the Shenandoah to sail away, instead of firing upon it. Waddell's official report said that on 18 February they "found on board" the 42 men, and made 36 sailors and enlisted six as marines. One of the original Confederate crewmen, midshipman John Thomson Mason, stated that they just happened to find the stowaways, of various nationalities, and enlisted them outside of Australian waters. He further said one of the stowaways was the captain of an English steamer that was at Melbourne at the time; the Englishman became the captain's clerk. ## Aftermath The residents of Melbourne, realizing they were vulnerable to attack by others, especially the Russians due to the events during the war, hurried to build coastal defense forts. This included the government of Victoria requesting an ironclad ship to be sent to protect the colony after the value of ironclads were demonstrated during the American Civil War's Battle of Hampton Roads. The monitor HMVS Cerberus was constructed during the late 1860s and arrived in Victoria in 1871. In 1872 the British government paid the United States US\$3,875,000 as a result of the assistance provided to CSS Shenandoah and other Confederate ships in Victoria and other ports controlled by Great Britain, after an international jury ruled on the case in Geneva, Switzerland. ### Self-government When the six colonies of the Australian continent federated to form a self-governing nation in 1901, Australia favored the British model of government as they had misgivings about America's powerful postwar "monarchical" presidency. Australians also opposed the importation of "coloured labour" and established the White Australia policy, in part due to fears of a similar civil war breaking out in Australia. A further precautionary measure was evident in the addition of the word "indissoluble" to the Federal Constitution of 1897–1898 in Adelaide, to prevent the "political heresy" of secession as engaged in by the Confederacy. ## See also - History of Australia (1851–1900)

German destroyer Z20 Karl Galster

Type 1936-class destroyer

Z20 Karl Galster was one of six Type 1936 destroyers built for the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in the late 1930s. Completed in early 1939, the ship spent most of her time training. At the beginning of World War II in September, she was initially deployed to lay minefields off the German coast, but was soon transferred to the Skagerrak where she inspected neutral shipping for contraband goods. In late 1939 and early 1940, Z20 Karl Galster helped to laid three offensive minefields off the English coast that claimed one British destroyer, a fishing trawler, and twenty merchant ships. After a refit that prevented her from participating in the German invasion of Norway in April, the ship was sent to Norway for escort duties. Later that year Z20 Karl Galster was transferred to France, where she made several attacks on British shipping. The ship returned to Germany in early 1941 for a refit and was transferred to Norway in June as part of the preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Z20 Karl Galster spent some time at the beginning of the campaign conducting anti-shipping patrols in Soviet waters but these were generally fruitless. She escorted a number of German convoys in the Arctic later in the year until engine problems sent her back to Germany for repairs. The ship returned to Norway in mid-1942, but was badly damaged when she ran aground in July and did not return until December. Z20 Karl Galster participated in the German attack (Operation Zitronella) on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, well north of the Arctic Circle, in September 1943. Plagued by engine problems, the ship was under repair from November to August 1944 and then spent the next six months on convoy escort duties in southern Norway when not laying minefields. Around March 1945, Z20 Karl Galster was transferred to the Baltic Sea where she helped to escort convoys of refugee ships and also rescued evacuees herself in May, around the time that Germany surrendered. When the surviving German warships were divided between the Allies after the war, the ship was eventually allocated to the Soviet Union. Z20 Karl Galster was handed over in 1946 and renamed Prochnyy. The ship was converted into a training ship in 1950 and then became an accommodation ship in 1954. She was scrapped four years later. ## Design and description Z20 Karl Galster had an overall length of 125.10 meters (410 ft 5 in) and was 120 meters (393 ft 8 in) long at the waterline. The ship had a beam of 11.8 meters (38 ft 9 in), and a maximum draft of 4.5 meters (14 ft 9 in). She displaced 2,411 long tons (2,450 t) at standard load and 3,415 long tons (3,470 t) at deep load. The two Wagner geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce 70,000 PS (51,000 kW; 69,000 shp) using steam provided by six Wagner boilers for a designed speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). During Z20 Karl Galster's sea trials on 16–May 1939, she reached 39 knots (72.2 km/h; 44.9 mph) from 76,500 PS (56,300 kW; 75,500 shp). The ship carried a maximum of 739 metric tons (727 long tons) of fuel oil which gave a range of 2,050 nautical miles (3,800 km; 2,360 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). Her crew consisted of 10 officers and 313 sailors. The ship carried five 12.7-centimeter (5.0 in) SK C/34 guns in single mounts with gun shields, two each superimposed, fore and aft of the superstructure. The fifth mount was positioned on top of the rear deckhouse. The guns were numbered from 1 to 5 from front to rear. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of four 3.7-centimeter (1.5 in) SK C/30 guns in two twin mounts abreast the rear funnel and six 2-centimeter (0.8 in) C/30 guns in single mounts. The ship carried eight above-water 53.3-centimeter (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two power-operated mounts. Two reloads were provided for each mount. She had four depth charge launchers and mine rails could be fitted on the rear deck that had a maximum capacity of 60 mines. 'GHG' (Gruppenhorchgerät) passive hydrophones were fitted to detect submarines and an active sonar system was installed by the end of 1939. ### Modifications In 1942, the ship had a FuMO 24/25 radar installed above the bridge as well as two FuMO 63 Hohentwiel radars, one of which replaced the aft searchlight. A FuMB 1 Metox radar detector was also installed that year. The details of the changes made to her anti-aircraft suite are not well documented, but photographic evidence shows that a quadruple 2 cm mount had been added by early 1944. Before the end of the war, the ship had her midships 2 cm guns replaced by a pair of 3.7 cm Flak M42 gun in single mounts and that four twin 2 cm mounts had probably been added in the forward superstructure. ## Construction and career Z20 Karl Galster was named after Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant) Karl Galster who commanded the torpedo boat S22 and was killed in action on 21 March 1916. The ship was ordered from AG Weser (Deschimag) on 6 January 1936. She was laid down at Deschimag's Bremen shipyard as yard number W922 on 14 September 1937, launched on 15 June 1938, and commissioned on 21 March 1939. She visited Åndalsnes, Norway, in July and then participated in a torpedo training exercise the following month. When World War II began in September, Z20 Karl Galster was initially deployed in the German Bight where she laid defensive minefields. The ship then patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods. On the night of 17/18 October, Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Günther Lütjens, aboard his flagship Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp, led Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, Z17 Diether von Roeder, Z18 Hans Lüdemann, Z19 Hermann Künne, and Z20 Karl Galster as they laid a minefield off the mouth of the River Humber. The British were unaware of the minefield's existence and lost seven ships totaling 25,825 gross register tons (GRT). Missions on the nights of 8/9 and 10/11 November had to be aborted because of seawater contamination in Z19 Hermann Künne's fuel. On the night of 12/13 November Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp, now the flagship of the Führer der Zerstörer (FdZ) (Commander of Destroyers), Kapitän zur See (KzS) (Captain) Friedrich Bonte, escorted Z18 Hans Lüdemann, Z19 Hermann Künne, and Z20 Karl Galster as they laid 288 magnetic mines in the Thames estuary. Once again unaware of the minefield's existence, the British lost the destroyer Blanche and thirteen merchant ships of 48,728 GRT. The ship spent the rest of the year patrolling in the German Bight. Bonte and Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp led a minelaying sortie to the Newcastle area together with Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, Z20 Karl Galster, and Z22 Anton Schmitt on the night of 10/11 January 1940. The destroyers Z14 Friedrich Ihn and Z4 Richard Beitzen were also supposed to participate, but the former had problems with her boilers that reduced her maximum speed to 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) and she had to be escorted back to Germany by the latter ship. The minefield only claimed one fishing trawler of 251 GRT. In retaliation for the Altmark Incident where the Royal Navy seized captured British sailors from the German tanker Altmark in neutral Norwegian waters on 16 February, the Kriegsmarine organized Operation Nordmark to search for Allied merchant ships in the North Sea as far north as the Shetland Islands. Z20 Karl Galster and Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp escorted the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper during the sortie on 18 February. Upon her return Z20 Karl Galster began a refit that lasted until 27 May. After the catastrophic destroyer losses in the Battles of Narvik in April, the Kriegsmarine reorganized its surviving destroyers and Z20 Karl Galster became the flagship of the FdZ. In June the ship was tasked to lead the escort force for Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Admiral Hipper during Operation Juno, a planned attack on Harstad, Norway, to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. The ships sortied on 8 June and sank the troop transport Orama, the oil tanker and the minesweeping trawler en route, Z20 Karl Galster assisting in the rescue of Orama's survivors. The German commander, Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, then ordered Admiral Hipper and all four destroyers to Trondheim because of the heavy weather, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June. Z20 Karl Galster remained there until she had to help screen the crippled Gneisenau as she returned to Kiel on 25 July. After a brief refit, the ship helped to lay minefields in the North Sea between 14 August and 7 September. Z20 Karl Galster, now the flagship of KzS Fritz Berger, commander of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla (5. Zerstörerflotille), transferred to France on 9 September in preparation for Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Great Britain. Now based at Brest, the ship helped to lay a minefield in Falmouth Bay during the night of 28/29 September. Five ships totaling only 2,037 GRT were sunk by this minefield. Aboard his flagship Z10 Hans Lody, the Führer der Torpedoboote (Commander of Torpedo Boats), KzS Erich Bey, led Z20 Karl Galster and three other destroyers during a sortie for the Southwest Approaches on 17 October and were intercepted by a British force of two light cruisers and five destroyers. The British opened fire at extreme range and were forced to disengage in the face of long-range torpedo volleys and attacks by Luftwaffe bombers without having hit any of the German ships. On the night of 24–25 November, Z20 Karl Galster, no longer Berger's flagship, Z4 Richard Beitzen and Z10 Hans Lody sortied from Brest, bound for the Land's End area. En route they encountered some fishing ships south-west of Wolf Rock and engaged them with gunfire with little effect. The German ships then spotted a small convoy and Z20 Karl Galster sank one of the three merchantmen and damaged another. The flash from the guns alerted the five destroyers of the British 5th Destroyer Flotilla, but they could not intercept the German destroyers before dawn. Three nights later the German ships sortied again for the same area. They encountered two tugboats and a barge, but only sank one of the former and the barge, totaling 424 GRT. This time the 5th Destroyer Flotilla was able to intercept around 06:30 on 29 November. The Germans opened fire first, each destroyer firing four torpedoes, of which only two from Z10 Hans Lody hit their target, the destroyer HMS Javelin. The torpedoes hit at each end of the ship and blew off her bow and stern, but the British were able to tow her home. Z20 Karl Galster returned home on 5 December for a turbine overhaul in Wesermünde that lasted until 9 June 1941. ### Arctic service Two days later, the ship was one of the escorts for the heavy cruiser Lützow from Kiel to Norway as the latter ship attempted to break through the British blockade. Several Bristol Beaufort torpedo bombers spotted Lützow and her escorts en route and one managed to surprise the ships and torpedo the cruiser early on the morning of 13 June, forcing her to return to Germany for repairs. Z20 Karl Galster was then sent to Kirkenes, Norway, arriving on 11 July. Now a part of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla (6. Zerstörerflottille), she participated in a sortie on 12–13 July that sank two small Soviet ships at the cost of expending 80% of their ammunition. Another sortie on 22 July saw Z20 Karl Galster temporarily serve as the flagship for KzS Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, commander of the 6. Zerstörerflottille, when his usual flagship Z10 Hans Lody had condenser problems. The destroyers sank a small survey ship and a flying boat and they were repeatedly attacked by Soviet aircraft to no effect before their return on the 24th. When the British aircraft carriers Victorious and Furious attacked Petsamo and Kirkenes on 29 July, the destroyers were far to the east and could not catch the British ships before they left the area. Z20 Karl Galster was now assigned to escort convoys between Tromsø and Kirkenes; during one of these missions, the submarine Trident sank two troop-carrying freighters, Bahia Laura and Donau II despite the destroyers. Z20 Karl Galster rescued over 500 survivors from the two ships. When Z10 Hans Lody required a refit in late September, Schulze-Hinrichs transferred his flag to Z20 Karl Galster until she had engine problems of her own and sailed for Germany on 23 November to begin a refit that lasted until 5 May 1942. The ship, now flagship of KzS Gottfried Pönitz, commander of the 8. Zerstörerflottile (8th Destroyer Flotilla), sailed for Trondheim on 11 June. She was one of four destroyers assigned to escort the battleship Tirpitz during Operation Rösselsprung, an attack on the Russia-bound Convoy PQ 17. The ships sailed from Trondheim on 2 July for the first stage of the operation, although three of the destroyers, including Z20 Karl Galster, assigned to Tirpitz's escort ran aground in the dark and heavy fog and were forced to return to port for emergency repairs. The destroyer had damaged her port turbine and buckled the port propeller shaft. Escorted by two other destroyers, Z20 Karl Galster sailed for Kiel on 12 July, steaming only on one turbine. Permanent repairs were finished by mid-November, but the ship was working up until 8 December when she was one of the escorts for Lützow's voyage to Norway, although storm damage en route forced the destroyer to put into Trondheim for repairs that lasted until 9 January 1943. Boiler damage put her back into the dockyard there until 27 February. On 11 March Z20 Karl Galster screened Tirpitz en route to Bogen Bay, and continued onward to Altafjord with Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Lützow. Several weeks later, Z20 Karl Galster, and the destroyers Z5 Paul Jacobi and Z6 Theodor Riedel, sailed for Jan Mayen island on 31 March to rendezvous with the blockade runner, . They searched for several days before increasingly heavy weather forced them to return to port with storm damage. Unbeknownst to the Germans, Regensburg had been intercepted and sunk by a British cruiser on 30 March. Z20 Karl Galster took part in the raid on the island of Spitsbergen in 6–9 September, during which she landed troops on the island. Two months later the ship sailed for Bremen to begin an overhaul. ### Further service Problems with her starboard turbine, after the overhaul was finished in April 1944, put Z20 Karl Galster back in the dockyard for further work until about August when she began escorting convoys in southern Norway and helping to lay minefields in the Skagerrak. The ship continued to perform those duties until she began a brief refit in Oslo, Norway, between 20 December and 13 January 1945. Z20 Karl Galster helped to lay a minefield in the North Sea on 8 March. Afterwards, she was transferred to the Baltic and assigned to escort and patrol duties. In May, the ship was assigned to evacuate civilians and troops trapped in ports along the Baltic Sea by advancing Soviet forces. The survivors were transported to Copenhagen, Denmark. When the German troops in Denmark surrendered on 5 May, Z20 Karl Galster transferred survivors to smaller ships outside the harbour to avoid having to surrender. There the ship received an open radio transmission by Grand Admiral (Großadmiral) Karl Dönitz asking "everybody to "Curry" who can make it until dawn on the 8th". Dönitz had chosen the word "Curry" to obscure the fact that he wanted the ships to go on a rescue mission. The German captains knew "Curry" to be the nickname of their former naval academy instructor, Admiral August Thiele, commander in Hela on the Hel Peninsula. So the ship's final mission led back to the Peninsula, which was one of the few remaining footholds on the coast under German control on 8 May. At 22:00, two hours before the surrender became effective, Z20 Karl Galster, Z14 Friedrich Ihn, the destroyer Z25 and two torpedo boats, T23 and T28, picked up some 1,200 to 2,000 soldiers each. Every German vessel located east of Bornholm at midnight was to return to a port under Soviet control, but Z20 Karl Galster, using its superior speed, managed to outrun pursuing Soviet torpedo boats and headed to Flensburg. From there the ship was sent to Kiel, where she surrendered to the British and was decommissioned on 10 May. ### Postwar activities After the war Z20 Karl Galster sailed to Wilhelmshaven while the Allies decided how to divide the surviving ships of the Kriegsmarine amongst themselves as war reparations. The ship was allotted to the Soviet Union in late 1945 and turned over to the Soviets on 6 February 1946 in Liepāja, Latvia. She was renamed Prochnyy and assigned to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet on 5 November. Prochnyy was converted into a training ship in 1950 and was then reclassified as an accommodation ship, designated PKZ 99, on 28 November 1954. The ship was scrapped in 1958.

Eidyn

Region around Edinburgh

Eidyn was the region around modern Edinburgh in Britain's sub-Roman and early medieval periods, approximately the 5th–7th centuries. It centred on the stronghold of Din Eidyn, thought to have been at Castle Rock, now the site of Edinburgh Castle, and apparently included much of the area below the Firth of Forth. It was the most important district of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin, and a significant power in the Hen Ogledd, or Old North, the Brittonic-speaking area of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The site of Din Eidyn has been nearly continuously occupied since the Bronze Age, serving as a stronghold of the Votadini during the Roman era and later the principal centre of their successors, the Gododdin kingdom. Eidyn's importance to the Hen Ogledd is reflected in the medieval poem Y Gododdin, which concerns a war band that gathered there for a raid around AD 600. After years of decline, Eidyn was conquered by the Angles in 638. Eidyn is the source of the name of Edinburgh in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic. It also remained prominent in Brittonic tradition throughout the Middle Ages. Y Gododdin evidently circulated in multiple manuscripts into the 13th century. Eidyn also features in the Welsh Triads and poetry, where it was often remembered as the Britons' northern frontier. Welsh genealogies of the figure Clydno Eidyn may preserve Eidyn's royal pedigree. ## Name and location Questions of Eidyn's name and location are closely linked, as it is not entirely clear what area the name refers to. It certainly included the fortress of Din Eidyn (a Brittonic name meaning the dun or hillfort of Eidyn) in modern Edinburgh. Place-name evidence suggests Eidyn spread more widely, surviving also in the name of Carriden (from Caer Eidyn), located eighteen miles to the west. Kenneth H. Jackson argued strongly that Eidyn referred exclusively to Din Eidyn, suggesting a different origin for Carriden. However, other scholars such as Ifor Williams and Nora K. Chadwick argued for the Caer Eidyn etymology and believed that Eidyn represented a wider region. Accepting the latter interpretation, Rachel Bromwich wrote that Eidyn would have covered much of the area south of the Firth of Forth, either abutting or possibly including the area known as Manaw Gododdin. Eidyn is the source of the name of Edinburgh in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic. The Angles, who conquered the area in the 7th century, replaced the Brittonic din in Din Eidyn with the Old English burh to produce Edinburgh; similarly, the name became Dùn Èideann in Scottish Gaelic. The origin of the name Eidyn is not known. It may not have been known even in the 7th century, as both the Angles and Gaels adopted it into their languages more or less phonetically, even as they translated the term Din into their own languages. Some sources suggest it derives from an Old English form referring to Edwin of Northumbria, though modern scholarship refutes this, as the form Eidyn predates Edwin. Eidyn is evidently the original form of the name, though Eiddyn appears in later poetry. Later Welsh sources also refer to Lleuddiniawn, the region now known as Lothian. Celtic scholar John T. Koch traces these names to the god Lugus, who was especially revered in this area. He argues that the original form was \*Luguduniana ("Country of the Fort of [the god] Lugus"). This name implies the existence of a Lugudunon, or "Fort of Lugus", which Koch suggested was an alternate name or epithet of Din Eidyn. ## History Fortified communities appeared around Edinburgh in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age. During Britain's early Roman era, the area was recorded as part of the territory of the Votadini. The Votadini were largely independent but subject to Roman influence in the 2nd century. Around 143, Emperor Antoninus Pius commenced the Antonine Wall north of the Votadini and what would become Eidyn, with its eastern terminus likely at Carriden. The Votadini may have become a Roman client kingdom, tasked with defending the border against the Picts and Scots. The conception of Eidyn as Britain's northern border against the barbarians remained popular for hundreds of years. In the post-Roman era, the Votadini polity transitioned into the Gododdin kingdom. Eidyn's importance to the Gododdin and the Hen Ogledd in general is attested in the early medieval poem Y Gododdin. The work relates that a force of 300 distinguished warriors from across the Brittonic world assembled at Din Eidyn for a raid on Catraeth (probably Catterick) around AD 600. The poem's dense language and convoluted history make it difficult to interpret the historical events underlying the work. According to Ifor Williams' interpretation, the warriors were summoned by Mynydawc Eidyn, perhaps a Gododdin ruler, to attack the Angles holding Catraeth. The warriors feasted for a year before setting out on the expedition, during which almost all were killed. Later scholars such as John Koch and Graham Isaac have challenged elements of this interpretation, and read Mynydawc as a place name referring to a mountain, not as a ruler. Koch suggested that the Eidyn ruler was Ureui or Gwylget Gododdin, who are mentioned in the text. In the 7th century, the Gododdin kingdom was in decline. At this time, Eidyn may have been a sub-kingdom within Gododdin, and its lords may have controlled only their own territory, and not all of Gododdin. The Annals of Ulster record the "siege of Etin" in the year 638. This may refer to the final Anglian conquest of Lothian. This is also the earliest relatively certain historical reference to Eidyn. Eidyn appears to have remained in Anglian hands for most of the next three centuries, although historical and archaeological evidence is scant, and it is unclear if a fortress remained at Din Eidyn. The Annals of Clonmacnoise indicate that Æthelstan of England "spoiled the kingdom of Edinburgh" in 934, suggesting a fortification of some note existed at that time. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba says that the Scots conquered Eidyn and its fort under King Indulf, who ruled from 954–962. Around this time a noble estate was built there, paving the way for the royal castle in the 11th century. ## Din Eidyn Eidyn's most significant location was the stronghold of Din Eidyn. The initial Iron Age settlement at Din Eidyn was presumably a dun or hill fort. Remains of such structures exist at Arthur's Seat and at Castle Rock (now the site of Edinburgh Castle), and some other hilltops in the area. Among these, archaeologists generally identify the Castle Rock site as Din Eidyn, as the evidence indicates it was an important centre continuously from Roman times into the Middle Ages. Archaeological evidence suggests Castle Rock has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, possibly making it the oldest site in Scotland that has been nearly continuously occupied. However, the earliest evidence suggests the site was initially minor compared to other contemporary locations. During the Iron Age, the site was apparently a fortified village, though only one of several in the Edinburgh region. Its easily defended location appears to have given it an advantage over other nearby sites such as Arthur's Seat, where settlement was evidently unstable and not continuous. In the Roman era, the site supported a prosperous settlement that likely included a hillfort, perhaps featuring a broch (roundhouse). In this period, Castle Rock was apparently one of the major centres of the Votadini, though it was dwarfed by Traprain Law, which was ten times larger. In the early medieval period, Din Eidyn emerged as the principal political centre of the Gododdin kingdom, especially after the abandonment of Traprain Law in the early 5th century. In the 7th century, when the Gododdin kingdom was in decline, the lords of Din Eidyn may have only controlled only the Eidyn district rather than the entire Gododdin territory. Following the Anglian conquest of Eidyn, the Din Eidyn location remained a fortified settlement of the Angles, and later of the Scots. ## Legacy Eidyn remained prominent in Brittonic tradition long after its conquest by the Angles. Several works invoke Eidyn's position as the northern frontier of the Britons. The poem Pa gur yv y porthaur? (What man is the gatekeeper?), dating to the 10th century or earlier, contains several allusions to King Arthur and his warriors defending "Eidyn at the border". The poem describes Arthur's company fighting cinbin (dogheads) on the "Mountain of Eidyn". It also mentions Bedwyr (the Sir Bedivere of later tradition) sparring with Garwlwyd ("Rough-Grey"), evidently one of the monsters, at the "shores of Tryfrwyd". Similarly, Welsh Triad 33 includes a certain Llawgat Trwm Bargod Eidyn (Heavy Battle-Hand of the Border of Eidyn), who killed Afaon, son of Taliesin, in one of the "Three Unfortunate Slaughters of the Island of Britain". Y Gododdin and its account of Eidyn apparently circulated in multiple manuscripts during the Middle Ages. The only existing version is in the 13th-century Book of Aneirin, but textual evidence suggests the scribes copied from two or three earlier manuscripts. Additionally, figures associated with Eidyn, including Clyddno Eidyn and his son Cynon ap Clydno – a survivor of Catraeth – featured in poetry, the Welsh Triads, and Arthurian material throughout the Middle Ages. A pedigree of Clyddno's family recorded in the Harleian genealogies and the Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd may record Eidyn's kingly line.

Italian ironclad Venezia

Ironclad warship of the Italian Royal Navy

Venezia was the second of two Roma-class ironclad warships built for the Italian Regia Marina in the 1860s. She was armed with a main battery of eighteen 254 mm (10 in) guns in a central armored casemate. Her lengthy construction time, a result of her re-design from a broadside ironclad, quickly rendered her obsolescent compared to the new turret ships that began to enter service in the 1880s. As a result, her career was limited. She became a training ship in 1881 and served until 1895. Venezia was broken up for scrap the next year. ## Design Venezia was 79.65 meters (261.3 ft) long between perpendiculars; she had a beam of 17.48 m (57.3 ft) and an average draft of 7.6 m (25 ft). She displaced 5,722 long tons (5,814 t) normally and up to 6,151 long tons (6,250 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by six coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers that were vented through a single funnel. Her engine produced a top speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) from 3,670 indicated horsepower (2,740 kW). She could steam for 1,940 nautical miles (3,590 km; 2,230 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). The ship was barque-rigged to supplement the steam engine. She had a crew of 549–551 officers and men. Venezia was designed as a broadside ironclad, but other navies had developed the central battery ship while she was under construction, prompting the Italian Navy to re-design the ship. She was armed with a main battery of eighteen 254 mm (10 in) guns placed in a central casemate. The central battery design allowed two guns to fire ahead and two to fire astern. The ship was protected by iron belt armor that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick and extended for the entire length of the hull at the waterline. The casemate was protected with 121 mm (4.75 in) of iron plating. ## Service history Venezia's keel was laid down at the Cantiere della Foce shipyard in Genoa in February 1863, and her completed hull was launched on 21 January 1869. Fitting-out work was completed on 1 April 1873; the re-design work significantly delayed completion compared to her sister, which had been finished almost four years before. Despite being completed as a central battery ship, Venezia nevertheless rapidly became obsolescent, as the type was superseded by new turret ships like the Duilio class begun the same year she entered service. In addition, the Italian naval budget was drastically reduced following the defeat at Lissa in 1866, which reflected a stark decrease in the government's confidence in the fleet. As a result, she saw little use during her career. On 23 November 1879, Venezia ran aground off Zakynthos, Greece, but she was later refloated. Venzia was converted into a torpedo training ship in 1881; her sailing rig was cut down and she was equipped with four 75 mm (3 in) guns and four 57 mm (2.2 in) guns. Her crew was significantly reduced to 302 officers and men. She served in this capacity until 23 August 1895 in La Spezia. The ship was stricken that year and had been broken up by 1896.

Boricua Popular Army

Puerto Rican nationalist organization

The Ejército Popular Boricua ("Boricua Popular/People's Army"), also known as Los Macheteros ("The Machete Wielders"), is a clandestine militant and insurgent organization based in Puerto Rico, with cells in the states and other nations. It campaigns for, and supports, the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. During their first decade of existence, they had an average of two actions per year. The group claimed responsibility for the 1978 bombing of a small power station in the San Juan area, the 1979 retaliation attacks against the United States armed forces personnel, the 1981 Muñiz Air National Guard Base attack, and a 1983 Wells Fargo bank robbery. Boricua Popular Army was led primarily by former FBI fugitive Filiberto Ojeda Ríos until he was assassinated by the FBI in 2005. Ojeda Rios' killing was termed "an illegal killing" by the Government of Puerto Rico's Comisión de Derechos Civiles (Civil Rights Commission) after a seven-year investigation and a 227-page report issued on 22 September 2011. ## Ideology and operation ### Political stance The name Machetero was symbolically adopted from an impromptu band of Puerto Ricans who assembled to defend the island of Puerto Rico from the invading forces of the United States Army during the Spanish–American War, between July 26 and August 12, 1898. Macheteros de Puerto Rico were dispatched throughout the island, working in cooperation with other voluntary groups including the Guardias de la Paz in Yauco and Tiradores de Altura in San Juan. These voluntary units were involved in most of the battles in the Puerto Rican Campaign. Their last involvement was in the Battle of Asomante, where along with units led by Captain Hernaíz, defended Aibonito Pass from invading units. The allied offensive was effective, prompting a retreat order from the American side. However, the following morning the initial peace accords between the U.S. and Spain were made public. Subsequently, both Spanish and Puerto Rican soldiers and volunteers disengaged and Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States. ### Hierarchy As established in the EPB's "Organization of the EPB", the organization operates in a systemic and hierarchic structure. The entire organization is overseen by a central committee, which is generally focused on politics and policies. Beneath it lies a military commission, which in turn is divided by sub commissions specialized in finances, intelligence, transportation, provisions and general services and others as needed. Each commando receives additional salary, with specific exemptions being given to marriages, unemployed individuals and those with dependents. In December 1981, the EPB included benefits similar to those in the American military. The organization agreed to medical services and college education pending commission approval. New recruits may be covertly trained in rural farms or in foreign countries (Cuba being an example) and inconspicuous businesses may be used to provide cover to certain individuals. Training includes skills such as lock picking, handling firearms and explosives, forging documents, scuba diving, photography, concealment using makeup and forging license plates. An exercise regime is expected from commandoes afterwards. Meetings are kept to a minimum and only held when relevant. ### Structure The basic units are the "combat units", composed of five foot soldiers that are led by a leader with ties to the political branch. Their weapons and munitions are arbitrarily divided by type, such as short weapons and semi-automatic weapons. Rifles and shotguns are present in each unit to ensure balance. A car was also provided and used both for meetings and in incursions without attracting attention. Units in turn subscribe to specific 17-men cells, with three of the unit leaders forming the hierarchy along a pair of political and military leaders. These cells generally aim to have equipment that is comparable to the American military or law enforcement agencies. Additional support cells include trained medical personnel and are mostly in charge of logistics, maintenance, vehicles, equipment and media. Cells form 73-men formations in charge of a political member, which are assigned to specific districts and are generally independent of each other. The EPB usually plans in advance and establishes networks in places of interest, such as those in New York, Boston, Illinois, Texas and Connecticut used in the Wells Fargo heist of 1983. ### Composition For the most part, individuals affiliated with the EPB are expected to merge into general society and be as inconspicuous as possible, usually holding civilian jobs or studying, some receiving training within the United States military. In 2006, professor Michael González Cruz published his book Nacionalismo Revolucionario Puertorriqueño a calculation that placed the active EPB members at approximately 5,700, with an additional unknown number of supporters, sympathizers, collaborators and informants throughout the U.S. and other countries. A report by The Economist estimated the number of active members to be around 1,100, excluding supporters. ### Tactics The group intentionally avoids any area where crime rates could result in frequent law enforcement interventions and commandos are instructed to be polite and are warned to stay away from illegal activities; association or deals with criminal organizations are prohibited. In keeping a discipline code, the organization also discourages the use of alcohol and prohibits the use of drugs. The EPB attempts to stay away from areas where other nationalist groups are based in order to avoid attention. They also settle away from military or police stations. Meetings are generally held in places with good reputation and in buildings that offer several access points, with heavy precautions being taken to reach their locations untailed. If different units are meeting, commandos are instructed to place hoods or masks and use codenames in order to protect their identities, both to accomplish plausible denial and to root out any law enforcement plant. Information is segregated between groups and only shared in limited detail, when necessary. Incriminating or detailed documents or any other evidence is to be destroyed once the potential of a law enforcement intervention is apparent. While involved in a particular mission, the EPB commandoes regularly assume a faux name, but they usually use this to acquire legitimate documents and select a nondescript address in which to receive mail in a fashion that prevents surveillance, such a P.O. Box or a decoy address where mail is delivered to the community in general. Even ammunitions were given codes such as Manteca for firearms or Libretas for explosives to conceal their nature. Armories were specifically retrofitted to preserve the condition and to prepare new ammunition as needed. Funds are managed strictly and reports are constant in order to keep a balanced budget. ## History ### Early actions The EPB was founded by Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Juan Enrique Segarra-Palmer and Orlando González Claudio on July 26, 1976, with the date being symbolically used as a reminder of the United States invasion during the Spanish–American War. Their first communiqué was published on August 25, 1978, following an attack on two policemen that concluded with officer Julio Rodríguez Rivera dead in retaliation for the Cerro Maravilla murders. The federal government claimed the incident was an attempt to steal his police car. On October 2, 1978, the EPB and Volunteers infiltrated an armory and took 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate, dynamite cartridges, 988 blasting caps and 17,500 feet of primacord. In September 1979, the EPB revealed that it was working in conjunction with the Volunteers, FARP and FALN. On October 17, 1979, the groups execute eight bombings against federal buildings. On December 3, 1979, a bus carrying 18 American Navy sailors to Naval Security Group Activity Sabana Seca, was forced to stop by a delivery truck. Shortly afterwards, four men appeared from within another vehicle and opened fire, killing CTO1 John R. Ball and RM3 Emil E. White, as well as wounding nine others. On March 13, 1980, the EPB took responsibility for attacking an ROTC vehicle that was moving three soldiers to the UPR. ### Pitirre II In the morning of January 12, 1981, a group of eleven commandos, seven guards and four explosive specialists, set explosives at Muñiz Air National Guard Base, located on the northeastern corner of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. The ensuing explosion destroyed nine aircraft (several operational A-7 Corsair II light attack aircraft and a single F-104 Starfighter supersonic fighter-interceptor aircraft being retained for a static display) and two trucks and damaged two ships on loan from the U.S. Air Force, with the authors leaving a machete behind. The destruction of the military equipment ascended to \$45–50 million USD. The FBI responded by receiving permission for a full investigation, which allowed them to employ otherwise forbidden practices to track the group. The EPB in turn expressed pride that the attack represented the most damaging to take place in American soil since Pearl Harbor and expressed satisfaction that it would attract attention to their cause, with some members even considering it a parallel to the Gaspee Affair. The group also sent a video to the media where they explained the composition of the cell in charge of the attack without revealing any identities. The security at the base was criticized in media pieces. The attack later served as the basis for upgrading base security, emphasizing flight line security, at all Air National Guard installations on civilian airports in the United States to the same level as active duty U.S. Air Force installations. On April 21, 1981, four EPB commandos were able to extract \$348,000 from a Wells Fargo armored car, with the group later noting that it would be spent in their cause. In November 1981, the EPB detonated explosives in AEE substations in Santurce, a district of San Juan. When 350 families that occupied a makeshift village in Carolina, Puerto Rico, were removed by the police, the EPB warned the governor that they would retaliate. Afterwards, they made an offensive against the police that resulted in twelve injured and one dead policeman. On May 16, 1982, EPB members fired rifles at four sailors of the U.S.S. Pensacola, killing one of them. The group later took responsibility for the attack and expressed that it was retaliation for a large-scale amphibious attack training named "Ocean Venture '82" held at Vieques and other military facilities in Puerto Rico. Four days later, On May 20, 1982, the FBI held the EPB responsible for the placement of four defective bombs at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, with the organization denying responsibility. On September 1, 1982, a group of commandos presumed by the FBI to be Macheteros and outfitted with suppressed weapons and wearing military gear and masks, intercepted a Wells Fargo truck in a route between San Juan and Naranjito, but were unable to acquire the cargo. On November 16, 1982, four commandos feigned a heist in a supermarket to redirect those present to its warehouse until their main target, a Wells Fargo truck, arrived.Supported by more armed commandos that arrived in a van, those inside the building gained control of the armored car keys and took \$300,000 from it. ### Águila Blanca On September 12, 1983, in an operation entitled Águila Blanca ("White Eagle", the nickname of José Maldonado Román) an EPB agent part of the Los Taínos cell named Víctor Manuel Gerena took over the Wells Fargo depot located in West Hartford, Connecticut stealing a total of seven million dollars. In 1984, Carlos Rodríguez Rodríguez was convicted on bank fraud charges and became an FBI informant in exchange for a lower sentence. However, due to the EPB's policies of anonymity, most of the information was hampered by the use of codenames and useless for the investigation. During this time, there were internal issues between Segarra and group leaders Ojeda and Avelino González, with the first being considered inefficient by the others and general concern arising from his reputation as an unfaithful husband. On January 25, 1985, the EPB detonated a bomb in an empty United States Courthouse, later noting that it was a tribute to Juan Antonio Corretjer. Strategically, the group experienced internal divisions between a faction that argued for more offensive and another that wanted to tread lightly in order to avoid justifying the classification of terrorism. While the pacifist faction carried damage control and held two toy giveaways for Three Kings Day in Puerto Rico, Ojeda was removed from the political branch on June 4, 1985, due to these conflicts, being only left in charge of his unit. Besides the boldness of the action, the EPB strategists were also unsatisfied when Ramírez failed to account for food expenses in his report. Following the indictments against 19 members for the 1983 Wells Fargo heist, the EPB continued operations and on October 28, 1986, joined the FARP and the Volunteers in planting two explosives in a Navy recruit center and a National Guard Building as a warning not to use Puerto Rico as a training center for the Contras of Nicaragua and plans to introduce a logging industry at El Yunque. ### Death of Ojeda Ríos On September 23, 2005, the anniversary of "el Grito de Lares" ("The Cry of Lares") members of the FBI San Juan field office surrounded a modest home in the outskirts of the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, where Ojeda Ríos was believed to be living in. The FBI claims that it was performing surveillance of the area because of reports that Ojeda Ríos had been seen in the home. In their press release, the FBI stated their surveillance team was detected, and proceeded to serve an arrest warrant against Ojeda Ríos. The FBI claims that as the agents approached the home, shots were fired from inside and outside the house wounding an FBI agent. The FBI alleges it then returned fire fatally wounding Ojeda Ríos. A subsequent autopsy of Ojeda's body determined that he bled to death over the course of 15 to 30 minutes. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission started an investigation of the incident shortly after Ojeda Rios' death that lasted 7 years. The 227-page report issued on 22 September 2011 stated that Ojeda Rios's killing was "an illegal killing" by the FBI. ### Change in guard; Comandante Guasábara Following the confrontation that concluded in the death of its former leader, the command of the Boricua Popular Army was inherited by an anonymous figure known as "Comandante Guasábara", named after the Taíno word for "war". Under his leadership, the group appears to have shifted its focus towards intelligence. For example, the group has not recorded a single military action. Instead, Guasábara has generally used the media to publish classified information. Under Guasábara, the Macheteros took an emphasis on publishing pieces regarding the use of Culebra and Vieques as bombing targets for the U.S. Navy; what they perceive as a disproportionate number of military bases on the island (compared to states in the Union); the proportion of deaths within the ranks of the Independence and Nationalist leadership, including the alleged experimentation with radiation on Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos while he was incarcerated; the secret testing of Agent Orange on Puerto Rican soil; and cancer "experiments" administered by Cornelius P. Rhoads, in which he claimed to have killed Puerto Rican patients and injected cancer cells to others, while working as part of a medical investigation conducted in San Juan's Presbyterian Hospital for the Rockefeller Institute. ### Opposition to the Fortuño administration (2009–2012) The Boricua Popular Army took credit for denouncing what was called "paramilitary training" that private corporation Triangle Experience Group was carrying on in the mountains of the municipality of Utuado. The media later revealed that these exercises were being done illegally, in covert fashion and lacking the required permits. ### Opposition to the García administration (2013–2017) On March 9, 2015, Commander Guasábara issued a press release where it attacked the Value Added Tax proposal (better known by its Spanish acronyms "IVA") supported by the Garcia Padilla administration as part of its response to the Puerto Rican debt crisis. Later that month, the EPB issued a statement where they expressed the belief that a joint drill organized by Garcia Padilla's administration in collaboration with the federal government was in fact a military exercise that was organized to advance the Obama administration's campaign against the socialist government of Venezuela. Known as Operación Respuesta Borinqueña (literally "Operation Puerto Rican Response") and held March 16–21, the training was officially described as a first response practice in an emergency involving tsunamis or a chemical attack. However, Commander Guasábara expressed that a reunion held in the Dominican Republic with the official purpose of coordinating the drill was in fact a reunion between military officials of that nation, Puerto Rico and the United States, which was planned the year before with the collaboration of Venezuelan opposition leaders Carlos M. Tamayo and Carlos Fernandez (collectively known as "Los Carlos"). The Macheteros claims that the representatives of the Puerto Rico national guard protested when the topic was discussed, but the training went ahead unchanged with the supervision of several American generals, including the heads of the USNORTHCOM and USSOUTHCOM. The statement concludes by noting that the EBP's Intelligence Division had been monitoring military exercises carried out by the United States armed forces in the municipalities of Utuado and Lares, also being aware of the presence of a military helicopter in the region. On July 11, 2015, the EPB issued another statement, this time warning that "they will do what is necessary" according to the moment's circumstances and that "the people should not pay a debt that does not belong to the people". Thorough its spokesman, the group anticipated that "[in its] ineptitude and impotency" the government would exploit the crisis to privatize profits and socialize losses, citing the privatization of the turnpike system, Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the Puerto Rico Telephone Company and the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge as previous examples of this tendency. The EBP expressed dissatisfaction in what they perceived as "an environment of indifference" within sectors of local society that "still expect magic solutions" from those responsible for the crisis, which serves as a hindrance to the militant action that they pursue. Commander Guasábara then offers an alliance that oversees previous differences. In asking the rhetoric question "What would you do for yourself, your children and your country?" the Macheteros urged the public to hold an investigation and "judge those responsible" for what they consider an "irresponsible and unnecessary debt [caused by] the corrupt administrations that we have tolerated for 50 years". The EPB concluded this press release by urging the public to "take the streets and manifest their anger in the way that they prefer", but not before stating that the time for marches was gone and that it is "time to take action". ## Classification ### Local arguments Supporters of independence for Puerto Rico argue that the U.S. favored the establishment of the present Commonwealth status to create a perpetual consumer base for U.S. and foreign products and services. Foreign products and services are redirected to Puerto Rico and other "unincorporated" lands of the United States to satisfy a portion of foreign trade agreements, while allowing domestic products and services a greater "home" market share. Another argument by the independence movement is that the Macheteros are continuing the historical rebellion that Puerto Ricans such as Pedro Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party have waged, against U.S. domination of the island. It is known, for example, that Los Macheteros deliberately chose September 12 for their Águila Blanca assault on the Wells Fargo depot, because September 12 was the birthday of Puerto Rican Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Beginning in the 1960s, the FBI infiltrated Puerto Rico's free press and political circles in order to monitor and disrupt efforts related to independence movements like Los Macheteros. This operation was part of COINTELPRO. The EPB's rebuttal to being classified as a terrorist organization is that per the definition adopted in the 1979 Conference on International Terrorism that posits "deliberate, systematic murder, maiming and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear in order to earn political gains", they do not qualify as such since their targets are strictly the American military or law enforcement and that they have never targeted civilians. ### Federal stance The FBI classifies the EPB as a terrorist organization based on their definition of the term, "[the use of] force or violence [...] in furtherance of political or social objectives", without specification on the target. In 1982, the Senate Subcommittee on the Administration of Internal Security Act compiled a paper titled "The Cuban Connection to Puerto Rican Terrorism" where it claimed that Ojeda was an agent of the Cuban government and in which the FBI knowing where he operated. After the application of the Levi guidelines, only eight groups were classified as requiring full investigation. Of them, five were based in Puerto Rico and besides the EPB also included the FARP, FALN, COR and MLN. In 2001, then-FBI Director Louis J. Freeh reaffirmed the agency's historical stance that the group committed acts of terrorism. In the grand jury indictment against the EPB, the US said that part of the money stolen during the Fargo operation ended up with representatives of the Cuban government. ### Other assessments In his book Los Macheteros: The Wells Fargo Robbery and the Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence, Spanish-American author Ronald Fernández argued that based on the descriptions of terrorism and revolutionary violence in books like Benjamin Netanyahu's Terrorism: How the West can Win or Albert Camus' The Rebel, the EPB would not be classified as a terrorist organization, since that would require them to target "anyone except soldiers" and the use of fear as a tactic. Whereas, the organization's target selection, namely the US military/federal government and the avoidance of civilians fits into the classification of a guerrilla or revolutionary group. The author does not condone violence, but uses Camus' argument on "necessary" rebel violence as inexcusable but still "historically necessary". To this end, Fernández identifies that from the EPB's point of view, the deaths at Sabana Seca were "terrible but necessary" despite personally disagreeing, while considering the destruction of military vehicles at Sabana Seca justified from a rebel's standpoint. Ultimately, the author concludes that such labeling could be of political convenience to the federal government, serving to "shift the blame for any attacks on U.S. policy or personnel from us to them". ## Cultural impact ### In art and film An 80-minute fictional film about a Puerto Rican from New York City who declares himself a self styled machetero, titled MACHETERO, was released in 2008. Starring Not4Prophet (Ricanstruction, X-Vandals, Abrazos Army), as Pedro Taíno, and Isaach De Bankolé (Casino Royale, Ghostdog, Black Panther), as French journalist Jean Dumont, the film takes place in both New York City and Puerto Rico. Other actors include Kelvin Fernández (first starring role) and former political prisoner, Dylcia Pagán. The film was the winner of the 2008 South Africa International Film Festival, 2009 Swansea Film Festival, 2009 Heart of England Film Festival, 2009 International Film Festival Thailand, and the 2009 International Film Festival Ireland. The first single published by band Calle 13 was "Querido FBI", which was extra-officially released before their debut album, a response to the events of September 23, 2005. It is a protest song, directly addressing the circumstances surrounding the death of Ojeda Ríos. A song was also released by the Hip Hop group, X-Vandals (Not4Prophet and DJ Johnny Juice) entitled Todos Somos Machetero in 2007. Likewise, the event led to the creation of murals. Some were painted by student movements such as one at UPR Río Piedras, whereas others were painted by urban artists. ### Other depictions The polarizing nature of the organization have also been exploited in the local professional wrestling industry by wrestlers such as Israel "Joseph RPM" Rodríguez, who integrated the moniker of "El Machetero Mayor" (Spanish for "The Grandest Machetero") into his ring name and performed as such throughout Puerto Rico as a member of several independent promotions and the World Wrestling League. ## Notable group members ## See also - Congress in Solidarity with Puerto Rico's Independence - Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front - Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity - Sandinista National Liberation Front - Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Seneca Falls Convention

First American women's rights convention, held in New York (1848)

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in the Wesleyan Chapel of the town of Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. Attracting widespread attention, it was soon followed by other women's rights conventions, including the Rochester Women's Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, two weeks later. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women's Rights Conventions met in Worcester, Massachusetts. Female Quakers local to the area organized the meeting along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was not a Quaker. They planned the event during a visit to the area by Philadelphia-based Lucretia Mott. Mott, a Quaker, was famous for her oratorical ability, which was rare for non-Quaker women during an era in which women were often not allowed to speak in public. The meeting comprised six sessions including a lecture on law, a humorous presentation, and multiple discussions about the role of women in society. Stanton and the Quaker women presented two prepared documents, the Declaration of Sentiments and an accompanying list of resolutions, to be debated and modified before being put forward for signatures. A heated debate sprang up regarding women's right to vote, with many – including Mott – urging the removal of this concept, but Frederick Douglass, who was the convention's sole African American attendee, argued eloquently for its inclusion, and the suffrage resolution was retained. Exactly 100 of approximately 300 attendees signed the document, mostly women. The convention was seen by some of its contemporaries, including featured speaker Mott, as one important step among many others in the continuing effort by women to gain for themselves a greater proportion of social, civil and moral rights, while it was viewed by others as a revolutionary beginning to the struggle by women for complete equality with men. Stanton considered the Seneca Falls Convention to be the beginning of the women's rights movement, an opinion that was echoed in the History of Woman Suffrage, which Stanton co-wrote. The convention's Declaration of Sentiments became "the single most important factor in spreading news of the women's rights movement around the country in 1848 and into the future", according to Judith Wellman, a historian of the convention. By the time of the National Women's Rights Convention of 1851, the issue of women's right to vote had become a central tenet of the United States women's rights movement. These conventions became annual events until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. ## Background ### Reform movement In the decades leading up to 1848, a small number of women began to push against restrictions imposed upon them by society. A few men aided in this effort. In 1831, Reverend Charles Grandison Finney began allowing women to pray aloud in gatherings of men and women. The Second Great Awakening was challenging women's traditional roles in religion. Recalling the era in 1870, Paulina Wright Davis set Finney's decision as the beginning of the American women's reform movement. ### Women in abolition Starting in 1832, abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison organized anti-slavery associations which encouraged the full participation of women. Garrison's ideas were not welcomed by a majority of other abolitionists, and those unwilling to include women split from him to form other abolitionist societies. A few women began to gain fame as writers and speakers on the subject of abolition. In the 1830s, Lydia Maria Child wrote to encourage women to write a will, and Frances Wright wrote books on women's rights and social reform. The Grimké sisters published their views against slavery in the late 1830s, and they began speaking to mixed gatherings of men and women for Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, as did Abby Kelley. Although these women lectured primarily on the evils of slavery, the fact that a woman was speaking in public was itself a noteworthy stand for the cause of women's rights. Ernestine Rose began lecturing in 1836 to groups of women on the subject of the "Science of Government" which included the enfranchisement of women. In 1840, at the urging of Garrison and Wendell Phillips, Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled with their husbands and a dozen other American male and female abolitionists to London for the first World's Anti-Slavery Convention, with the expectation that the motion put forward by Phillips to include women's participation in the convention would be controversial. In London, the proposal was rebuffed after a full day of debate; the women were allowed to listen from the gallery but not allowed to speak or vote. Mott and Stanton became friends in London and on the return voyage and together planned to organize their own convention to further the cause of women's rights, separate from abolition concerns. In 1842 Thomas M'Clintock and his wife Mary Ann became founding members of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society and helped write its constitution. When he moved to Rochester in 1847, Frederick Douglass joined Amy and Isaac Post and the M'Clintocks in this Rochester-based chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society. ### Women's rights In 1839 in Boston, Margaret Fuller began hosting conversations, akin to French salons, among women interested in discussing the "great questions" facing their sex. Sophia Ripley was one of the participants. In 1843, Fuller published The Great Lawsuit, asking women to claim themselves as self-dependent. In the 1840s, women in America were reaching out for greater control of their lives. Husbands and fathers directed the lives of women, and many doors were closed to female participation. State statutes and common law prohibited women from inheriting property, signing contracts, serving on juries and voting in elections. Women's prospects in employment were dim: they could expect only to gain a very few service-related jobs and were paid about half of what men were paid for the same work. In Massachusetts, Brook Farm was founded by Sophia Ripley and her husband George Ripley in 1841 as an attempt to find a way in which men and women could work together, with women receiving the same compensation as men. The experiment failed. In the fall of 1841, Elizabeth Cady Stanton gave her first public speech, on the subject of the Temperance movement, in front of 100 women in Seneca Falls. She wrote to her friend Elizabeth J. Neal that she moved both the audience and herself to tears, saying "I infused into my speech a Homeopathic dose of woman's rights, as I take good care to do in many private conversations." Lucretia Mott met with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Boston in 1842, and discussed again the possibility of a woman's rights convention. They talked once more in 1847, prior to Stanton moving from Boston to Seneca Falls. Women's groups led by Lucretia Mott and Paulina Wright Davis held public meetings in Philadelphia beginning in 1846. A wide circle of abolitionists friendly to women's rights began in 1847 to discuss the possibility of holding a convention wholly devoted to women's rights. In October 1847, Lucy Stone gave her first public speech on the subject of women's rights, entitled The Province of Women, at her brother Bowman Stone's church in Gardner, Massachusetts. In March 1848, Garrison, the Motts, Abby Kelley Foster, Stephen Symonds Foster and others hosted an Anti-Sabbath meeting in Boston, to work toward the elimination of laws that apply only to Sunday, and to gain for the laborer more time away from toil than just one day of rest per week. Lucretia Mott and two other women were active within the executive committee, and Mott spoke to the assemblage. Lucretia Mott raised questions about the validity of blindly following religious and social tradition. ### Political gains On April 7, 1848, in response to a citizen's petition, the New York State Assembly passed the Married Woman's Property Act, giving women the right to retain the property they brought into a marriage, as well as property they acquired during the marriage. Creditors could not seize a wife's property to pay a husband's debts. Leading up to the passage of this law, in 1846, supporters issued a pamphlet, probably authored by Judge John Fine, which relied on its readers' familiarity with the United States Declaration of Independence to demand "That all are created free and equal ...", and that this idea should apply equally to the sexes. "Women, as well as men, are entitled to the full enjoyment of its practical blessings". A group of 44 married women of western New York wrote to the Assembly in March 1848, saying "your Declaration of Independence declares, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. And as women have never consented to, been represented in, or recognized by this government, it is evident that in justice no allegiance can be claimed from them ... Our numerous and yearly petitions for this most desirable object having been disregarded, we now ask your august body, to abolish all laws which hold married women more accountable for their acts than infants, idiots, and lunatics." The General Assembly in Pennsylvania passed a similar married woman's property law a few weeks later, one which Lucretia Mott and others had championed. These progressive state laws were seen by American women as a sign of new hope for women's rights. On June 2, 1848, in Rochester, New York, Gerrit Smith was nominated as the Liberty Party's presidential candidate. Smith was Elizabeth Cady Stanton's first cousin, and the two enjoyed debating and discussing political and social issues with each other whenever he came to visit. At the National Liberty Convention, held June 14–15 in Buffalo, New York, Smith gave a major address, including in his speech a demand for "universal suffrage in its broadest sense, females as well as males being entitled to vote." The delegates approved a passage in their party platform addressing votes for women: "Neither here, nor in any other part of the world, is the right of suffrage allowed to extend beyond one of the sexes. This universal exclusion of woman ... argues, conclusively, that, not as yet, is there one nation so far emerged from barbarism, and so far practically Christian, as to permit woman to rise up to the one level of the human family." At this convention, five votes were placed calling for Lucretia Mott to be Smith's vice-president—the first time in the United States that a woman was suggested for federal executive office. ### Quaker influence Many members of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers, made their homes in western New York state, near Seneca Falls. A particularly progressive branch lived in and around Waterloo in Seneca County, New York. These Quakers strove for marital relationships in which men and women worked and lived in equality. The M'Clintocks came to Waterloo from a Quaker community in Philadelphia. They rented property from Richard P. Hunt, a wealthy Quaker and businessman. The M'Clintock and Hunt families opposed slavery; both participated in the free produce movement, and their houses served as stations on the Underground Railroad. Though women Friends had since the 1660s publicly preached, written and led, and traditional Quaker tenets held that men and women were equals, Quaker women met separately from the men to consider and decide a congregation's business. By the 1840s, some Hicksite Quakers determined to bring women and men together in their business meetings as an expression of their spiritual equality. In June 1848, approximately 200 Hicksites, including the Hunts and the M'Clintocks, formed an even more radical Quaker group, known as the Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends, or Progressive Friends. The Progressive Friends intended to further elevate the influence of women in affairs of the faith. They introduced joint business meetings of men and women, giving women an equal voice. ## Planning Lucretia and James Mott visited central and western New York in the summer of 1848 for a number of reasons. They visited the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation, which was then part of the Iroquois Confederacy; women of that nation were known to enjoy a strong position. The Motts also visited former slaves living in the province of Ontario, Canada. Mott was present at the meeting in which the Progressive Friends left the Hicksite Quakers. They also visited Lucretia's sister Martha Coffin Wright in Auburn, NY, where Mott preached to prisoners at the Auburn State Penitentiary. Her skill and fame as an orator drew crowds wherever she went. ### Announcement After Quaker worship on Sunday July 9, 1848, Lucretia Coffin Mott joined Mary Ann M'Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright (Mott's witty sister, several months pregnant), Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Jane Hunt for tea at the Hunt home in Waterloo. The two eldest M'Clintock daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, Jr. may have accompanied their mother. Jane Hunt had given birth two weeks earlier, and was tending the baby at home. Over tea, Stanton, the only non-Quaker present, vented a lifetime's worth of pent-up frustration, her "long-accumulating discontent" about women's subservient place in society. The five women decided to hold a women's rights convention in the immediate future, while the Motts were still in the area, and drew up an announcement to run in the Seneca County Courier. The announcement began with these words: "WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION.—A Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". The notice specified that only women were invited to the first day's meetings on July 19, but both women and men could attend on the second day to hear Lucretia Mott speak, among others. On July 11, the announcement first appeared, giving readers just eight days' notice until the first day of convention. Other papers such as Douglass's North Star picked up the notice, printing it on July 14. The meeting place was to be the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls. Built by a congregation of abolitionists and financed in part by Richard Hunt, the chapel had been the scene of many reform lectures, and was considered the only large building in the area that would open its doors to a women's rights convention. ### Declaration, grievances, resolutions At their home in Waterloo on Sunday, July 16, the M'Clintocks hosted a smaller planning session for the convention. Mary Ann M'Clintock and her eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, Jr., discussed with Stanton the makeup of the resolutions that would be presented to the convention for approval. Each woman made certain her concerns were appropriately represented among the ten resolutions that they composed. Taken together, the resolutions demanded that women should have equality in the family, education, jobs, religion, and morals. One of the M'Clintock women selected the Declaration of Independence from 1776 as a model for the declaration they wanted to make at their convention. The Declaration of Sentiments was then drafted in the parlor on a round, three-legged, mahogany tea table. Stanton changed a few words of the Declaration of Independence to make it appropriate for a statement by women, replacing "The history of the present King of Great Britain" with "The history of mankind" as the basis for "usurpations on the part of man toward woman." The women added the phrase "and women" to make "... all men and women are created equal ..." A list of grievances was composed to form the second part of the Declaration. Between July 16 and July 19, at home on her own writing desk, Stanton edited the grievances and resolutions. Henry Brewster Stanton, a lawyer, politician and Stanton's husband, helped substantiate the document by locating "extracts from laws bearing unjustly against woman's property interests." On her own, Stanton added a more radical point to the list of grievances and to the resolutions: the issue of women's voting rights. To the grievances, she added "He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise", and to the Sentiments, she added a line about man depriving woman of "the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation ..." Stanton then copied the Declaration and resolutions into final draft form for presentation at the meeting. When he saw the addition of woman suffrage, Henry Stanton warned his wife "you will turn the proceedings into a farce." He, like most men of his day, was not in favor of women gaining voting rights. Because he intended to run for elective office, he left Seneca Falls to avoid being connected with a convention promoting such an unpopular cause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked her sister Harriet Cady Eaton to accompany her; Eaton brought her young son Daniel. On July 16, Lucretia Mott sent a note to Stanton apologizing in advance for James Mott not being able to attend the first day, as he was feeling "quite unwell". Lucretia Mott wrote to say she would bring her sister, Martha Wright, and that the two women would participate in both days of the convention. ## First day On July 19, 1848, the morning of the first day of convention, the organizing committee arrived at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel shortly before ten o'clock on a hot, sunny day to find a crowd gathered outside and the church doors locked—an overlooked detail. Stanton's young nephew Daniel was lifted through an open window so that he could unbar the doors from the inside. Even though the first session had been announced as being exclusively for women, some young children of both sexes had been brought by their mothers, and about 40 men were there expecting to attend. The men were not turned away, but were asked to remain silent. Mary Ann M'Clintock, Jr., 26 years old, was appointed secretary, to take notes. ### Morning session Starting at 11 o'clock, Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke first, exhorting each woman in the audience to accept responsibility for her own life, and to "understand the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of her own degradation." Lucretia Mott then spoke, encouraging all to take up the cause. Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments in its entirety, then re-read each paragraph so that it could be discussed at length, and changes incorporated. The question of whether men's signatures would be sought for the Declaration was discussed, with the vote looking favorable for including men, but the motion was tabled until the following day when men themselves could participate. The first session adjourned at 2:30 p.m. ### Afternoon session After a pause for refreshment in the 90° heat, an afternoon session began with Stanton and then Mott addressing the audience. The Declaration of Sentiments was read again and more changes were made to it. The resolutions, now numbering eleven with Stanton's addition of women's suffrage, were read aloud and discussed. Lucretia Mott read a humorous newspaper piece written by her sister Martha Wright in which Wright questioned why, after an overworked mother completed the myriad daily tasks that were required of her but not of her husband, she was the one upon whom written advice was "so lavishly bestowed." Twenty-seven-year-old Elizabeth W. M'Clintock then delivered a speech, and the first day's business was called to a close. ### Evening speech In the evening, the meeting was opened to all persons, and Lucretia Mott addressed a large audience. She spoke of the progress of other reform movements and so framed for her listeners the social and moral context for the struggle for women's rights. She asked the men present to help women gain the equality they deserved. The editor of the National Reformer, a paper in Auburn, New York, reported that Mott's extemporaneous evening speech was "one of the most eloquent, logical, and philosophical discourses which we ever listened to." ## Second day A larger crowd attended on the second day, including more men. Amelia Bloomer arrived late and took a seat in the upstairs gallery, there being none left in the main seating area. Quaker James Mott was well enough to attend, and he chaired the morning meeting; it was still too radical a concept that a woman serve as chair in front of both men and women. ### Morning session, day two After Mott opened the meeting, the minutes of the previous day were read, and Stanton presented the Declaration of Sentiments. In regard to the grievance "He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns," Assemblyman Ansel Bascom stood to say that he had recently been at the New York State Assembly which passed the Married Woman's Property Act. Bascom spoke at length about the property rights it secured for married women, including property acquired after marriage. Further discussion of the Declaration ensued, including comments by Frederick Douglass, Thomas and Mary Ann M'Clintock, and Amy Post; the document was adopted unanimously. The question of men's signatures was solved by having two sections of signatures, one for women followed by one for men. One hundred of the 300 present signed the Declaration of Sentiments, including 68 women and 32 men. Amelia Bloomer was one of the participants who did not endorse the Declaration; she was focused at that time on the temperance movement. Ansel Bascom was the most conspicuous attendee who chose not to sign the Declaration. The National Reformer reported that those in the audience who evidently regarded the Declaration as "too bold and ultra", including the lawyers known to be opposed to the equal rights of women, "failed to call out any opposition, except in a neighboring BAR-ROOM." ### Afternoon session, day two At the afternoon session, the eleven resolutions were read again, and each one was voted on individually. The only one that was materially questioned was the ninth, the one Stanton had added regarding women's right to vote. It read: > Resolved, that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise. Those who opposed this resolution argued that its presence would cause the other, more rational resolutions to lose support. Others argued that only the social, civil and religious rights of women should be addressed, not the political rights. James and Lucretia Mott were against the resolution; Lucretia said to Stanton, "Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous." Stanton defended the concept of woman suffrage, saying women would then be able to affect future legislation and gain further rights. Frederick Douglass, the only African American at the meeting, stood and spoke eloquently in favor; he said that he could not accept the right to vote himself as a black man if women could not also claim that right. Douglass projected that the world would be a better place if women were involved in the political sphere. "In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world." Douglass's powerful words rang true with many in attendance, and the resolution passed by a large majority. Lucretia Mott spoke to end the session. ### Evening session, day two Quaker Thomas M'Clintock served as chair for the evening session, opening it at half-past seven. The minutes were read, then Stanton spoke in defense of the many severe accusations brought against the much-abused "Lords of Creation." Following Stanton, Thomas M'Clintock read several passages from Sir William Blackstone's laws, to expose for the audience the basis of woman's current legal condition of servitude to man. Lucretia Mott stood to offer another resolution: "Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions and commerce." This, the twelfth resolution, passed. Mary Ann M'Clintock, Jr. spoke briefly, calling upon woman to arouse from her lethargy and be true to herself and her God. Douglass again rose to speak in support of the cause of woman. Lucretia Mott spoke for an hour with one of her "most beautiful and spiritual appeals". Although Lucretia Mott's reputation as a speaker drew the audience, Mott recognized Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Ann M'Clintock as the "chief planners and architects" of the convention. To close the meeting, a committee was appointed to edit and publish the convention proceedings, with Amy Post, Eunice Newton Foote, Mary Ann M'Clintock, Jr., Elizabeth W. M'Clintock and Stanton serving. ## Afterward ### News reports Local newspapers printed reports of the convention, some positive, others not. The National Reformer reported that the convention "forms an era in the progress of the age; it being the first convention of the kind ever held, and one whose influence shall not cease until woman is guaranteed all the rights now enjoyed by the other half of creation—Social, Civil and POLITICAL." The Oneida Whig did not approve of the convention, writing of the Declaration: "This bolt is the most shocking and unnatural incident ever recorded in the history of womanity. If our ladies will insist on voting and legislating, where, gentleman, will be our dinners and our elbows? Where our domestic firesides and the holes in our stockings?" Soon, newspapers across the country picked up the story. Reactions varied widely. In Massachusetts, the Lowell Courier published its opinion that, with women's equality, "the lords must wash the dishes, scour up, be put to the tub, handle the broom, darn stockings." In St. Louis, Missouri, the Daily Reveille trumpeted that "the flag of independence has been hoisted for the second time on this side of the Atlantic." Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune wrote "When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to an equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, None at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded." ### Religious reaction Some of the ministers heading congregations in the area attended the Seneca Falls Convention, but none spoke out during the sessions, not even when comments from the floor were invited. On Sunday, July 23, many who had attended, and more who had not, attacked the Convention, the Declaration of Sentiments, and the resolutions. Women in the congregations reported to Stanton, who saw the actions of the ministers as cowardly; in their congregations, no one would be allowed to reply. ### Further conventions Signers of the Declaration of Sentiments hoped for "a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country" to follow their own meeting. Because of the fame and drawing power of Lucretia Mott, who would not be staying in the Upstate New York area for much longer, some of the participants at Seneca Falls organized the Rochester Women's Rights Convention two weeks later in Rochester, New York, with Lucretia Mott as its featured speaker. Unlike the Seneca Falls convention, the Rochester convention took the controversial step of electing a woman, Abigail Bush, as its presiding officer. In the next two years, "the infancy ... of the movement", other local and state women's rights conventions were called in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Charlotte Woodward, alone among all 100 signers, was the only one still alive in 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment passed. Woodward was not well enough to vote herself. ### Remembrances A stamp was issued in 1948 in remembrance of the Seneca Falls Convention, featuring Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Lucretia Mott as part of a Centennial Celebration in Seneca Falls. The Women's Rights National Historical Park was established in 1980, and covers a total of 6.83 acres (27,600 m2) of land in Seneca Falls and nearby Waterloo, New York, USA. The park consists of four major historical properties, including the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which was the site of the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's home, and the M'Clintock House, which was where the Declaration of Sentiments, resolutions, and speeches were drawn up for the Seneca Falls Convention. The Wesleyan Methodist Church and the M'Clintock House were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 1998 First Lady Hillary Clinton gave a speech on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. In 2015, \#FindtheSentiments was launched by the White House under Barack Obama in an effort to find an original of the Declaration of Sentiments. The call to action was picked up by social media and several historical sites. To date, the Sentiments have not been found. ## Historiography In 1870, Paulina Wright Davis authored a history of the antebellum women's rights movement, The History of the National Woman's Rights Movement, and received approval of her account from many of the involved suffragists including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Davis' version gave the Seneca Falls meeting in 1848 a minor role, equivalent to other local meetings that had been held by women's groups in the late 1840s. Davis set the beginning of the national and international women's rights movement at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850, at the National Women's Rights Convention when women from many states were invited, the influence of which was felt across the continent and in Great Britain. Stanton seemed to agree; in an address to the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) convention in 1870, on the subject of the women's rights movement, she said "The movement in England, as in America, may be dated from the first National Convention, held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850." In 1876, in the spirit of the nation's centennial celebrations, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony decided to write a more expansive history of the women's rights movement. They invited Lucy Stone to help, but Stone declined to be part of the project; she was of the opinion that Stanton and Anthony would not fairly portray the divisive split between NWSA and American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Stanton and Anthony wrote without her and, in 1881, they published the first volume of the History of Woman Suffrage, and placed themselves at each of its most important events, marginalizing Stone's contribution. According to Lisa Tetrault, a professor of women's history, the Seneca Falls Convention was central to their rendition of the movement's history. Neither Stanton nor Anthony had been at the 1850 convention, which was associated with their rivals. Stanton, however, had played a key role at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, at which Stone had not been present. In the early 1870s, Stanton and Anthony began to present Seneca Falls as the beginning of the women's rights movement, an origin story that downplayed Stone's role. Pointing out that the women's rights movement could be said to have begun even earlier than Seneca Falls, Tetrault said the History of Woman Suffrage dealt with these earlier events relatively briefly in its first three chapters, the first of which is titled "Preceding Causes." In the volume, Stanton did not mention the Liberty Party's plank on woman suffrage pre-dating the Seneca Falls Convention by a month, and she did not describe the Worcester National Women's Rights Convention, organized by Stone and Davis in 1850, as the beginning of the women's rights movement. Rather, Stanton named the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention in London as the birth of the "movement for woman's suffrage, in both England and America". She positioned the Seneca Falls meeting as her own political debut, and characterized it as the beginning of the women's rights movement, which she called "the greatest movement for human liberty recorded on the pages of history—a demand for freedom to one-half the entire race." Stanton worked to enshrine the Declaration of Sentiments as a foundational treatise in a number of ways, not the least of which was by imbuing the small, three-legged tea table upon which the first draft of it was composed with an importance similar to that of Thomas Jefferson's desk upon which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. The M'Clintocks gave Stanton the table, then Stanton gave it to Susan B. Anthony on the occasion of her 80th birthday, though Anthony had no part in the Seneca Falls meeting. In keeping with Stanton's promotion of the table as an iconic relic, women's rights activists put it in a place of honor at the head of the casket at the funeral of Susan B. Anthony on March 14, 1906. Subsequently, it was displayed prominently on the stage at each of the most important suffrage meetings until 1920, even though the grievance and resolution about woman suffrage was not written on it. The table is kept at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Lucretia Mott reflected in August 1848 upon the two women's rights conventions in which she had participated that summer, and assessed them no greater than other projects and missions she was involved with. She wrote that the two gatherings were "greatly encouraging; and give hope that this long neglected subject will soon begin to receive the attention that its importance demands." Historian Gerda Lerner has pointed out that religious ideas provided a fundamental source for the Declaration of Sentiments. Most of the women attending the convention were active in Quaker or evangelical Methodist movements. The document itself drew from writings by the evangelical Quaker Sarah Grimké to make biblical claims that God had created woman equal to man and that man had usurped God's authority by establishing "absolute tyranny" over woman. According to author Jami Carlacio, Grimké's writings opened the public's eyes to ideas like women's rights, and for the first time they were willing to question conventional notions about the subordination of women. ## See also - Conference of Badasht, Persian women's rights, June–July 1848 - First-wave feminism - Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), (1979) - List of suffragists and suffragettes - List of women's rights activists - National Women's Conference - Timeline of women's suffrage - Women's suffrage organizations - Women's Rights National Historical Park, which contains the site of the Seneca Falls Convention - Timeline of feminism in the United States - Timeline of feminism

Back to the Egg

Back to the Egg is the seventh and final studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, released in June 1979 on Parlophone in the UK and Columbia Records in North America (their first for the label). Co-produced by Chris Thomas, the album reflects band leader Paul McCartney's embracing of contemporary musical trends such as new wave and punk, and marked the arrival of new Wings members Laurence Juber and Steve Holley. Back to the Egg adopts a loose conceptual theme around the idea of a working band, and its creation coincided with a period of considerable activity for the group, which included making a return to touring and work on several television and film projects. Recording for the album began in June 1978 and lasted for almost a year. The sessions took place at Spirit of Ranachan Studios in Campbeltown, Scotland; Lympne Castle in Kent, London's Abbey Road Studios, and Replica Studio – the last of which McCartney built as an exact replica of Abbey Road's Studio Two when the latter became unavailable. Wings returned to Abbey Road in March 1979 to complete the album, before filming a series of promotional videos in Lympne and elsewhere, for what became the Back to the Egg TV special. Back to the Egg received unfavourable reviews from the majority of critics, with Rolling Stone magazine deriding it as "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory". Although the album charted in the top ten around the world and was certified platinum in the United States, it was viewed as a commercial failure relative to previous Wings releases, particularly in light of the generous financial terms under which McCartney had signed with CBS-owned Columbia Records. Of its singles – "Old Siam, Sir", "Getting Closer" and "Arrow Through Me" – only "Getting Closer" made the top 20 in Britain or America. The song "Rockestra Theme", recorded with a cast of guest musicians from bands such as the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1980. Wings toured the UK in support of the album, but the planned world tour ended in January 1980, when McCartney was arrested in Japan for possession of marijuana, spending nine days in jail. The group disbanded early the following year after the departure of Laine. Back to the Egg was reissued in 1993, with bonus tracks, and in 2007 for iTunes, with the addition of Wings' 1979 non-album single "Goodnight Tonight", in its extended form. ## Background After the release of the album London Town (1978), Wings band leader Paul McCartney hired two session musicians, drummer Steve Holley and lead guitarist Laurence Juber, to replace former members Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch. With the new line-up – Wings' sixth since its formation in 1971 – McCartney intended to record a raw rock and roll album and return to touring, for the band's first concerts since their successful Wings Over the World tour of 1975–76. McCartney also hoped to realise his longstanding plan of making a film adaptation of the Rupert the Bear cartoon series, for which he owned the commercial rights, and commissioned English playwright Willy Russell to write a feature film starring Wings. Holley and Juber were recruited by Wings co-founder and guitarist Denny Laine, who had appeared as a guest on The David Essex Show in 1977 when Juber was working as a guitarist in the house band. Holley, a neighbour of Laine's, joined Wings in time to appear in the promotional video for London Town's lead single, "With a Little Luck", having turned down a position with Elton John's band. According to Wings biographer Garry McGee, Juber and Holley were each paid a weekly sum less than one-fifth of that paid to McCartney, his wife Linda (the band's keyboard player) and Laine. For the new album, Back to the Egg, McCartney collaborated in the studio with producer Chris Thomas, with whom he had begun working on the audio for two films documenting Wings' last world tour: Wings Over the World, a television documentary, and the cinema release Rockshow (1980). This was the first time Wings recorded with an outside producer since their 1973 single "Live and Let Die", which George Martin had produced. After working with the Pretenders and the Sex Pistols, Thomas brought a punk rock and new wave influence to Wings' sound, matching McCartney's desire to reflect contemporary musical trends. ## Songs Although London Town had featured a significant level of contribution from Laine as a songwriter, all but one of the songs on Back to the Egg are credited to McCartney alone. The album was originally planned around a loose conceptual theme, about which authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter write in their book Eight Arms to Hold You: "The idea was to have a theme of a working band, getting back on the road ... or 'back to the egg' (or protective shell) of touring." In the original LP format, the two album sides were labelled with the egg-related titles "Sunny Side Up" and "Over Easy". ### "Sunny Side Up" The album's opening song is "Reception", an instrumental, in which McCartney attempted to capture the effect of turning a radio dial and finding "about four stations at once". The track features a guitar-controlled synthesizer (played by Juber) over a funk-inspired bassline, and spoken voices, including a reading of part of "The Poodle and the Pug", from Vivian Ellis's opera Big Ben (1946). A brief segment from the track "The Broadcast", which appears later on Back to the Egg, is previewed in this opening piece. The next three songs – "Getting Closer", "We're Open Tonight" and "Spin It On" – adhere to the proposed album-wide concept. Writing in Melody Maker in June 1979, Mark Williams interpreted "Reception" as representing a radio being tuned in a car, whereby "the occupant is on his way to a gig, hence 'Getting Closer' [to the venue] and, upon arrival, 'We're Open Tonight'". The notion of live performance is then reflected in the sequencing of what Madinger and Easter term "heavier rock tracks such as 'Spin It On'". McCartney had recorded a piano demo for "Getting Closer" in 1974, at which point the song had a slower tempo. Author and Mojo contributor Tom Doyle describes Wings' version as "power-popping" and reminiscent of the English band Squeeze. The mellow "We're Open Tonight" was written at the McCartneys' farm in Campbeltown, Scotland, and was the album's title track until Linda suggested Back to the Egg. Another song composed in Scotland, the fast-tempo "Spin It On" was an obvious acknowledgment of punk and new wave; author Vincent Benitez terms it "McCartney-esque whimsy on punk steroids". Laine's composition "Again and Again and Again" similarly has "echoes of the Clash", according to McCartney biographer Howard Sounes. This song was originally two separate pieces, which Laine combined on McCartney's recommendation. Although credited to McCartney alone, "Old Siam, Sir" marked "the most collective band involvement" as regards songwriting, Madinger and Easter suggest. Similar in style to "Spin It On", the song features a keyboard riff written by Linda and a Holley-composed middle eight; in addition, Laine helped McCartney complete the composition, an early version of which the previous incarnation of Wings had demoed in July 1976. "Arrow Through Me", a track more in keeping with McCartney's melodic pop style, is a song written from the perspective of a rejected lover. With a musical arrangement that eschews guitar backing for synthesizer, Fender Rhodes piano and horns, Benitez views it as "reminiscent of the techno-pop style of Stevie Wonder". ### "Over Easy" Opening side two, "Rockestra Theme" was a composition that McCartney had first recorded in 1974, on the same piano demo tape as "Getting Closer". "Rockestra Theme" is an instrumental – except for the shouted line "Why haven't I had any dinner?", which author Robert Rodriguez describes as a "deliberate evocation" of Glenn Miller's 1940 single "Pennsylvania 6-5000". Another rock track, "To You" includes a lyric aimed at a lover who has wronged the singer. The guitar solo on the recording provides an unusual aspect for a Wings song, in that Juber played the part through an Eventide harmonizer while McCartney simultaneously altered the harmonizer's settings from the studio's control room. McCartney deemed the two gospel-influenced pieces making up "After the Ball/Million Miles" as being of insufficient quality to merit inclusion as separate tracks; "After the Ball" ends with a guitar solo, edited from parts played by McCartney, Laine and Juber, after which "Million Miles" consists of a performance by McCartney alone, on concertina. This is followed by another medley, "Winter Rose/Love Awake", both portions of which McCartney had demoed at Rude Studio, his home studio at Campbeltown, in 1977. "The Broadcast" is another instrumental, designed to give the impression of several radio signals interlaced, and bringing full-circle the concept established in the album's opening track, "Reception". Over a musical backing of piano, mellotron and gizmotron, it features readings taken from the plays The Sport of Kings by Ian Hay and The Little Man by John Galsworthy. As a return to the proposed working-band concept, "So Glad to See You Here", Rodriguez writes, "[evokes] the anticipation of a live act guaranteed to 'knock 'em dead'" and so recalls Wings' 1975–76 show-opening medley "Venus and Mars/Rock Show". During the outro, the band reprise a line from "We're Open Tonight". The album ends with a jazz-inflected ballad, "Baby's Request", which McCartney wrote for American vocal group the Mills Brothers, after seeing them perform in the South of France during the summer of 1978. ## Production The band first rehearsed material for Back to the Egg in London, at the offices of McCartney's company MPL Communications in Soho Square, before carrying out further rehearsals in Scotland, in June 1978. As on his other Wings recordings over 1978–79, Thomas worked with Phil McDonald as his recording engineer, at McCartney's insistence, rather than Bill Price, who was the producer's preferred engineer. ### Recording and overdubbing #### June–July 1978: Spirit of Ranachan Studios The recording sessions for Back to the Egg began on 29 June 1978 at Spirit of Ranachan Studios – another, larger recording facility on the McCartneys' Campbeltown farm – using equipment loaned from Mickie Most's RAK Studio in London. The basic tracks were recorded with a spontaneity that had been absent in Wings' past work, employing an approach that Juber has described as a "back-to-basics, garage band kind of feel". Sessions at Spirit of Ranachan lasted until 27 July, during which the band taped and added overdubs to "Arrow Through Me", "Again and Again and Again", "To You", "Winter Rose", "Old Siam, Sir" and "Spin It On". Basic tracks were also completed for "Cage", a song that remained in the proposed running order for the album until early in 1979, "Crawl of the Wild", "Weep for Love", "Ballroom Dancing" and "Maisie". These last three compositions would all appear on solo albums by members of Wings between 1980 and 1982. In addition, the band filmed a promotional video for the London Town single "I've Had Enough" while in Scotland and, in early July, recorded demos of twelve pieces intended for the Rupert the Bear film soundtrack. In the case of the latter activity, none of these compositions were revisited for what became Rupert and the Frog Song (1984). #### September 1978: Lympne Castle After a break to allow for school summer holidays, recording recommenced on 11 September at Lympne Castle in Kent, using the RAK mobile recording equipment, as before. The choice of location was partly due to the castle's proximity to the McCartneys' property "Waterfall", in Peasmarsh, East Sussex. During sessions lasting through to 29 September, the band recorded "We're Open Tonight", "Love Awake", "After the Ball", "Million Miles", "Reception" and "The Broadcast". Recording took place mainly in the castle's great hall, with Holly's drum kit positioned in the fireplace. McCartney and Juber taped their acoustic guitar parts for "We're Open Tonight" in a stairwell. Excerpted from books found in the library, the readings for "Reception" and "The Broadcast" were overdubbed in the kitchen and performed by the owners of Lympne Castle, Harold and Dierdre Margary. #### October–December 1978: Abbey Road Studios Sessions moved to Abbey Road Studios in London on 3 October. That day, Wings joined with a supergroup of guest musicians, collectively known as "Rockestra", to record the tracks "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here". A camera crew led by Barry Chattington filmed the proceedings, and a 40-minute documentary, titled Rockestra, was later compiled from the footage. Equipment used for this session included 60 microphones, a pair of mixing consoles and a 16-track recording desk. James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders, Hank Marvin of the Shadows, the Who's Pete Townshend, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and John Bonham, and the Attractions' Bruce Thomas all took part. Also among the line-up was the horn section from Wings' 1975–76 world tour, consisting of Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Thaddeus Richard and Steve Howard. Keith Moon was meant to participate, but he had died shortly before the session; Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton were also scheduled to appear. On 10 October, Wings taped "Getting Closer" at Abbey Road, along with a demo of "Baby's Request". McCartney had intended this recording of "Baby's Request" for the Mills Brothers to use as a guide, but after they asked to be paid for recording the song, he instead included the demo on Back to the Egg. The band then continued with overdubs on these and other songs intermittently through October and November, finishing at Abbey Road on 1 December. #### December 1978–February 1979: Replica Studio Towards the end of the year, Wings also carried out overdubs at the newly built Replica Studio, located at MPL's Soho Square offices. Frustrated at the impending unavailability of Abbey Road's Studio Two – which studio owner and record company EMI needed for its other acts, besides Wings – McCartney had constructed an exact replica of Studio Two in the basement at MPL. Among the work done on Back to the Egg at Replica, the band replaced the final twenty seconds of "So Glad to See You Here" with what Madinger and Easter describe as "a reggae-styled coda", containing the "We're Open Tonight" reprise. Sessions continued there in January and February 1979. During that time, the band recorded a non-album single – the disco-styled "Goodnight Tonight", backed with "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" – as a release to coincide with the airing of the long-delayed Wings Over the World special. While noting that McCartney and Laine's relationship was beginning to unravel at this point, Sounes compares the freshness of these new recordings with the drawn-out sessions for Back to the Egg and writes that the album "was now so overworked it might more aptly have been titled Over-Egged". Impatient at the amount of time being spent in the recording studio, Laine publicly admitted that he was "desperate" to go out on tour. ### Final overdubbing and mixing In March, Wings moved back to Abbey Road Studios to complete the album. Vocal overdubs were then added to "Winter Rose/Love Awake" and an orchestral-sounding mellotron part to the end of "Getting Closer". Having worked with the Black Dyke Mills Band in the 1960s, when he produced their 1968 single "Thingumybob" for Apple Records, McCartney invited the band down from Yorkshire to overdub brass accompaniment on "Winter Rose/Love Awake". While mixing the album during March, Wings finally discarded the song "Cage", which had been sequenced as the second track, following "Reception". The same alternative running order paired the Rockestra recordings at the end of side two, so that the album closed with the "We're Open Tonight" coda. Holly later recalled that whereas beforehand the band had been confident that Back to the Egg would be a strong album, during the final mixing process "[it] dawned on us there might be problems". At the last minute, "Baby's Request" replaced "Cage" and the running order was revised, with the result that the working-band concept became less pronounced. ## Artwork and promotional videos The design for the album's artwork was by Hipgnosis, the company responsible for previous Wings album covers such as Venus and Mars (1975) and the recent Wings Greatest compilation (1978). The front cover depicts the five members of Wings in a room, looking down through space at Planet Earth through an open hatchway in the floor; the statuette above the mantlepiece behind them is the same that appears in the Wings Greatest artwork. The picture was taken by photographer John Shaw at his London studio. Photos of the individual band members appeared on the back cover, credited to Linda and Paul McCartney. Working with film company Keef & Co., Wings filmed seven promotional videos for the album, which would later be compiled into the Back to the Egg TV special. Filming took place between 4 and 13 June, at locations including Lympne Castle's main hall, a private airfield at Lympne, Camber Sands in East Sussex, and Keef & Co.'s London studios. "Old Siam, Sir", "Getting Closer", "Spin It On" and "Arrow Through Me" were among the tracks for which videos were made. ## Release "Goodnight Tonight" had been issued on Columbia Records in America, marking McCartney's break from EMI-affiliated Capitol Records, although he and Wings remained with EMI's Parlophone label in the UK. McCartney's contract with Columbia made him the highest-paid recording artist in the world. As an incentive for McCartney, Columbia's parent company, CBS, had added to his publishing portfolio by giving him the highly profitable Frank Music catalogue – making McCartney the copyright holder to Guys and Dolls and other popular musicals by Frank Loesser. Back to the Egg was released on 24 May 1979 in the US (as Columbia FC-36057), and on 8 June in the UK (as Parlophone PCTC 257). In Britain, "Old Siam, Sir" was the album's first single, whereas "Getting Closer" was the choice in America; in both cases, "Spin It On" was the B-side. On 11 June, an album launch party took place inside Abbey Road's Studio Two, which had been blacked-out like a large frying pan, while tables carrying yellow parasols represented fried eggs sitting in the pan. Part of Chattington's Rockestra documentary was screened during the event, the only public airing the film received. The follow-up singles, issued in August, were "Arrow Through Me" in the US and "Getting Closer" in the UK, the latter release a double A-side with "Baby's Request". In some European countries, "Rockestra Theme" was released as a single. Compared to the major commercial success of previous Wings albums, sales of Back to the Egg were disappointing, and none of its singles became significant hits. In the UK, "Old Siam, Sir" and "Getting Closer" climbed to number 35 and number 60, respectively. On America's Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Getting Closer" peaked at number 20, and "Arrow Through Me" at number 29. Back to the Egg reached number 6 in the UK and number 8 on the Billboard 200, although US chart compilers Cashbox and Record World both listed it at number 7. With heavy promotion from Columbia, the album sold over 1 million copies in America; in Britain, retail outlets soon slashed its price in an attempt to dispense with their surplus of stock. McCartney later reflected that for an act other than Wings, sales such as those for Back to the Egg would have been considered "very healthy". Given CBS's substantial investment in their new signing, Madinger and Easter write, the album's apparent failure led to a period of "mutual finger-pointing between Paul and Columbia Records", lasting until his contract expired in 1985. ## Reception Back to the Egg received predominantly negative reviews on release; author Alan Clayson writes of the album receiving "a critical mauling as vicious as that for London Town". In an especially unfavourable critique for Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy White described it as "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory" and lamented that none of the songs were "the least bit fleshed out", with the listener instead given "an irritating display of disjointed images and unfocused musical snapshots". After opining that, since 1970, "this ex-Beatle has been lending his truly prodigious talents ... to some of the laziest records in the history of rock & roll", White wrote: "Who, one felt compelled to ask, is in charge here? Back to the Egg provides the final, obvious answer: no one." Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said of McCartney and the new Wings album: "When he's on, Paulie's abundant tunefulness passes for generosity. Here he's just hoping something will stick." In Melody Maker, Ray Coleman wrote that McCartney "seems to be on a treadmill of banality". Coleman described "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here" as "creditable, rolling, raunchy and at least efficient, with Paul's voice at its rocking best on the last named track", but concluded: "This album gets Wings nowhere ..." Billboard's reviewer gave Back to the Egg "Spotlight" status (meaning "the most outstanding new product of the week's releases and that with the greatest potential for top of the chart placement") and commented: "The music features typical McCartney fare of late with nothing here that will distinguish it as one of his classics. The arrangements, though, are interesting, encompassing a variety of styles." In a more positive assessment, for Creem magazine, Mitchell Cohen highlighted the album's second side as "a collection of McCartney performances that string together like abbey roadwork", and praised McCartney's vocals relative to his past work, writing: "all of the current tracks are terser, sung better, have less of what I suppose would be called the recording artist's equivalent of camera consciousness." To NME critic Bob Woffinden, the attempt at an album-wide concept was "a pretty half-baked one" and Hipgnosis' cover photo was "easily the album's strongest point". While identifying the songs as "particularly weak lyrically", Woffinden concluded: "It was the familiar McCartney problem. He had every essential creative requirement, except the discipline required to knead the parts into a perfect whole." AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine views Back to the Egg as "a set of [McCartney's] most undistinguished songs" that "have no spark whatsoever", and bemoans "the weak sound of the record and Wings' faceless performances". Among McCartney biographers, Vincent Benitez writes that the songs are "uneven in quality", and Howard Sounes describes the album as "a curate's egg, good in parts, with token attempts at sounding contemporary". Tom Doyle views "the new wave-ish rockers" like "Spin It On" as "too smoothed out to be truly edgy" and the two spoken-word tracks as "weird – and not in a good way". Doyle considers that while Back to the Egg has its "moments of inspiration", "There was too much material [recorded during the sessions], and yet not enough of it to gel into a cohesive album." ## Aftermath and reissues With the album falling well short of Columbia's and McCartney's expectations commercially, McCartney spent the remainder of summer 1979 recording in Peasmarsh and Campbeltown, without Wings, creating his solo album McCartney II (1980). During November and December 1979, US TV stations aired the 31-minute Back to the Egg special, as Wings undertook a nineteen-show UK tour, the first leg of the proposed world tour. Among the songs in the setlist, they performed several tracks from Back to the Egg: "Getting Closer", "Again and Again and Again", "Old Siam, Sir", "Spin It On" and "Arrow Through Me". The band were scheduled to tour Japan during January and February 1980, but the concerts, together with their tour dates elsewhere in the world, were cancelled after McCartney was arrested for possession of drugs when entering the country. Around this time, "Rockestra Theme" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Wings regrouped in October 1980 to finish off songs for the planned Cold Cuts album, a compilation that McCartney had suggested when CBS sought to recover part of its financial losses from Back to the Egg. The reunion with Wings was short-lived and the band discontinued upon Laine's departure in April 1981. On 20 June 1989, by which time McCartney had returned to Capitol Records, Back to the Egg was released on CD in America with three bonus tracks: "Daytime Nighttime Suffering", McCartney's 1979 Christmas single "Wonderful Christmastime", and the latter's B-side, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae". In August 1993, Parlophone reissued the album as part of The Paul McCartney Collection with the same three bonus tracks. Samples of "Reception" and "The Broadcast" appeared on the Fireman's Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) album, a collaboration between McCartney and Youth. In 2007, Back to the Egg was released on iTunes, with a remix of "Goodnight Tonight" as a bonus track. ## Track listing All songs written by Paul McCartney, except where noted. Side one: Sunny Side Up 1. "Reception" – 1:08 2. "Getting Closer" – 3:22 3. "We're Open Tonight" – 1:28 4. "Spin It On" – 2:12 5. "Again and Again and Again" (Denny Laine) – 3:34 6. "Old Siam, Sir" – 4:11 7. "Arrow Through Me" – 3:37 Side two: Over Easy 1. "Rockestra Theme" – 2:35 2. "To You" – 3:12 3. "After the Ball / Million Miles" – 4:00 4. "Winter Rose / Love Awake" – 4:58 5. "The Broadcast" – 1:30 6. "So Glad to See You Here" – 3:20 7. "Baby's Request" – 2:49 CD bonus tracks 1. "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" – 3:23 2. "Wonderful Christmastime" – 3:49 3. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae" (Johnny Marks) – 1:48 2007 iTunes bonus track 1. "Goodnight Tonight" (Extended Version) – 7:16 ## Personnel Wings and additional personnel per Benitez. Rockestra line-up and production per sleeve. Wings - Paul McCartney – lead and backing vocals, bass, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, concertina on "Million Miles", piano and harpsichord on "Winter Rose" - Linda McCartney – keyboards, backing vocals - Denny Laine – lead vocal on "Again and Again and Again", electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals - Laurence Juber – electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synthesizer, bass on "Love Awake" - Steve Holley – drums, percussion Additional personnel - Black Dyke Mills Band – horns on "Love Awake" - Dierdre Margary, Harold Margary – book readings Rockestra line-up on "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here" - Denny Laine, Laurence Juber, David Gilmour, Hank Marvin, Pete Townshend – guitars - Steve Holley, John Bonham, Kenney Jones – drums - Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Bruce Thomas – basses - Paul McCartney, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones – pianos - Linda McCartney, Tony Ashton – keyboards - Speedy Acquaye, Tony Carr, Ray Cooper, Morris Pert – percussion - Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Steve Howard, Thaddeus Richard – horns Production - Paul McCartney and Chris Thomas – producers - Phil McDonald – engineer - Mark Vigars – assistant engineer - John Shaw – front cover photo - Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney – back cover photos - Hipgnosis – design ## Accolades ### Grammy Awards \|- \| style="width:35px; text-align:center;"\|1980 \|\| "Rockestra Theme" \|\| Best Rock Instrumental Performance \|\| \|- ## Charts and certifications ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Certifications and sales

Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod

Canadian fitness educators, television personalities

Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod are Canadian television hosts and former international-level athletes. They are best known for their television segments called BodyBreak, which have been in intermittent production since 1988. The program is considered a cult classic among Canadian pop culture. Johnson and McLeod were both international-level athletes, Johnson with baseball and McLeod with the track and field discipline of hurdles. The duo self-financed the pilot for BodyBreak in 1988. Rejected by over 40 companies, the first 65 episodes were funded by ParticipACTION. Over 300 short episodes have been produced, as well as a single-season television series. They have expanded the program into speaking engagements, exercise equipment, and other projects. As a result of racism that Johnson and his parents experienced, their programs and products have intentionally sought to feature an inclusive cast. ## Biography ### Hal Johnson Johnson was born in the United States, and grew up in North York, Ontario, the child of Black and Irish parents. (Johnson has spoken on the racism they faced for their mixed marriage.) Johnson was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child; he would later memorize all the lines for BodyBreak. The captain of his high school's hockey, baseball, basketball and football teams, Johnson attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship, earning a business degree. An all-star first baseman, he represented Canada at the World Baseball Championship. For a 10 year period, Johnson lived in the United States, attending the University of Colorado, and living in Washington, D.C., Long Beach, San Francisco, Denver, and Boulder. After his athletic career, Johnson was hired at TSN as a sports reporter. Network executives rescinded that offer the same day it was made, stating that they didn't want a second Black reporter. As an extra in an advertisement for Woodbine Racetrack, during the 1980s, Johnson was moved so that he wouldn't be sitting next to a white woman. These experiences of racism, as well as the experiences of his parents, helped push Johnson to create BodyBreak as a countermeasure. The show deliberately sought inclusive casting. Johnson has commented that "the media has not only a tremendous responsibility, but a tremendous power" to influence public perception and acceptance. In 2020, the topic of racism became central, following the protests initiated by the murder of George Floyd. Johnson recorded an unscripted video titled "How We Battled Racism". The video received wide attention in Canada, and led to Johnson speaking on the subject on many media outlets. TSN issued an apology. Johnson appeared on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg over 100 times. He acted in various television series between 1988 and 1990, including day player roles in T. and T., Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and E.N.G. Johnson is famous for his thick moustache, which he shaved at some point before his 2013 audition for The Amazing Race Canada. ### Joanne McLeod McLeod is of German and Italian heritage, and grew up in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario with her adoptive family. McLeod's high school physical education teacher, who had competed at the 1968 Olympic Games, encouraged her to join a track club. She became a 4-time national and 7-time provincial hurdle champion. She represented Canada at events including the Pacific Conference Games, World Cup, Tri-Meet-Canada/PolandEngland, and the 1978 Commonwealth Games. As of 2013, McLeod was reported to be still running marathons. ### As a couple Hal and Joanne met in a gym, and started to date. They married in 1999. Together they tour the country doing speaking engagements related to health and teamwork. After living for a time in Mississauga, the couple has lived in Oakville, Ontario since 2000. ## BodyBreak ### Segments Over 300 90-second episodes of BodyBreak have been produced, with the first 128 segments created between 1988 and 1994. The show focuses on how exercise can be incorporated into daily life. The program was conceived by McLeod and Johnson after meeting in a gym. The show was designed to be different than other fitness shows of the era: friendly, representing the sexes equally, and showing racial and physical diversity, a result of Johnson's experiences. Collectively, they financed the show's pilot with their last \$2000. Johnson worked on the series, while McLeod worked at Canada Life insurance to pay their bills. Three two-minute segments were filmed in July 1988, in Toronto's Sherwood Park, as a pilot. More than 40 TV stations, ad agencies, and other corporations turned the pitch down. More than one was concerned with the image of people of different ethnic backgrounds interacting as equals. One was open to airing the program, but only if Joanne McLeod was joined by a white man; at least one report lists that broadcaster as TSN. Johnson decided to seek funding for the project from ParticipACTION, a federal government program. The organization commissioned five segments, with an additional order placed in January 1989, before the first airing. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was the first network to air the spots. ParticipACTION dropped the hosts in 1991, after they had completed 65 segments, despite being the agency's most popular spots. They found different funding, and were able to continue production in 1992. They produced segments with Canada's Vitality project from 1993 to 1995. The segments were broadcast during commercial breaks as public service announcements on many Canadian television channels, but the most frequent broadcaster of the program was TSN. ### Television series In 1995, Life Network commissioned a 13 half-hour episode series based on the popular segments, which it aired in primetime. Most of the episodes included people with disabilities. ### Business Johnson has stated that the duo has "no business plan," so that they don't close themselves off from unexpected opportunities. In 2020, Johnson commented that "as many successes that we've had, we've had a hundred failures. I expect that. I expect to fail... I'll find another way around it." The BodyBreak brand has been used on a treadmill, Ab Master Workout, Step Workout, and other products. Hal and Joanne have also endorsed products without the trademark, including BackJoy. ### Appearances The couple competed in season 1 of The Amazing Race Canada. The possibility of being eliminated early in the season meant that their participation was considered risky. As such, the duo's months-long preparation included driving stick shift cars at the show's sponsor. They finished in sixth place. They felt they were portrayed in the series as "very vanilla," until the final episode, in which McLeod accidentally swore. In the months following The Amazing Race, they were the grand marshals of the 2013 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Parade, and guest "anchors" on news comedy program This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Johnson and McLeod appeared in the music video for Sam Weber's "Anybodys'", chasing an anthropomorphized version of Johnson's mustache. They self-parodied in a promotion for Netflix zombie series Santa Clarita Diet; BuzzFeed deemed them "the cutest cannibals." They created a COVID-19 physical distancing segment for Vancouver International Airport. Maclean's magazine has mused that "Trying to explain the cultural significance that “Hal and Joanne” have taken on since then is like trying to explain the cultural significance of Tim Hortons."

I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)

2018 song by the 1975

"I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is a song by English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Daniel and Healy handled the production alongside Jonathan Gilmore. Healy began the songwriting process at his home using an acoustic guitar, while the production was built around the song's opening guitar riff. Inspired to create a cinematic, gritty version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", the band worked with David Campbell, who conducts the string arrangements. "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is an experimental Britpop power ballad with an electronic sound. The production comprises melancholic acoustic guitar strums, a cascading piano, shuffling drums, cinematic strings and elements of 1980s and 1990s adult contemporary rock. Lyrically, the song explores Healy's struggle with suicidal thoughts and details the desire for a different life and a return to the past. Thematically, the song reflects upon depression, isolation and loneliness. Upon release, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Reviewers praised the production, lyrics and its placement on the album's tracklist, drawing numerous comparisons between the song and Oasis' "Champagne Supernova". It peaked at number 70 on the UK Singles Chart, number 16 in New Zealand, number 67 in Ireland and number 31 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. ## Background and development The 1975 released their second studio album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It in February 2016 to critical and commercial success. Domestically, it topped the UK Albums Chart and the Scottish Albums Chart. In the United States, the album peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200, Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. The album received positive reviews and is considered by various publications as one of the best albums of 2016. In April 2017, the band announced their third studio album would be titled Music For Cars, set for release in 2018. In April 2018, posters promoting Music For Cars began emerging around London and Manchester. However, in May, Healy announced that Music For Cars would now represent an "era" composed of two studio albums. The first, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), was released in November of the same year and includes "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)". In an interview with Genius, Healy said that unlike most of the 1975's songs–which have "a lot more stylistic bigger kind of [songwriting] process"–he created "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" at his home using an acoustic guitar. Regarding the song's conception, the singer called it "quite a humble thing". The production began after they developed the opening guitar riff, which Healy said was instantly recognised by the band as something "really good", and based the instrumentation around it. While the song originally had a more traditional Britpop sound, he wanted to incorporate his love of "big American rock music"–specifically from the late-1990s and early-2000s–into the composition. Looking to emulate production elements from the two eras, Healy decided to add a large string arrangement to give the song an uplifting and cinematic quality. Healy contacted David Campbell, his roommate's father and the track's conductor, and asked him to compose the string arrangements. Speaking to Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork, the singer said he strove to develop "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" as a midway point between the darkness of both the Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997) and the music of Oasis, while retaining the lyrics and vocals characteristic of Manchester. Ultimately, he was inspired to create a gritty, cinematic version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (1998). ## Music and lyrics Musically, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is an experimental Britpop power ballad that runs for a length of five minutes and 15 seconds (5:15). According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Music Publishing, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is set in the time signature of common time with a slow tempo of 74 beats per minute. The track is composed in the key of E major, with Healy's vocals ranging between the notes of B₂ and A₄. It follows a chord progression of E5–Emaj(no3)–E6(no3)–E5. The production of "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" contains a heavy electronic sound, composed of keyboards, cellos, violas, violins, synths, melancholic acoustic guitar strums, a cascading piano, shuffling drums, crashing drum fills and waves of canned, cinematic strings. It continuously builds, ending with a key change that signals a "blissful" transition to a minute-long "restless dream" of cellos and strings. The title mixes irony and honesty, meant to represent someone whose suicidal thoughts often come and go. Lyrically, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" details Healy's struggles with suicidal thoughts and offers honest reasons why suicide is not the answer. The song's narrative describes living through the mundane, longing for the past and wanting a different life. It eschews the singer's preceding sarcasm and reflects upon themes of depression, isolation and loneliness. "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" begins with Healy singing: "I bet you thought your life would change / But you're sat on a train again". In the verses, the singer ruminates on his mortality and struggles with the difficulty that his death would have on others: "But your death it won't happen to you / It happens to your family and your friends". Later, he asks listeners to live by their own rules and be present in their joy. Healy's vocals are delivered in a gentle, whispered tone but shift to a strong falsetto in the chorus–which incorporates backing strings and elements from 1980s and 1990s adult contemporary rock–as the singer repeats the titular phrase. In the second verse, he sings in an inspired tone and reflects upon defiance in facing adversity, singing: "You win, you lose, you sing the blues / There's no point in buying concrete shoes, I refuse". As the song reaches its conclusion, Healy delivers one final plea in the middle-eight: "If you can't survive, just try". Eve Barlow of GQ wrote that "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is reminiscent of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" (1996), saying the song embodies the "moment we combust from indulgence, excessive stimuli, even anxiety". Kelsey Sullivan of Soundigest also drew similarities to the works of Oasis and wrote that the acoustic guitar and strings serve to highlight the fragility of the song's lyrics, comparing the latter instrument to the Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony", while saying it "would be easy to imagine this song used in a movie when a character is going through a difficult situation". Andrew Unterberger of Billboard said the song is evocative of a VH1 morning video block and the year 1998, calling it "the sound of Ethan Embry driving around while moping about his unrequited love for Jennifer Love Hewitt". He noted that unlike the 1975's "Give Yourself a Try" (2018), which contains searing guitars and a "choose-life" chorus, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" indulges the listener's depression while ultimately encouraging them to persevere and "fight [their] way back out". Cory McConnell of The Ringer said the song embraces "titanic [1990s] Britpop", comparing it to a mix between Radiohead's The Bends (1995) and Sigur Rós' music. Will Richards of DIY deemed "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" a cacophonous, widescreen outcry, while Consequence of Sound writer David Sackllah compared the song to Oasis, calling it a "go-for-broke anthem" about suicidal thoughts. ## Reception Upon release, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" was met with generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics and was heavily compared to Oasis' "Champagne Supernova". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph called the former a "dreamily epic" song. Ross Horton of musicOMH said "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is "so huge and atmospheric that it might have been made by Sigur Rós on a rainy day". Dan Stubbs of NME called the song "massive" and praised its personal and intense qualities, saying they "might just leave you in tears". Sackllah wrote that "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is "revealing, tragic and optimistic all at once". While deeming the track one of the album's three essential songs, he declared it a career highlight for the 1975 that reveals their true potential. Conrad Duncan of Under the Radar called the song a "festival-ready" anthem that "unbelievably justifies its ridiculous title". Unterberger called "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" one of the most interesting and special songs on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. He praised the band for exploring a period of gentle sorrow and subtle crisis, noting it would introduce new listeners to 1990s rock music while reflecting "what so many of their fans still feel like on a daily basis". Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork deemed the track "the most life-affirming 1975 song to date", saying its "fist-pump theatrics" are reminiscent of Oasis. Tom Connick of NME said the couplet "But your death it won't happen to you / It happens to your family and your friends" is perhaps the most important line of 1975's career and said "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" deserves to be heard by anyone struggling themselves. The publication also declared the track the sixth-best song of the band's career, with TC saying it showcases their grandeur and ambition. He praised Healy's honest reflection in the lyrics, and deemed the song a masterpiece and lost classic comparable to Radiohead's The Bends and the Verve's Urban Hymns (1997). Micah Peters of The Ringer said "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is an "extremely relatable death wish". Barlow called the song a "tear jerker", saying: "You can't listen to it without envisioning him doing it during headline festival slots. This is the encore." Sputnikmusic staff writer SowingSeason praised the sincerity and romance of "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)". Joe Goggins of Drowned in Sound praised the song's placement on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships and its handling of mental health issues in the lyrics, saying Healy delivers an "admirably forthright reflection on depression". Sullivan praised the placement of "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" on the album and deemed it an emotional and honest masterpiece, calling the song soft, bleak, melodic and honest. Elaborating further, she said: "It is a beautiful, sad, and almost ominous way to end the album while capturing its essence." McConnell called the song a "jaw-dropping conclusion to an already bombastic album". He noted that while it is not as "sonically far removed" from I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It compared to the 1975's "I Like America & America Likes Me" (2018) and "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" (2018), the song's use of Britpop feels unexpected. Isaac Feldberg of The Boston Globe called "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" a fitting end to the album, praising Healy's "gently devastating vocals". Claire Biddles of The Line of Best Fit said the song ends the album on a self-conscious, euphoric note. She commented that it functions as both a natural end-point and a high-concept track made for encores, calling the song a "final Britpop goodbye in the world’s dying embers, because we all want to go out to the sound of something familiar". Libby Cudmore of Paste gave "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" a mixed review, calling the song a "slow bummer". While she praised it for mostly managing to achieve a balance that the majority of I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It strives for and misses, she criticised the overproduced sound for creating a barrier between the listener and the singer. Chris Conaton of PopMatters felt the song is non-specific but praised Healy's falsetto and the string section's forward motion. Pryor Stroud of Slant Magazine gave "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" a negative review, calling it the equivalent of a half-finished sketch, "without a memorable melody in sight". Commercially, "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" performed modestly on international music charts. In the 1975's native United Kingdom, the song peaked at number 70 on the UK Singles Chart. Internationally, it reached number 67 in Ireland, number 16 in New Zealand and number 31 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships album liner notes. - Matthew Healy – composer, producer, acoustic guitar, guitar, vocals, background vocals - George Daniel – composer, producer, drums, keyboards, synthesizer - Adam Hann – composer, guitar - Ross MacDonald – composer, bass guitar - Jonathan Gilmore – producer, recording engineer - David Campbell – conductor, string arranger, piano - Derek Stein – cello - Rudolph Stein – cello - Luke Maurer – viola - Thomas Lea – viola - Mario de Leon – violin - Michele Richards – violin - Nina Evtuhov – violin - Sara Parkins – violin - Songa Lee – violin - Travis Warner – recording engineer - Robin Schmidt – mastering engineer - Luke Gibbs – assistant recording engineer - Nick Rives – assistant recording engineer - Mike Crossey – mixer ## Charts ## See also - The 1975 discography - List of songs by Matty Healy

Anna Sorokin

Russian-born German fraudster (born 1991)

Anna Sorokin (Russian: Анна Сорокина; born January 23, 1991), also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress to access upper-class New York social and art scenes from 2013 to 2017. Born to working-class parents in the Soviet Union (now Russia), Sorokin emigrated from Russia to Germany with her family at the age of sixteen in 2007. In 2011, she left Germany to live in London and Paris before relocating to New York City in 2013, where she interned for the French fashion magazine Purple. Sorokin conceived of a private members' club and arts foundation, which included leasing a large building to feature pop-up shops and exhibitions by notable artists she met while interning. She later created fake financial documents to substantiate her claims of having a multimillion-euro trust fund, and forged multiple wire transfer confirmations. Sorokin used these documents, as well as fraudulent checks, to trick banks, acquaintances, and realtors into paying out cash and granting large loans without collateral. She used this to fund her lavish lifestyle, including residencies in multiple upscale hotels. Between 2013 and 2017, Sorokin defrauded and deceived major financial institutions, banks, hotels, and individuals for a total of \$275,000. In 2017, the NYPD arrested Sorokin in a sting operation with the help of her former friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, who accused Sorokin of defrauding her of \$62,000. In 2019, Sorokin was convicted in a New York state court of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services, and was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. After serving two years, she was remanded into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to Germany. On 5 October 2022, Sorokin was granted a \$10,000 bail bond and released from prison. As of October 2022, Sorokin is required to remain in a 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring and no access to social media. Sorokin's story gained publicity when Williams wrote a lengthy article in Vanity Fair about her experiences with Sorokin in 2018. She expanded on the story in her 2019 book My Friend Anna. The same year, journalist Jessica Pressler wrote an article for New York about Sorokin's life as a socialite; Netflix paid Sorokin \$320,000 for the rights to her story and developed it into the 2022 miniseries Inventing Anna. Sorokin's life story has been the subject of multiple other television shows, interviews, podcasts, and theater productions. ## Early life Sorokin was born on January 23, 1991, in Domodedovo, a working-class satellite town south of Moscow, Russian Federal Republic in the Soviet Union. Her father, Vadim, worked as a truck driver while her mother owned a small convenience store. In 2007, when Sorokin was 16, her family relocated to North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. There, her father became an executive at a transport company until the company became insolvent in 2013. He then opened an HVAC business specializing in efficient energy use. Sorokin's mother was a housewife. Sorokin attended the Bischöfliche Liebfrauenschule Eschweiler (Episcopal School of Our Lady of Eschweiler), a Catholic grammar school in Eschweiler. Peers said she was quiet and struggled with the German language. As a young adult, Sorokin obsessively followed Vogue, fashion blogs, and image accounts on LiveJournal and Flickr. After graduating from the school in June 2011, Sorokin moved to London to attend Central Saint Martins, an art school, but soon dropped out and returned to Germany. In 2012, she briefly interned at a public relations company in Berlin. Sorokin then relocated to Paris, where she earned around €400 per month through an internship for Purple, a French fashion magazine. Although Sorokin did not contact her parents often, they subsidized her rent. Around that time, Sorokin began using the name "Anna Delvey", which she claimed was based on her mother's maiden name. Sorokin's parents, however, said they "do not recognize the surname". Sorokin later admitted she "just came up with it." ## Fraud In mid-2013, Sorokin traveled to New York City to attend New York Fashion Week. Finding it easier to make friends in New York than Paris, she opted to stay, transferring to Purple's New York office for a brief time. After quitting Purple, Sorokin came up with the idea of the "Anna Delvey Foundation" – a private members' club and art foundation – and unsuccessfully sought funding from wealthy members of the city's social scene. Her proposal included leasing the entire Church Missions House, comprising six floors and 45,000 sq ft (4,200 m²) and owned by Aby Rosen's RFR Holdings, as a multi-purpose events venue and art studio, where she planned a visual arts center with pop-up shops curated by artist Daniel Arsham, one of her acquaintances from her internship, and exhibitions by Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Tracey Emin. She received planning help from the son of architect Santiago Calatrava. She also discussed the sale of drinks at the venue with Roo Rogers. DJ Elle Dee described a strange encounter with Sorokin at a party in May 2014 in Montauk, New York, where Sorokin pretended to be a wealthy heiress and bragged about the brands of clothes she was wearing, but also asked partygoers for a place to sleep. When they declined, she spent the night sleeping in a car. Dee also described the other attendees at a party she attended that was organized by Sorokin at the Standard, High Line: "She barely knew them — as if it was maybe the second time they'd ever met, kind of like us. Everyone just sat around, quietly staring at their own phones." Dee described Sorokin as "entitled and mean", particularly to people in the service industry. She castigated people who did not have many followers on Instagram and bragged about how she was going to rent a \$12,000-per-month six-bedroom rooftop apartment. Dee also said that Sorokin relied on her and other acquaintances to pay for her expenses, by claiming she had forgotten her wallet or that it was an emergency and her credit cards did not work, shedding crocodile tears that dried up quickly when she realized the scheme would not work. In 2015, Sorokin met the art collector and University of Pennsylvania student Michael Xufu Huang at a dinner party. Learning that Huang planned to attend the Venice Biennale, Sorokin asked him if she could accompany him. Huang agreed and booked a flight and hotel room for Sorokin on the understanding that he would be reimbursed for the \$2,000–\$3,000 cost. On their return to New York, Sorokin appeared to "forget" the arrangement and failed to pay. Huang initially assumed that Sorokin was simply absent-minded. Also in 2015, Sorokin attended Art Basel in Miami Beach. Sorokin hired a public relations firm to book a birthday party for herself at Sadelle's restaurant in January 2016; after her credit card was declined and pictures of Huang at the event were posted on social media, Huang was asked by restaurant staff if he had Sorokin's contact details. At this time Huang became suspicious of Sorokin, also noticing that she strangely always paid with cash and lived in a hotel, not an apartment. He was eventually repaid but from a Venmo account by an unfamiliar name. He then blocked Sorokin's access to him on social media, ending their friendship. In February 2016, while Sorokin was living in a hotel room in the Standard, High Line, she met Rachel DeLoache Williams, then a photo editor at Vanity Fair, at a nightclub. Williams described Sorokin as "demanding and rude to waitstaff" and said that "when an elevator opened, she wouldn't wait for other people to get off". Nevertheless, Williams became close friends with Sorokin and was later instrumental in her arrest. Sorokin used Microsoft Word to create fake bank statements and other financial documents purporting to show that she had €60 million in Swiss bank accounts but could not access them since they were in trust and she was in the U.S. One of Sorokin's acquaintances put her in touch with lawyer Andrew Lance at Gibson Dunn, who in turn put her in touch with several large financial institutions, including City National Bank and Fortress Investment Group. In November 2016, Sorokin submitted false documents as part of a loan application for \$22 million to City National. City National refused to extend credit when Sorokin failed to provide the source of the Swiss assets, and she then applied for a loan from Fortress. Fortress agreed to consider the application if Sorokin paid \$100,000 to cover legal expenses relating to the application. In December 2016, with Sorokin unable to pay rent, the Church Missions House was instead leased to Fotografiska New York. On January 12, 2017, Sorokin convinced City National to grant her a temporary overdraft facility for \$100,000, on the promise that it would be repaid promptly. Sorokin provided fake AOL email addresses of "Peter Hennecke", a non-existent business manager; when suspicions arose, Sorokin claimed that he died, and then invented a new persona, "Bettina Wagner". Prosecutors in her trial later showed that she had used Google to query "create fake untraceable email". Sorokin remitted the \$100,000 to Fortress for the loan application but a managing director at Fortress became suspicious of Sorokin's application due to discrepancies in her paperwork – for example, she claimed to be of German heritage, but her passport revealed that she was born in Russia. When the director arranged to verify Sorokin's assets by meeting her bankers in Switzerland, she withdrew the loan application to prevent further scrutiny. In February 2017, the \$55,000 portion of the overdraft not spent by Fortress as part of the due diligence process was returned to Sorokin. Sorokin then spent lavishly on luxury clothes, electronics, and a personal trainer, as well as \$800 hair highlighting and \$400 eyelash extensions. On February 18, 2017, Sorokin checked into a \$400/night room at the 11 Howard hotel in Soho, Manhattan. She often gave a \$100 cash gratuity to the concierge, whom she befriended, and other employees for simple tasks such as restaurant recommendations or bringing packages to her room. Still, most of the staff found Sorokin to be annoying and described her comments as impolite and classist. Sorokin became comfortable in the hotel and regularly walked around in leggings or a hotel robe, often dining at Le Coucou, the hotel restaurant, where Sorokin befriended chef Daniel Rose and billed the cost of her meals to her room. She treated the concierge to massages, manicures, and sessions with the celebrity personal trainer Kacy Duke. After management discovered that there was no credit card on file for Sorokin, they insisted that she settle her \$30,000 bill. Sorokin had a case of 1975 Dom Pérignon champagne delivered to the staff in an attempt to keep them on her side; hotel policy prevented the staff from accepting the gift. By March 2017, one month after receiving the \$55,000 remaining from her loan application fee, because of her lavish spending, Sorokin had run out of money. She then would offer to take friends out for drinks and dinner but when it was time to pay the bill, she would claim that she had forgotten her credit cards or her credit cards would not work. By this time, Sorokin was very active in the New York social scene; she attended dinner parties where she met Macaulay Culkin and Martin Shkreli. In April 2017, Sorokin deposited \$160,000 worth of fraudulent checks into a Citibank account, of which she was able to retrieve \$70,000. She then wired \$30,000 to 11 Howard to pay the outstanding bill. In May 2017, by sending a forged wire transfer confirmation from Deutsche Bank for the \$35,390 fee, Sorokin booked a return charter flight on a business jet via Blade to Omaha, Nebraska, to attend the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway with the goal of meeting Warren Buffett. Sorokin had allegedly met Blade CEO Robert S. Wiesenthal although Wiesenthal later said that he did not know her at all. Blade reported her to the police in August 2017 after repeated failure to pay. Sorokin later claimed that during the trip she snuck into a private party at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium where she mingled with Bill Gates. Since Sorokin still refused to provide a credit card to the 11 Howard hotel, while she was in Omaha, the entry code to her hotel room was changed, and her belongings were placed in storage. As retribution, using a tactic she learned from Martin Shkreli, she purchased the domain names corresponding to the names of the hotel managers and emailed them asking for a ransom of \$1 million each. After three months of living at 11 Howard, with the help of her friend Rachel DeLoache Williams, Sorokin moved her belongings to The Mercer Hotel. Sorokin also stayed two nights at The Bowery Hotel, sending the hotel a fake wire transfer receipt from Deutsche Bank. In May 2017, Sorokin invited Williams, Kacy Duke, and her videographer on what she said was an "all-expenses-paid" journey to Morocco, supposedly because she needed to "reset" her Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Inspired by Khloé Kardashian, Sorokin booked a \$7,000/night riad with three bedrooms, a private swimming pool, and a dedicated butler at La Mamounia, a 5-star luxury hotel in Marrakesh, with plans to make "a behind-the-scenes documentary" on the creation of her foundation. After a few days, staff said that they were unable to charge Sorokin's credit cards and demanded an alternative form of payment. Sorokin gave excuses, blaming people for typing in the numbers wrong, or their systems for being down. The lack of a credit card on file led to a hotel staff member being fired. Sorokin convinced Williams to pay the \$62,000 bill, which was more than a year of net salary for Williams, using her work and personal credit cards, with a promise to reimburse her via wire transfer. Williams had also paid for the flights to Morocco, items purchased by Sorokin, and a private tour of Majorelle Garden using her credit cards, with promises by Sorokin to be reimbursed. Despite repeated promises from Sorokin, and one excuse after another, Williams was only repaid \$5,000 and needed to borrow money from friends to pay her rent as she only had \$410 in her checking account at the time. American Express later removed approximately \$52,000 of the charges on her credit cards. After contacting other acquaintances who also lent money to Sorokin and were not repaid, and who all had heard different backstories on Sorokin's parents' alleged wealth, Williams realized that Sorokin was committing fraud. In Morocco, Sorokin also stayed at Kasbah Tamadot, a Virgin Limited Edition luxury hotel, and at the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in Casablanca, where she asked Duke, who had already returned to New York due to a foodborne illness, to pay for the room. When Duke also offered to pay for a flight back to New York for Sorokin, she asked for first class travel. Sorokin drank fine wines and the most expensive champagnes and took a helicopter to the airport in Casablanca. Returning to New York later in May, Sorokin relocated to the Beekman Hotel. Twenty days later, in June 2017, having accumulated a bill of \$11,518 and failing to pay despite repeated promises, she was evicted. She then attempted a similar scam at the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, failing to pay her \$503.76 bill; she was evicted after two days and charged with theft of services. By July 5, Sorokin was homeless. She then interrupted Duke in the middle of a date, crying and pressuring her into providing lodging. She also asked Williams for lodging, again in a crying tantrum; Williams refused. Sorokin also tried to dine and dash at the restaurant at the Le Parker Meridien hotel. When caught, she claimed to police that she could get a friend to pay the bill in five minutes. At this time, Sorokin was being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney for bank fraud. On August 17 and 21, 2017, Sorokin allegedly deposited two bad checks worth \$15,000 into her account at Signature Bank and over the next few days, she withdrew approximately \$8,200 in cash before the checks were returned. ## Indictment and arrest Sorokin was arrested on October 3, 2017, in a sting operation planned by Michael McCaffrey, a police officer with the New York Police Department working with the Manhattan District Attorney's office. In order to facilitate the "sting", McCaffrey worked closely with Sorokin's former friend, Rachel Williams. At the time, Sorokin was staying at Passages Malibu, a luxury rehab/addiction treatment facility in California. In order to convince Sorokin to enter a more public venue where an arrest would be more easily effected, McCaffrey had Williams arrange a lunch meeting at a restaurant outside of the facility. When Sorokin left the facility, she was arrested by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. Later that month, Sorokin was indicted by a grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. on two counts of attempted grand larceny in the first degree, three counts of grand larceny in the second degree, one count of grand larceny in the third degree, and one count of misdemeanor theft of services for the fraudulent loan applications made to City National and Fortress, the check fraud, the cost of the trip to Morocco, and the unpaid hotel and restaurant bills. ## Trial, conviction, and sentence On December 18, 2018, Sorokin appeared in New York City Criminal Court and rejected a plea deal that offered three to nine years in prison. A trial started on March 20, 2019, presided over by Judge Diane Kiesel. At her request, Sorokin's defense attorney arranged for a wardrobe stylist to source outfits for her court appearances. On Wednesday, she swapped out her Rikers Island uniform for a Michael Kors shift dress. The following day, she paired a sheer black Saint Laurent top with Victoria Beckham trousers. On the Friday of the trial Sorokin refused to enter the courtroom because she did not want to appear in her prison-issued clothing, and her civilian outfit for the day "had not been pressed". After a crying tantrum and delaying the trial for an hour and a half, she was forced to appear by the judge. At trial, Sorokin's lawyer defended her by saying that her intent all along was to repay the debt and that services were given to her in exchange for publicity on Instagram. He described her as an entrepreneur with a comparison to Frank Sinatra, claiming they both created a "golden opportunity" in New York. On April 25, 2019, after deliberating for two days, the jury found Sorokin guilty of eight charges, including grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. Sorokin was found not guilty of two other charges: one of attempted grand larceny in the first degree relating to the original loan application with City National, and one of larceny in the second degree relating to the alleged theft of \$62,000 from Rachel Williams in Marrakesh. In an interview before her sentencing, Sorokin said: "I'd be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything." On May 9, 2019, Sorokin was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in state prison, fined \$24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of \$199,000, including \$100,000 to City National, \$70,000 to Citibank, and approximately two-thirds of the amount owed to Blade. These amounts, as well as approximately \$75,000 in legal fees related to the trial, were paid from proceeds of Sorokin's \$320,000 deal with Netflix; the court allowed Sorokin to keep the remaining \$22,000. Sorokin was not forced to pay the \$160,000 in legal fees owed to Perkins Coie related to the unsuccessful lease of Church Missions House, \$65,000 in legal fees due to Gibson Dunn related to the unsuccessful \$22 million loan application, and \$30,000 in legal fees due to Lowenstein Sandler. Sorokin was incarcerated at Rikers Island during the trial, where she had thirteen infractions for misbehavior such as fighting and disobeying orders, and was placed into solitary confinement during Christmas. After the trial, Sorokin, inmate \#19G0366 of the New York State Department of Corrections, was initially housed at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women before being transferred to Albion Correctional Facility. On February 11, 2021, Sorokin was released from prison on parole. After release, she checked in to The NoMad hotel and hired a German camera crew to follow her and film her activities. Six weeks after her release on parole, on March 25, 2021, she was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying her visa. She was held in a New Jersey county jail by ICE awaiting deportation to Germany, which she has been legally contesting. An immigration judge ruled that if Sorokin were freed, she "would have the ability and inclination to continue to commit fraudulent and dishonest acts". In January 2022, she tested positive for COVID-19 in prison and was placed in quarantine. While still in prison on March 1, 2022, Sorokin joined a class-action suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Sorokin alleges ICE refused multiple requests for a COVID-19 booster shot. She received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine the previous April. On October 5, 2022, Sorokin was granted a \$10,000 bail bond and released from prison. As of October 2022, Sorokin is required to remain in a 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring and no access to social media. Her house arrest is being served at a 470-square-foot (44 m²) apartment in the East Village, Manhattan. ## Media representation In 2018, after an article by Jessica Pressler on Sorokin was published in New York, Netflix paid Sorokin \$320,000 for the rights to her life story. However, the New York Attorney General's office sued Sorokin in 2019 using the state's Son of Sam law, which prohibits those convicted of a crime from profiting from its publicity and forced the majority of these funds to be used to pay restitution and fines per the judgment. In July 2019, My Friend Anna, a book written by Rachel DeLoache Williams, was published by Gallery Publishing Group, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, as well as by Quercus in the UK and Goldmann in Germany. Williams received \$300,000 for the book, in which she details her experiences with Sorokin, including how the trip to Marrakesh affected her financially and mentally. Screenwriter Lena Dunham paid Williams \$35,000 for an option to the television rights to her story but did not exercise it, so the story rights returned to Williams. Sorokin's story has been the subject of an episode of American Greed by CNBC, an episode of Generation Hustle by HBO Max, an episode of 20/20, where Sorokin was interviewed by Deborah Roberts while in ICE custody, and an episode of 60 Minutes where Sorokin was interviewed by Liam Bartlett. In December 2019, Sorokin's story was the subject of Fake Heiress, a drama-documentary podcast by journalist Vicky Baker and playwright Chloe Moss released by BBC Radio 4, starring Bella Dayne as Sorokin. In the 2020 American television series Katy Keene, the character of Pepper Smith, played by Julia Chan, is loosely based on Sorokin. In late July and early August 2021, Anna X, a stage play inspired by Sorokin's story by Joseph Charlton starring Emma Corrin and Nabhaan Rizwan, ran at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London and The Lowry in Salford. Netflix's nine-episode series Inventing Anna was created by Shonda Rhimes. In it, Sorokin is played by Julia Garner. The series was released in February 2022 and was the top watched program on Netflix during the week it was released. In 2022, Sorokin signed a deal with Bunim/Murray Productions to star in a reality television series about her life after prison. She is also working on a book about her time in jail and a podcast. In late May 2022, Sorokin joined sisters Paris Hilton and Nicky Rothschild on an episode of Hilton's podcast This is Paris. ## Art shows and sales As of December 2022, Sorokin had sold \$340,000 worth of art. The proceeds were used to post bail and pay three months of rent for Sorokin's \$4,250/month one-bedroom apartment in the East Village, Manhattan. ### Shows A pop-up group show called "Free Anna Delvey" ran at 176 Delancey Street on the Lower East Side from March 17 to March 24, 2022, while Sorokin was still incarcerated. The show incorporated art from 33 artists inspired by Sorokin, including Noah Becker, publisher of Whitehot magazine. Each piece was listed for sale for \$10,000. It was co-curated by Alfredo Martinez, who had previously been to prison for forging Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings, and Julia Morrison, who fronted \$8,000 of her own money to fund the show but was never repaid despite promises by Sorokin to do so. One of the pieces, titled Send Bitcoin, features a seated Sorokin wearing a red dress while working on a computer and facing away from the viewer. Other pieces included Anna on ICE, and ICE, both referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. UltraNYC called the pieces "doodles" and "part of her latest ploy to profit from her newfound fame..." Grunge stated the show "generally displayed [Sorokin] in a sympathetic, if not overtly positive, light." On May 19, 2022, while Sorokin was still incarcerated, "Allegedly" opened in a nightclub on the second floor of the Public Hotel in Manhattan. The show opened with the song "Flashing Lights" by rapper Kanye West, followed by drag queen Yuhua Hamasaki hyping up the crowd. Models walked through the room holding Sorokin's drawings in gold-plated frames while wearing white gloves, Versace sunglasses, and black stockings covering their heads and faces. Sorokin addressed the crowd via a prerecorded recording, stating the show was "my narrative from my perspective". The drawings were again priced at each, with Sorokin stating 15% of the proceeds will go to children's charities. The show was attended by many reporters and publicists. ### Non-fungible tokens In June 2022, Sorokin announced that she was launching a collection of non-fungible tokens. She created 10 such tokens that she claimed will give holders "exclusive access" to her. ## Personal life Sorokin maintains social media accounts, which she has described as satire, on Twitter and Instagram. Through Instagram, she connected with Julia Fox, with whom she is planning a collaboration. In January 2021, Sorokin penned a sarcastic letter to Donald Trump in which she anticipated his becoming a prisoner at Rikers Island. Sorokin had a boyfriend in New York for two years until he moved to the United Arab Emirates. Despite keeping his identity secret, Sorokin disclosed that her boyfriend gave TED talks and was profiled in The New Yorker. She suggested she would reveal his identity for a fee, with bidding starting at \$10,000; however, Rachel DeLoache Williams revealed the boyfriend's identity to be Hunter Lee Soik. ## See also - List of con artists

Tropical Storm Mekkhala (2015)

Pacific typhoon in 2015

Severe Tropical Storm Mekkhala, known in the Philippines as Severe Tropical Storm Amang, was an early-season tropical cyclone that made landfall over the Philippines in January 2015. Mekkhala killed three people in the Bicol Region and caused light crop damage. Notably, the storm disturbed Pope Francis’ visit to the country after the victims of Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013. Although the storm also caused an airplane crash in Tacloban, nobody was hurt in the incident. The system developed on January 13 between the Philippines and Guam. Moving west-northwest for its duration, Mekkhala passed north of Yap State on January 14 while slowly intensifying due to moderate wind shear. Conditions became more favorable on January 16, when the storm quickly strengthened to peak winds of at least 110 km/h (70 mph); a ragged eye prompted the American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) to upgrade it to a typhoon. The storm weakened slightly and made landfall on the Philippine island of Samar on January 17. Mekkhala weakened further over land, dissipating on January 21 east of Luzon. ## Meteorological history Tropical Storm Mekkhala was first noted as a tropical disturbance on January 11, while it was located within a marginal environment for further development, about 205 km (125 mi) to the south-southwest of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. At this time the system's low level circulation centre was broad and ill-defined, with a large band of deep atmospheric convection flaring along the centre's northern edge. Over the next day the system moved westwards into a more favourable environment, with atmospheric convection wrapping into a slowly-consolidating low-level circulation center. The Japan Meteorological Agency subsequently started to monitor the system as a tropical depression early on January 13. Later that day the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center initiated advisories on the system and classified it as Tropical Depression 01W, despite tropical storm force winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) occurring on the northern side of the system. Although deep convection was displaced to the northwest of an exposed LLCC early on January 14, the JMA still upgraded the system to a tropical storm and named it Mekkhala, under moderate vertical wind shear offset by excellent poleward outflow. In post-season analysis, the agency upgraded the storm at 12:00 UTC on the previous day. Late on January 14, the PAGASA named the storm Amang right after it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. Tracking west-northwestward and then westward along the southern periphery of a subtropical ridge, Mekkhala was upgraded to a tropical storm by the JTWC early on January 15, due to its slightly improved structure. Mekkhala quickly intensified on the next day due to improved conditions; the wind shear became in-phase with the storm's motion while the robust divergent outflow persisted. Therefore, the JMA upgraded the system to a severe tropical storm at 06:00 UTC on January 16, and later that day the JTWC upgraded it to a typhoon, when a central dense overcast has significantly deepened and totally obscured the LLCC. Later, a microwave imagery revealed that Mekkhala formed a ragged eyewall structure. The system reached peak intensity at 00:00 UTC on January 17 with ten-minute maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h (70 mph), although operationally the JMA estimated typhoon-force winds of 130 km/h (80 mph). After slightly weakening, Mekkhala tracked northwestward and made landfall over Dolores, Eastern Samar of the Philippines at around 15:00 Philippine Standard Time (07:00 UTC), where Typhoon Hagupit also made landfall the month before. Both the JMA and the JTWC downgraded Mekkhala to a tropical storm on January 17, due to land interaction weakening the storm significantly. Mekkhala weakened further while crossing the Bicol Region on January 18, leading the JTWC to downgrade it to a tropical depression when it turned northward and emerged into the Philippine Sea. Late on the same day, the JMA downgraded Mekkhala to a tropical depression, and shortly after the JTWC issued the final warning as strong wind shear exposed the LLCC. The tropical depression drifted northeastward and maintained its exposed low-level circulation east of Luzon, until the system was completely absorbed by a stationary front early on January 21. ## Impact During January 14, Mekkhala passed about 95 km (60 mi) to the north of Yap State and less than 45 km (30 mi) to the south of the atoll Ulithi. A peak wind gust of 58 km/h (36 mph) was recorded in Yap State, along with a rainfall total of around 13 mm (0.5 in). On Ulithi a rainfall total of 100 mm (4 in) was recorded, while there were no reports of any deaths or significant damage on either Ulithi or in Yap State. Severe Tropical Storm Mekkhala, also known as Tropical Storm Amang, killed three people in the Bicol Region of the Philippines. Damage in the region amounted to ₱318.7 million (US\$7.13 million), stemming mostly from agriculture. In addition, the storm caused agricultural damage of ₱30.3 million (US\$678,000) in Samar. The crop damage and a subsequent drought caused rice shortages in the country, prompting the government to import the grain in May 2015. Throughout the country, 48 homes were destroyed while a further 490 sustained damage. Infrastructural losses reached ₱49.7 million (US\$1.11 million); repairs to roadways was quick and completed by January 21. A volunteer from the Bicol Region, who worked for a Catholic Relief Services station in Salcedo, Eastern Samar, was hit by a soundbox due to a collapsed scaffolding caused by heavy winds during a papal Mass held in Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban, Leyte. To comfort Tacloban people who suffered from the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and Typhoon Hagupit a month prior, Pope Francis visited the storm-ravaged city on January 17. However, the schedule was significantly impacted by Severe Tropical Storm Mekkhala and thousands of pilgrims and the Pope wore their raincoats during the rain-soaked Mass in the airport. Only minutes after Pope Francis’ aircraft left the airport, a private jet was veered off the runway by strong winds of Mekkhala and eventually crashed. The 15 passengers on the plane were all safe, including officials from the Cabinet of the Philippines. ### Highest Public Storm Warning Signal ## See also - Tropical Storm Lingling (2014) - Tropical Depression Auring (2009)

Gianluigi Buffon

Italian footballer (born 1978)

Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978), also known as Gigi Buffon, is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances and holds the record for the most appearances in the Serie A. Buffon's made his Serie A debut at Parma in 1995, helping Parma to win the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana in 1999. After joining Juventus in 2001, for the world record fee for a goalkeeper of €52.9 million at the time, Buffon won Serie A titles in both of his first two seasons at the club. In his first spell at Juventus enduring 17 years, he won a record nine Serie A titles, four Coppa Italias, and five Supercoppa Italianas. He was the first goalkeeper to win the Serie A Footballer of the Year award, and was named Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year a record twelve times. After reaching the 2015 and 2017 UEFA Champions League finals, Buffon was named to the Champions League Squad of the Season on both occasions, and won the inaugural The Best FIFA Goalkeeper award in the latter year. Then Buffon signed with French club Paris Saint-Germain at the age of 40 in 2018, where he was used in a rotational role with Alphonse Areola; he won the Trophée des Champions and Ligue 1 title in his only season with the team, before returning to Juventus the following year. During the 2019–20 season, Buffon served primarily as a back-up to Wojciech Szczęsny, but still managed to break Paolo Maldini's record of 647 appearances in Serie A, as he won a record tenth top flight title with the club. The following season he continued to serve as a back-up, but started in the Coppa Italia, winning his record sixth title. In June 2021, Buffon returned to his boyhood club Parma, who had been relegated to Serie B for that season, before announcing his retirement from football in 2023 at the age of 45. With 176 international caps, Buffon is the most capped goalkeeper of all time, the most capped player in the history of the Italy national team, and the third-most capped European international player ever. Buffon also holds the record for most appearances for Italy as captain after he inherited the armband in 2010. Buffon was called up for a record of five FIFA World Cup tournaments (in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) after making his debut in 1997; he was an unused substitute in the 1998 edition. He was the starting goalkeeper of the squad that won the 2006 tournament, being awarded the Golden Glove as the competition's best goalkeeper. He also represented Italy at four European Championships, at the 1996 Olympics, and at two FIFA Confederations Cups, winning a bronze medal in the 2013 edition of the tournament. Following his performances during the 2006 World Cup, where he kept a record five clean sheets, Buffon won the Yashin Award and was elected to the Team of the Tournament, an honour he also received from UEFA after reaching the quarter-finals of the 2008 and the final of the 2012 European Championship. Buffon retired from international football in 2017, after Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup; although he reversed this decision to play in the team's friendlies the following year, he officially confirmed his international retirement in May 2018. Buffon was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in 2004. He is the only goalkeeper to win the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award, which he achieved after reaching the 2003 Champions League final; he also won UEFA's award for best goalkeeper that year, and was additionally voted into the UEFA Team of the Year on five occasions. Buffon was the runner-up for the Ballon d'Or in 2006, and was elected part of the FIFPro World11 three times. He was the first ever goalkeeper to win the Golden Foot Award, and was also named the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper a record five times, alongside Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer. He would go on to be named the best goalkeeper of the 21st century, of the past 25 years and of the decade by the same organisation. ## Early life Buffon was born in Carrara, Tuscany, although he is of Friulian origin, from Latisana. He was born into a sporting family: his mother Maria Stella Masocco was three times Italian champion in shot put and discus throw, his uncle Dante Masocco was a basketball player who played in the Serie A1, his father Adriano also practiced shot put, and his elder sisters Guendalina and Veronica were professional volleyball players. He is a relative of Lorenzo Buffon, goalkeeper for Milan, Genoa, Inter, Fiorentina and the Italian national team: Lorenzo is Gianluigi's second cousin twice removed. In June 2017, he received honorary citizenship from the city of Latisana. ## Club career ### Parma #### 1991–1994: Youth career and early professional career Despite offers from Bologna and Milan, Buffon began his career with the Parma youth system in 1991, at the age of 13. During his time in the youth academy, he initially played in several out-field positions, in particular as a midfielder, before switching to his current position of goalkeeper. His idol Thomas N'Kono inspired this change of position due to his notable goalkeeping performances for Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup in Italy; as a result, when both of the Parma youth team's keepers suddenly suffered injuries, Buffon was called upon due to his interest, height and physical attributes. He quickly adapted to this role, and within two weeks he had been promoted to first keeper of the Parma youth team. Ermes Fulgoni, the academy's goalkeeping coach, would soon become a mentor to the young goalkeeper. After an initial call-up to train with the first team during the summer of 1994, Buffon was promoted to the senior squad in 1995, and at the age of , he made his Serie A debut for Parma under Nevio Scala, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 home draw against eventual Serie A Champions Milan, on 19 November 1995. Buffon made notable saves against Ballon d'Or winners Roberto Baggio and George Weah, as well as Marco Simone, throughout the match. Buffon went on to make seven more first team appearances that season as well as one appearance in the Coppa Italia, making his debut in the competition, as Parma were eliminated in the second round. Parma finished in sixth place in Serie A that season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. During his time at Parma, he trained under goalkeeping coach Villiam Vecchi, a person to whom Buffon attributes much of his confidence, development, and success. #### 1996–2001: Making the starting eleven, early success and recognition In the 1996–97 Serie A season, his second full season with the club, Buffon was named as the starting goalkeeper ahead of Luca Bucci, and Alessandro Nista. Parma finished the 1996–97 season as runners-up in Serie A, behind Juventus, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. Buffon conceded 17 goals in 27 appearances, and his consistent performances began to gain attention in Italy. Parma were once again eliminated in the second round of the Coppa Italia and in the first round of the UEFA Cup that season, where Buffon made his European debut in a 2–0 defeat to Portuguese club Vitória de Guimarães on 24 September 1996, aged . In the 1997–98 season, Parma finished in fifth place in Serie A and reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals. Buffon also made his debut in the UEFA Champions League that season: his first appearance came in a 3–1 away win over Widzew Łódź on 13 August 1997, in the first leg of the second qualifying round, aged , while he made his debut in the group stage in a 2–0 home victory against Galatasaray on 1 October later that year, aged ; Parma were ultimately knocked out in the first round of the competition, finishing second in their group, behind defending champions Borussia Dortmund. Buffon acquired his nickname "Superman" during the course of the season, when he stopped a penalty by Inter striker and Ballon d'Or holder Ronaldo. Buffon celebrated the save by showing the Parma fans a Superman T-shirt, which he was wearing underneath his jersey; the nickname was also a reference to Buffon's athleticism, agility and aerial ability. In his fourth season with the club, Buffon won his first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, keeping a clean sheet in the final against Marseille, which ended in a 3–0 win for Parma; he also won the Coppa Italia with the club that season, as Parma defeated Fiorentina on away goals. Parma finished fourth in Serie A, which allowed them to reach the playoff round of the UEFA Champions League, although they were relegated to the UEFA Cup after losing to Rangers. Buffon's performances that season earned him his first Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year Award, as well as the Bravo Award, the trophy given to the best player under 23 years of age in Europe. He also placed fifth in the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper rankings, and received his first ever Ballon d'Or nomination. In the following season, he won his first Supercoppa Italiana title against Serie A champions Milan, and Parma finished fourth in Serie A once again, tied with Inter for the final remaining Champions League spot. Parma lost 3–1 to Inter in the European playoff match. The club was knocked out in the round of 16 of both the UEFA Cup and the Coppa Italia. In the 2000–01 season, Buffon helped lead Parma to another Coppa Italia Final, in which they were defeated by Fiorentina; but the team suffered a third-round elimination in the UEFA Cup. Parma also finished the season in fourth place for the third consecutive year, which allowed them to go through to the Champions League play-off round. Buffon was voted Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the second time in his career, and he also placed third in the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award. On 3 July 2001, Buffon was sold to Juventus for a world-record goalkeeper's transfer fee of 100 billion lire, (€51,645,690) (Or €51.956 million including other minor costs that could be capitalised) with part of the transfer fees paid via the transfer of Jonathan Bachini to Parma for an undisclosed fee (which saw Juventus make a capital gain of €10M, i.e. he was sold for equal to or more than €10M). ### Juventus #### 2001–2004: Initial dominance Buffon transferred from Parma to Juventus on 3 July 2001 for €52.9 million, along with former Parma teammate Lilian Thuram, and was handed the number 1 shirt as the starting goalkeeper, replacing Edwin van der Sar, who was sold to Fulham. Buffon later said that there had been an initial possibility for him to join Roma, but they signed Ivan Pelizzoli instead, and although negotiations were ongoing with Barcelona, he chose Juventus because his father convinced him he would be likely to achieve his ambition of winning the Scudetto. This transfer fee made Buffon Juventus' most expensive purchase ever, a record which was broken in 2016 by the acquisition of Gonzalo Higuaín. Buffon made his Juventus debut during the opening match of the 2001–02 Serie A season, on 26 August 2001, keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 home win over Venezia. He kept two more clean sheets until he was beaten by Massimo Marazzina in a 3–2 home win over Chievo on the fourth match-day. He made his Juventus Champions League debut on 18 September, in a 3–2 home win over Celtic. In his first season with Juventus, Buffon appeared in 45 official matches, helping his team to the Serie A title, as Juventus finished the season with the best defence in Italy, with Buffon only conceding 22 goals in 34 Serie A matches. Juventus also finished as runners-up in the Coppa Italia that season to Buffon's former club, Parma; Buffon only made one appearance in the competition. Juventus were eliminated in the second group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Despite coming under criticism in the media for some errors early on in the season, in particular against Chievo, Buffon was awarded his third Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year Award at the end of the season for his performances throughout the year, and he was nominated for the UEFA Team of the Year for the first time in his career, losing out to Rüştü Reçber. At the beginning of the 2002–03 season, Juventus won the 2002 Supercoppa Italiana against Parma. Buffon had a dominant year, totalling 47 appearances in all competitions, of which 32 were in Serie A. He helped Juventus to the UEFA Champions League Final, only for his team to lose in a penalty shoot-out to Milan after a 0–0 draw at Old Trafford following extra time. Buffon managed to save two penalties, but Milan won the shootout 3–2. Buffon drew praise for making a reaction save from a close-range header by Filippo Inzaghi in the final during regulation time, which he later described as the most difficult save of his career in his 2008 autobiography, and as one of the most beautiful in 2014. Buffon saved a Luís Figo penalty in the second leg of the semi-finals, against defending champions Real Madrid, in Turin. Juventus progressed to the final, winning 4–3 on aggregate. Juventus managed to celebrate their second consecutive Serie A title that season, finishing the season with the best defence yet again, as Buffon conceded only 23 goals in 32 appearances. In 2003, Buffon received the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the fourth time. He also became the only goalkeeper ever to win the now defunct UEFA Most Valuable Player or UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award. He also won the UEFA Best Goalkeeper award, and was elected to the UEFA Team of the Year for the first time. He was also named the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper for the first time in his career. Buffon was also nominated for the 2003 Ballon d'Or that season, finishing in ninth place. Buffon began the 2003–04 season with Juventus by defeating Milan on penalties in the 2003 Supercoppa Italiana, with Buffon saving a penalty in the shootout, after a 1–1 draw. Juventus were eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League that season by Deportivo de La Coruña and finished the Serie A season in a disappointing third place, although they managed to reach the Coppa Italia Final. Buffon made his 100th appearance for Juventus that season on 30 September 2003 in a 2–1 away win over Olympiacos in the group stage of the Champions League. He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004, but missed out on the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award, which went to Milan's league-winning goalkeeper Dida. He was once again elected as the Goalkeeper for the UEFA Team of the Year and as the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper. Buffon also received his first ever FIFA World Player of the Year nomination in 2004, finishing in 21st place alongside countryman Paolo Maldini. #### 2004–2006: Calciopoli and relegation In the summer of 2004, Marcello Lippi left Juventus to take charge of the Italy national team and was replaced by Fabio Capello. In his fourth season with the club, Buffon made 38 appearances in Serie A and 48 in all competitions that season as he won his third Serie A title in four years with Juventus, winning once again the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award for the fifth time in his career. Juventus were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, against eventual winners Liverpool, and in 2005, Buffon was nominated for the UEFA Team of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. In August 2005, Buffon collided with Milan midfielder Kaká during the annual preseason Trofeo Luigi Berlusconi match, suffering a dislocated shoulder that required surgery. Milan loaned backup goalkeeper Christian Abbiati to Juventus as compensation while Buffon recovered. Buffon returned to the Juventus starting line-up in November, but injury again sidelined him until January. He recovered in time to help Juventus win their second consecutive Scudetto and his fourth overall, returning to the starting line-up in January 2006, in a Coppa Italia match against Fiorentina. Juventus were once again knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by runners-up Arsenal, and in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia on away goals to eventual runners-up Roma. Buffon was named IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper for the third time in his career and Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the sixth time. He was also placed second in the 2006 Ballon d'Or (the first goalkeeper to do so since compatriot Dino Zoff in 1973) and eighth in the FIFA World Player of the Year Award behind his winning Italy teammate Fabio Cannavaro, and was elected as the starting goalkeeper for both the 2006 FIFPro XI and the UEFA Team of the Year, following his fifth consecutive nomination. Buffon made his 200th appearance for Juventus that season in a 2–0 away defeat at the hands of Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. On 12 May 2006, several players, including Buffon, were accused of participating in illegal betting on Serie A matches. Buffon voluntarily co-operated, allowing himself to be interrogated by Turin magistrates. While admitting that he did place bets on sporting matches (until regulations went into effect in late 2005, banning players from doing so), he vehemently denied placing wagers on Italian football matches. Despite concerns that he had jeopardised his chance of playing for Italy in the 2006 World Cup, he was officially named Italy's starting goalkeeper on 15 May and helped Italy to win their fourth title. Buffon was cleared of all charges by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on 27 June 2007. Following Juventus' punishment in the Calciopoli scandal, in which their two most recent Serie A titles were stripped and the squad were relegated to Serie B and penalised with a point deduction, rumours spread that Buffon would be placed on the transfer market. Buffon elected to remain with Juventus, despite the team's relegation, a decision which made him extremely popular with the Juventus fans. #### 2006–2011: Serie B champions, Serie A return and post-Calciopoli struggles During the 2006–07 Serie B season, Buffon made his debut in the Italian second division in a 1–1 away draw against Rimini on 9 September 2006; later that year, he also received the first red card of his career in a 1–1 away draw against AlbinoLeffe on 18 November. In total he made 37 league appearances throughout the season. After Juventus won the Serie B title, earning promotion to Serie A for the 2007–08 season, Buffon signed a contract extension with Juventus until 2012. In 2007, Buffon was also elected as the goalkeeper for the 2007 FIFPro XI for the second consecutive year, and the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper for a record-breaking fourth time. Buffon was a key player for Juventus in the 2007–08 season, their first back in the top flight, as he helped Juventus to a third-place finish, and Champions League qualification. Juventus lost to runners-up Inter in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals. Buffon produced 94 saves in 34 league appearances and was named Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the seventh time in his career. Buffon was also nominated for the 2008 Ballon d'Or for the sixth consecutive time in his career since 2003, and the FIFA World Player of the Year Award. During this season, Buffon began to suffer problems with his back, caused by a herniated disc, which frequently keep him sidelined during the next few seasons. On 10 March 2008, Buffon renewed his contract until 2013, expressing his desire to win everything with the club. In the 2008–09 season, Buffon was once again sidelined by several injuries. From September through January, reserve goalkeeper Alexander Manninger held his position between the sticks, gaining praise for his deputising. Due to recurring injuries, Manninger's performances and Juventus' poor form towards the end of the season (as Buffon was seen despondent whilst the team drew with both Lecce and Atalanta), there were further rumours that Buffon was displeased and wanted to part ways with the club. He admitted he was disappointed with the current results, but assured that he had no intention of leaving. After a discussion with management, he said he was reassured about the club's future and signed a contract extension to 2013. Buffon and Juventus finished the season on a high note, with two victories, finishing in second place behind Internazionale. They were knocked out of the Coppa Italia semi-finals by eventual champions Lazio and of the Champions League in the round of 16 by Chelsea. Buffon was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2009 for the sixth consecutive season since first being nominated in 2004. Buffon made his 300th appearance for Juventus in a 3–3 home draw against Chievo in 2009. Juventus and Buffon began the 2009–10 season strongly, although the squad suffered a severe dip in form as they were eliminated from the Champions League, finishing third in their group. They were subsequently eliminated in the Round of 16 of the Europa League against Fulham. Juventus were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia to eventual champions Inter, and finished the Serie A season in a disappointing seventh place, only qualifying for the 2010–11 Europa League through the playoff round. Buffon was often sidelined that season, due to several recurring injuries. In 2010, Buffon was voted goalkeeper of the decade by IFFHS. Buffon did not play for the first half of the 2010–11 season as he was recovering from surgery after an injury he endured to his sciatic nerve during the 2010 World Cup, and he was replaced by his new deputy, Marco Storari. Juventus were knocked out of the Europa League group stage, the Coppa Italia in the quarter-finals and finished the Serie A season in seventh place, failing to qualify for Europe, the first time since the 1990–91 season. #### 2011–2014: New era of dominance in Serie A During the 2011–12 season under new manager and former club midfielder Antonio Conte, Juventus were once again a dominating force in Serie A. Buffon re-found his form, and made numerous notable saves throughout the season, including stopping a penalty kick from Francesco Totti, which enabled Juventus to capture a crucial draw against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Buffon's fine form at the end of the first half of the season saw elected Juventus' Player of the Month in December 2011 by fans. Buffon kept his 15th clean sheet of the season in Juventus' victory over rivals Inter in the Derby d'Italia; after the match, he was described as "the best goalkeeper in Italy and probably the World". Juventus finished the season unbeaten, winning their first Scudetto since the Calciopoli scandal, and qualifying for the 2012–13 Champions League after a two-year absence. Buffon described it as the second highest point of his career, after the 2006 World Cup victory. Playing behind a strong three-man defensive line under Conte's newly established 3–5–2 formation, made up predominantly of Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli, Buffon obtained a league record of 21 clean sheets in Serie A, and only conceded a personal best of 16 goals from 35 appearances (an average of 0.46 goals per game), as Juventus finished the season with the best defence in Italy, and became the European team with the second-best defence that season, after Porto. Buffon made 81 saves in Serie A that season and his 82% save percentage was the highest of any goalkeeper playing in one of Europe's five major leagues. Buffon was included in the 2011–12 Serie A Team of the Year for his performances. Juventus also made the Coppa Italia final that season, although Buffon did not play in this competition. On 11 August 2012, Buffon lifted his first trophy as the new Juventus captain, following Alessandro Del Piero's departure as Juventus defeated Napoli 4–2 in extra time in the 2012 Supercoppa Italiana in Beijing. Buffon suffered a minor injury and missed the first Serie A match of the 2012–13 season against Parma on 25 August 2012. He returned to the starting line-up for the next match against Udinese in Udine on 2 September, wearing the captain's armband; Juventus won the match 4–1. On 20 September, in Juventus' first Champions League match of the season against defending champions Chelsea, Buffon made his 400th appearance for Juventus; the match ended in a 2–2 away draw. Buffon obtained his first clean sheet of the season in a 2–0 home win against Chievo on 22 September. Buffon was nominated for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or and the 2012 UEFA Team of the Year following his performances throughout the calendar year. He obtained his first Champions League clean sheet, against Nordsjælland, on 7 November, a match which Juve won 4–0 at Juventus Stadium. He also kept clean sheets as Juventus beat defending champions Chelsea 3–0 at home, and Shakhtar Donetsk 1–0 away from home, on Buffon's 100th club appearance in European competitions. Juventus topped their group undefeated, and advanced to the knockout stages for first time since 2008–09. Buffon kept a clean sheet in a 1–0 Coppa Italia win against Cagliari on 12 December, allowing Juventus to progress to the quarter-finals of the tournament. On 16 December, Juventus defeated Atalanta 3–0, allowing Juventus to once again claim the unofficial title of "Serie A Winter Champions", with the best defence in Serie A, having only conceded ten goals in 17 matches. This was also Buffon's 20th clean sheet in 2012, the most of any other goalkeeper in Europe. Buffon was voted second in the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award, behind Iker Casillas, and was named as goalkeeper of the century by the same organisation. On 23 January 2013, Buffon signed a contract extension with Juventus, keeping him at the club until 2015. On 27 January 2013, Buffon was awarded the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award for the eighth time in his career. Juventus retained their Serie A title that season, and finished the league with the best defence, as Buffon conceded just 19 goals. The league victory allowed Buffon to lift the Serie A trophy as captain for the first time. Juventus were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia to winners Lazio, and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League to winners Bayern Munich. On 18 August 2013, Juventus began the 2013–14 season by defending their Supercoppa Italiana title, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Juventus defeated Lazio 4–0, with Buffon keeping a clean sheet in the competition for the first time; Buffon was praised for making several saves. On 24 November, Buffon made his 500th appearance in Serie A, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 away win against Livorno. On 6 December, Buffon recorded his seventh consecutive clean sheet, and his ninth of the season; as a result, he bettered his previous personal record of 568 minutes without conceding a goal in Serie A, going 640 minutes without being beaten in the Italian League. Buffon was finally beaten by Maximiliano Moralez in a 4–1 win over Atalanta, after going 745 minutes without conceding a goal in Serie A, and equalling Luca Marchegiani's sixth-best unbeaten streak in Serie A history. Buffon was nominated for the 2013 FIFPro XI and the 2013 Ballon d'Or for his performances throughout the calendar year. In 2013, Buffon was once again named the second best goalkeeper in the world by IFFHS, behind Manuel Neuer. His performances earned him the Juventus player of the month award for December 2013. On 16 March 2014, Buffon saved the 20th penalty of his career in a 1–0 away win over Genoa, equalising Dino Zoff's 476 appearances for Juventus as the club's fifth all-time appearance holder. Buffon lifted the Serie A title for the third consecutive year, captaining the team to their 30th league title. During the 2013–14 season, Juventus managed an Italian-record of 102 points, including a Serie A record of 33 victories; Juventus finished with the best defence of the league, yet again. Buffon managed 89 saves and 18 clean sheets in 33 appearances during the Serie A season, and conceded 19 goals. Juventus were eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League, although they later managed to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League, losing to Benfica. Buffon was chosen as part of the 2013–14 Europa League Team of the Season for his performances throughout the tournament. On 1 July 2014, Buffon signed a contract extension that would keep him at the club until 2017. #### 2014–15: Second Champions League Final and first Coppa Italia with Juventus In the summer of 2014, manager Antonio Conte left Juventus to take charge of the Italy national team, with former Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri called in as his replacement. Juve opened the 2014–15 season with a 1–0 away win over Chievo, with Buffon keeping a clean sheet and saving from Maxi López in the second half. On 27 September, Buffon saved a Germán Denis penalty in a 3–0 away win over Atalanta, helping Juventus to keep their fifth consecutive clean sheet in Serie A. He was eventually beaten by a Francesco Totti penalty in a 3–2 home win over Roma on 5 October after going unbeaten for 616 minutes that season. Including the previous season, Buffon managed to go 801 minutes in total without conceding a league goal; at the time, this record had only been bettered by Dino Zoff and Sebastiano Rossi. On 29 October, Buffon made his 500th appearance for Juventus in a 1–0 away loss to Genoa. On 1 November 2014, Buffon made his 400th League appearance with Juventus (37 of which were in Serie B, and 363 of which were in Serie A), keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 away win over Empoli. On 24 November, Buffon was nominated for the 2014 FIFPro World XI for a record tenth time. He is currently the only goalkeeper to have been nominated for the award every year since its inception in 2005. The same week, Buffon was also nominated for the UEFA Team of the Year. On 15 December 2014, Buffon was named Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the ninth time in his career, and was elected to the 2014 Serie A Team of the Year. On 22 December, Juventus were defeated by Napoli in the 2014 Supercoppa Italiana 8–7 on penalties, following a 2–2 draw after extra time. Although Buffon made several saves during the match, and managed to stop three penalties in the shoot-out, he was unable to prevent his team from losing the title. Buffon placed fourth in the 2014 IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award, behind Manuel Neuer, Thibaut Courtois and Keylor Navas; this was the 15th consecutive year in which he had been named as one of the world's top five goalkeepers. On 15 February 2015, Buffon surpassed Gaetano Scirea as the Juventus player with the second most minutes played in Serie A, behind only Giampiero Boniperti. On 2 March 2015, Buffon equalled Scirea as the Juventus player with the third most appearances in Serie A, behind only Boniperti and Del Piero. He later surpassed Scirea on 14 March, making his 378th Serie A appearance with Juventus in a 1–0 away win over Palermo. After keeping a clean sheet in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Monaco on 22 April, Buffon overtook Dida as the goalkeeper with the fourth-highest number of clean sheets in Champions League history, with 36. On 26 April, Buffon made his 528th appearance for Juventus in all competitions, equalling Giuseppe Furino as the player with third-most appearances for the club; he overtook Furino on 29 April. On 2 May, Buffon kept a clean sheet in a 1–0 away win over Sampdoria, as Juventus won their fourth consecutive Serie A title. On 13 May, Buffon produced a man of the match performance as Juventus drew 1–1 with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final, only being beaten by a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty; the result allowed Buffon to progress to his second career Champions League final with Juventus, 12 years after his last appearance. On 20 May, he won his first Coppa Italia title with Juventus, despite not featuring throughout the tournament that season. On 23 May, in his 900th career appearance, Buffon saved a Lorenzo Insigne penalty in a 3–1 home win over Napoli in Serie A. Buffon captained Juventus in the 2015 Champions League final as the Turin club were defeated 3–1 by Barcelona at Berlin's Olympiastadion. Buffon made the most saves throughout the tournament (39), and kept the most clean sheets (6), along with Danijel Subašić, Manuel Neuer and Marc-André ter Stegen. He was named to the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season for his performances throughout the tournament. On 15 July 2015, Buffon was named to the ten-man shortlist for the 2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. His save on Dani Alves in the Champions League final was also nominated for the UEFA Save of the Season Award, finishing on a tied third-place in the voting. #### 2015–16: Fifth consecutive Scudetto and record Serie A unbeaten streak On 8 August, Buffon kept a clean sheet as Juventus defeated Lazio 2–0 in the 2015 Supercoppa Italiana to win the title for a record seventh time. This was also Buffon's record sixth title, and his fifth with Juventus. On 12 August, it was announced that he placed fourth in the 2015 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. Buffon was named the first Juventus Player of the Month of the 2015–16 season for September by fans after a series of consistent performances. On 21 October 2015, Buffon overtook Alessandro Del Piero's record for most minutes played with Juventus in the 73rd minute of Juventus' 0–0 home draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach, in the Champions League group stage. In the return group fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 3 November, he made his 100th Champions League appearance, which ended in a 1–1 draw. On 21 November, he made his 552nd appearance for Juventus in a 1–0 home win over Milan, equalling Scirea as the club's second-highest appearance holder in all competitions, behind only Alessandro Del Piero. The following week, Buffon was nominated for the 2015 UEFA Team of the Year, also making his 100th appearance for Juventus in European Club Competitions in a 1–0 home win over Manchester City on 25 November. The following day, Buffon was included in the 55-player shortlist for the 2015 FIFPro World XI, despite having previously been omitted from the list of candidates for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or. On 4 December 2015, Buffon made his 400th Serie A appearance with Juventus in a 2–0 away win over Lazio. For his performances throughout the previous season, Buffon was named Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the tenth time in his career on 14 December, and subsequently to the 2015 Serie A Team of the Year. Later that month, he was named one of the three finalists for the Globe Soccer Player of the Year Award. On 6 January 2016, he placed second in the 2015 IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award, once again behind Manuel Neuer. On 28 February 2016, Buffon kept his eighth consecutive clean sheet in Serie A in a 2–0 win over Inter. In the process, he set a new personal best in the top flight, and the outright sixth-best unbeaten streak in the history of the Italian league, after going 746 minutes without conceding a goal in Serie A, overtaking Morgan De Sanctis and Marchegiani. In the following league match against Atalanta on 6 March, he extended his unbeaten record by keeping another clean sheet in a 2–0 away win, also equalling Dino Zoff's and Sebastiano Rossi's league record of nine consecutive clean sheets in Serie A. His unbeaten streak of 836 minutes without conceding a goal was the third best unbeaten streak in Serie A history, behind only Zoff and Rossi, and was also the longest period a goalkeeper has gone without conceding a goal since three points for a win were introduced in Serie A during the 1994–95 season. He overtook Zoff in a 1–0 home victory over Sassuolo on 11 March, achieving a league record 10 consecutive clean sheets, and extended his unbeaten streak to 926 minutes without conceding a goal, only three minutes behind the all-time record holder, Rossi; the last time he had conceded a goal was when he was beaten by Antonio Cassano, in the 64th minute of a 2–1 away win over Sampdoria, on 10 January 2016. Buffon surpassed Rossi's record of 929 minutes by 45 minutes in a 4–1 away win over inter-city rivals Torino on 20 March, also surpassing Gianpiero Combi's Italian league record unbeaten streak of 934 minutes in the process; he set the new all-time record at 974 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. Andrea Belotti finally ended his goalless streak by beating him from the penalty spot in the 48th minute of the same match. On 24 April, Buffon saved a late penalty from Nikola Kalinić to secure a 2–1 away victory over Fiorentina, his 13th penalty save in Serie A; following Napoli's defeat against Roma the following day, Juventus clinched their record fifth consecutive Serie A title with three games at hand. In addition to his decisive saves and record breaking unbeaten streak, Buffon was praised for his leadership, and his role in motivating the team following their defeat against Sassuolo on 28 October 2015, as Juventus subsequently went on a 25-match unbeaten streak to come back from 12th place after ten matches to win the title. For his key performances in helping Juventus capture the league title, Buffon was named the Juventus Player of the Month for April 2016. On 11 May, Buffon extended his contract until the end of the 2017–18 season. Throughout the 2015–16 season, Buffon had managed to equal his personal best of 21 clean sheets in a single league season, and was voted Juventus' Player of the Season. On 18 July, Buffon was included in the ten-man shortlist for the 2016 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, in which he finished sixth. #### 2016–17: Record sixth straight Scudetto and third Champions League Final On 11 October 2016, Buffon became the first goalkeeper ever to win the Golden Foot Award. Following his performances throughout the year, Buffon was included in the 30-man shortlist for the 2016 Ballon d'Or; he placed ninth alongside Pepe in the final ranking. In Juventus' fourth Champions League group match of the season on 2 November, a 1–1 home draw against Lyon, Buffon made his 100th Champions League appearance (excluding appearances in qualifying rounds), becoming the 29th player to reach this landmark. On 4 November, he was included in the 23-player shortlist for The 2016 Best FIFA Men's Player Award. On 6 November, Buffon earned his 600th Serie A appearance in a 2–1 away win against Chievo, the fourth player to reach this milestone. His performances saw him earn the Juventus Player of the Month Award for October 2016. On 21 November, Buffon was nominated for the UEFA Team of the Year for the ninth time his career, making him goalkeeper with the most nominations ever, alongside Iker Casillas. On 1 December, Buffon was nominated for the 2016 FIFPro World XI, making him the only player, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, to have been included in the shortlist every year since its inception in 2005. On 23 December, Buffon made his 600th competitive appearance for Juventus in the 2016 Supercoppa Italiana; following a 1–1 draw after extra time, Juventus lost 4–3 to Milan in a penalty shoot-out, although Buffon saved Gianluca Lapadula's initial spot kick. Buffon capped off the year by placing second in the 2016 IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award, finishing behind Neuer once again. On 5 January 2017, Buffon was named to the 2016 UEFA Team of the Year, becoming the oldest player ever to be named to the UEFA Team of the Year; this was also the fourth time he had been voted to the UEFA Team of the Year. On 9 January, it was announced Buffon had placed eighth in The 2016 Best FIFA Men's Player Award. On 30 January, Buffon was voted Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year for the 11th time, and named to the 2016 Serie A Team of the Year. On 17 February, Buffon made his 443rd Serie A appearance for Juventus in a 4–1 home win over Palermo, equalling Giampiero Boniperti as the club's all-time second highest appearance holder in the competition, behind only Del Piero. On 22 February, he made his 100th Champions League appearance for Juventus in the first leg of the club's round of 16 tie against Porto, keeping a clean sheet in the 2–0 away win. On 5 March, Buffon drew level with Totti as the joint third-highest appearance holder in Serie A after making his 612th appearance in the competition in a 1–1 away draw against Udinese. On 19 March, Buffon surpassed Boniperti as the all-time minute holder for a Juventus player in Serie A in the 66th minute of a 1–0 away win over Sampdoria. On 2 April, he equalled Javier Zanetti as the joint-second highest appearance holder of all time in Serie A, with his 615th Serie A appearance in a 1–1 away draw against Napoli. On 3 May, Buffon made his 100th appearance for Juventus in the UEFA Champions League (excluding appearances in the qualifying rounds) in a 2–0 away win against Monaco, in the first leg of the semi-finals of the competition; Buffon became only the second Italian player after Paolo Maldini to make 100 Champions League appearances for a single club, and marked the occasion with a clean sheet, his 47th overall in the competition, making him the goalkeeper with the third-highest number of Champions League clean sheets, alongside Čech, and behind only Casillas (57) and Van der Sar (50). This was the first time Juventus had managed to keep six consecutive clean sheets in a single edition of the tournament, the joint third-best number of consecutive clean sheets in a single Champions League season. On 9 May, Buffon made his 150th UEFA club appearance in a 2–1 home win over Monaco in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, making him the player with the ninth-most appearances in UEFA club matches, alongside Jamie Carragher. Juventus' 4–1 win on aggregate saw Buffon reach the third Champions League final of his career; Kylian Mbappé's second-half goal ended Buffon's goalless streak, which saw him set a new personal best of 600 minutes without conceding a goal in the Champions League, and put him fifth on the all-time table, while Juventus' overall unbeaten run of 690 minutes was the second-longest in the history of the competition. On 17 May 2017, Juventus won their 12th Coppa Italia title in a 2–0 win over Lazio, becoming the first team to win three consecutive cups. Buffon did not feature, as his usual back-up Neto was the club's starting goalkeeper in the competition. Four days later on 21 May, following a 3–0 win over Crotone, Juventus secured their sixth consecutive Serie A title, establishing an all-time record of successive triumphs in the competition; with his eighth Serie A title, Buffon equalled Virginio Rosetta, Giovanni Ferrari, and Giuseppe Furino as the player with the most Italian league title victories. On 3 June 2017, Juventus entered a second Champions League Final in three years, and the third final for Buffon, but were defeated 4–1 by defending champions Real Madrid. With his third Champions League final defeat, Buffon became the player with the most Champions League final appearances without a Champions League medal, alongside former Juventus teammates Paolo Montero and Alessio Tacchinardi. He was named in the UEFA Champions League squad of the season for the second time, and the tournament's best goalkeeper. #### 2017–2018: Final season of first spell with Juventus and seventh consecutive Scudetto On 12 June 2017, Buffon announced that the 2017–18 season would likely be his last with the club. On 4 August, Buffon was named one of the three finalists for the Goalkeeper of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League season award, along with Manuel Neuer and Jan Oblak. On 15 August, Buffon was also listed as one of the three finalists for the 2017 UEFA Best Player of the Year Award, along with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. On 19 August, Buffon made history by saving the first Serie A penalty awarded via VAR in a 3–0 home win over Cagliari in the club's opening league match of the season. On 24 August, he was named the best goalkeeper of the 2016–17 Champions League season, He also placed third in the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award, with 109 votes. On 23 October, Buffon won the inaugural 2017 Best FIFA Goalkeeper award, and was named to the FIFPro World XI for the third time in his career; he was also nominated for the 2017 Best FIFA Men's Player Award, finishing in fourth place in the voting. On 27 November, Buffon won the Serie A Footballer of the Year award, the first time a goalkeeper has won the award, along with the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award for the twelfth time, while being named to the Serie A Team of the Year for the fifth time in his career. On 3 December, he equalled Casillas by winning the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award for a record fifth time, and on 7 December, he placed fourth in the 2017 Ballon d'Or. Following Juventus' 1–0 away victory against fellow title contenders Napoli on 1 December, Buffon was ruled out of Juventus' final Champions League group match against Olympiacos four days later, after picking up a calf strain in the previous match, an injury which kept him sidelined for almost two months; was replaced by his deputy Wojciech Szczęsny in goal during his absence. On 11 January 2018, Buffon was named to the 2017 UEFA Team of the Year for the fifth time. Buffon returned to action on 30 January 2018, two days after his 40th birthday, keeping a clean sheet and saving a penalty from Alejandro Gómez to secure a 1–0 away win over Atalanta in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-finals; this was his first Coppa Italia appearance in over five years, while his penalty save was the 30th of his career, excluding those made in shoot-outs, and his first ever in regulation time in the competition. He made his 500th league appearance with Juventus — including both Serie A and Serie B matches — on 9 February, in a 2–0 away win over Fiorentina. After Juventus lost 3–0 to Real Madrid at home in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on 3 April, Buffon helped Juventus keep a 3–0 away lead in the second leg on 11 April, until the 93rd minute when he was sent off for dissent after a confrontation with referee Michael Oliver who awarded an injury time penalty to Real Madrid; Szczęsny was forced to be substituted in, with the resulting penalty kick converted by Cristiano Ronaldo for a final 4–3 aggregate loss. On 9 May, Buffon kept a clean sheet, his 300th clean sheet with Juventus, and his 383rd at club level, in a 4–0 win over Milan in the 2018 Coppa Italia Final; this was Juventus' fourth consecutive Coppa Italia title. On 11 May, Buffon was charged by UEFA over post-match comments made about referee Oliver. On 13 May, Buffon won his record seventh straight Scudetto, following a 0–0 draw with Roma in Juventus' penultimate match of the season while an unused substitute; with this league victory, he became the first player ever to win nine Serie A titles. On 17 May, with one league match still left, Buffon announced in a press conference that he would leave Juventus at the end of the season. On 19 May, after 17 seasons with the club, Buffon played his 656th and final match with Juventus, the last match of the season at home against Hellas Verona. He started in goal, and was later substituted in the 64th minute by debutant Carlo Pinsoglio as he received a standing ovation with the score 2–0 in favour of Juventus; the match later ended in a 2–1 victory. On 5 June, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body gave Buffon a three-match ban for UEFA competition matches "for which he would be otherwise eligible", after his post-match comments about referee Oliver in the season's Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid. On 30 June, the final day of his Juventus contract, Buffon bid the club farewell with a post on Twitter: > "Seventeen years in black and white [officially] end today. Seventeen years of friends, team-mates, tears, victories, [defeats,] trophies, words, anger, disappointments, happiness and many, many emotions. I will never forget anything. I will always carry everything with me." ### Paris Saint-Germain On 6 July 2018, Buffon signed a one-year contract, with the option for a second year, with Paris Saint-Germain. He made his competitive debut for PSG on 4 August, keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 win against Monaco in the 2018 Trophée des Champions. Buffon made his Ligue 1 debut on 12 August, keeping a clean sheet in a 3–0 home win over Caen. He was used in a rotational role with Alphonse Areola during the 2018–19 season by manager Thomas Tuchel. After serving a three-match ban in UEFA club competitions, Buffon started for PSG in a 1–1 away draw against Napoli on 6 November, and was beaten by an Insigne penalty; at the age of 40 years and 282 days, he became the second-oldest player ever to make their Champions League debut for a club after Mark Schwarzer, who made his debut in the competition with Chelsea in a 1–0 home victory over Steaua București on 11 December 2013, aged 41 years and 65 days. On 18 December, following an injury to Areola, Buffon played the second half of an eventual 2–1 away win over Orléans in the round of 16 of the Coupe de la Ligue. PSG were eliminated from the competition in the following round after a surprise 2–1 home defeat to Guingamp on 9 January 2019, during which Buffon remained on the bench. On 12 February, Buffon kept his 50th Champions League clean sheet in a 2–0 away win over Manchester United, becoming only the third goalkeeper to reach this milestone after Iker Casillas (57) and Edwin van der Sar (51). He also made his 121st Champions League appearance – excluding qualifying rounds – during the same match, which made him the player with the tenth-most appearances of all time in the competition. In the return leg in Paris on 6 March, Buffon came under criticism in the media for committing an error with the score tied 1–1, after he spilled Marcus Rashford's long-range shot, thus allowing Romelu Lukaku to score from the rebound and send United into the lead; following an injury-time goal from a penalty by Rashford, Manchester United completed a comeback to win the match 3–1, advancing to the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals. PSG finished the season as Ligue 1 champions, which saw Buffon win his tenth league title of his career, the most of any Italian player. PSG later lost 6–5 on penalties to Rennes in the 2019 Coupe de France Final, following a 2–2 draw after extra time, although Buffon did not appear during the final. On 5 June, it was confirmed that he was leaving the club after one season. ### Return to Juventus #### 2019–2021: record-breaking appearances On 4 July 2019, after a season away from Juventus, Buffon signed a one-year contract with the club. Upon arrival, he was offered the number 1 shirt by Wojciech Szczęsny and the captaincy by Giorgio Chiellini, but he turned them down, saying "I didn't come back to take something from someone or take it back...I just want to do my bit for the team". Instead, he chose to wear number 77; the same number he had worn during his final season at Parma, before joining Juventus in 2001. He made his first appearance since his return to the club on 21 September, in a 2–1 home win over Verona in Serie A; this was his 902nd career club appearance, which equalled Paolo Maldini's record as the Italian player with the most career club appearances. On 28 September, he overtook Maldini with his 903rd appearance in a 2–0 home win over SPAL in Serie A. On 30 October 2019, Buffon made his 513th league appearance for Juventus (including Serie B matches) in a 2–1 home win over Genoa in Serie A, equalling Del Piero as the player with the most league appearances for the club. On 11 December, he kept his 51st Champions League clean sheet (excluding those in the qualifying rounds) in a 2–0 away win over Bayer Leverkusen in Juventus' final group match of the campaign, equalling Van der Sar as the goalkeeper with the second-most clean sheets ever in the competition, behind only Iker Casillas. On 15 December, he made his 700th Italian league appearance in a 3–1 home win over Udinese; during the same match, he also made his 478th Serie A appearance for Juventus, which saw him equal Del Piero as the player with the most appearances in the competition for the club. On 18 December, in a 2–1 away win over Sampdoria, Buffon made his 479th Serie A appearance for Juventus, surpassing Del Piero's appearance record for the club in the Italian top flight, as well as making his 647th overall Serie A appearance, tying Maldini as the player with the most appearances in the competition. On 13 February 2020, Buffon made nine saves in a 1–1 away draw against Milan in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-finals. He started in the final against Napoli on 17 June, keeping a clean sheet and making a series of injury-time saves to keep the score tied at 0–0; however, Juventus suffered a 4–2 defeat in the resulting penalty shoot-out, with Buffon unable to save any spot kicks. On 29 June, Buffon signed a new contract with Juventus, extending until June 2021. On 4 July, he made his 648th appearance in Serie A in a 4–1 home win over rivals Torino, overtaking Maldini as the most capped player of all time in the competition, also becoming the most capped player in Europe's top five leagues with 665 appearances, including his 17 Ligue 1 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain during the 2018–19 season. On 17 October, Buffon made his first appearance of the 2020–21 season, starting in a 1–1 away draw against Crotone. On 8 December, Buffon kept a clean sheet by saving seven shots, all of them taken by Messi, in a 3–0 away win over Barcelona in Juventus' final group match of the campaign. Buffon became the first goalkeeper to ever record a Champions League clean sheet in four different decades. Messi's seven shots on target were also the most recorded without scoring in the Champions League since the 2002–03 edition. On 11 May 2021, Buffon announced that he would leave Juventus at the end of the season. The following day, Buffon saved Domenico Berardi's penalty in a 3–1 away victory against Sassuolo, becoming the oldest Serie A goalkeeper to do so at the age of . On 19 May, he started in Juventus's 2–1 victory over Atalanta in the 2021 Coppa Italia Final, his final and 685th appearance for the club; after the match, he was given the honour of lifting the title, the sixth of his career, equalling Roberto Mancini as the player with the most title victories. ### Return to Parma and retirement On 17 June 2021, after days of speculation following his departure from Juventus, newly-relegated Parma announced the return of Buffon through a short video posted on the club's official Twitter account. Upon winning the Coppa Italia in his last season at Juventus, many expected that it was going to be the end of his career. Instead, he announced that he was going to join his boyhood club and this marked 20 years since he left Parma for Juventus in 2001. On 20 August 2021, Buffon made his first appearance, conceding a late equaliser in a 2–2 away draw against Frosinone. On 5 February 2022, following a 0–0 away draw against Benevento in Serie B, Buffon became the first goalkeeper ever in men's association football to keep 500 clean sheets (322 with Juventus, 92 with Parma, 9 with PSG and 77 with Italy). On 28 February, Parma announced Buffon's contract extension until 2024, which would have kept him playing until the age of 46. On 2 August 2023, at the age of 45 and after a 28-year playing career, Buffon announced his retirement from professional football. ## International career ### Youth career, early call-ups and Euro 2000 qualification Buffon represented Italy at all youth levels, from the under-16 side to the under-23 side, as well as the Olympic side in 1996. With the Italy under-16 side, he reached the final of the 1993 UEFA European Under-16 Championship, saving two penalties and even scoring one himself in the quarter-final shootout victory over Spain, and subsequently saving three penalties – but also missing one himself – in the semi-final shootout victory over Czechoslovakia. With the Italy U-17 side he took part at the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Japan. In 1995, he reached the final of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship with the Italian U-19 side. He was most notably a member of Italy's 1996 UEFA European Under-21 Championship-winning squad. Buffon was a member of the Italy squad that won the gold medal for football at the 1997 Mediterranean Games in Bari, on home soil. Buffon currently holds the record for the most clean sheets with the Italian national side. Buffon was awarded his first cap for Italy's senior team under Cesare Maldini on 29 October 1997, at the age of 19 years and 9 months (), as an injury replacement for Gianluca Pagliuca during the first leg of the 1998 World Cup qualification play-off against Russia, in Moscow; with this cap, Buffon became the youngest goalkeeper to feature for Italy post-World War II. This record was beaten by Gianluigi Donnarumma on 1 September 2016. Buffon came on in the 31st minute and made notable saves under snowy conditions in a 1–1 away draw, including an important stop from a Dmitri Alenichev shot, only being beaten by a Fabio Cannavaro own goal. The result helped Italy to qualify for the upcoming World Cup 2–1 on aggregate. He was a member of the squad for the 1998 World Cup finals, initially as the third choice goalkeeper; after an injury to starting goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi, Buffon was promoted to second-choice goalkeeper behind Pagliuca, with Francesco Toldo being called up as third-choice, but Buffon did not play a single game in the tournament. Italy were eliminated in the quarter-finals on penalties to hosts and eventual 1998 World Cup champions France. Buffon became the first choice goalkeeper during the Euro 2000 qualifying campaign and was due to start in goal during the finals under manager and former Italy goalkeeping legend Dino Zoff, but he broke his hand while attempting to stop John Carew's goal in a 1–0 defeat against Norway in a warm up game just a few days before Italy's opening match of the tournament against Turkey. His starting place was taken by backup goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, and Christian Abbiati was called up as a replacement third keeper, with Francesco Antonioli being promoted to second goalkeeper. Italy reached the final of the tournament, losing once again to France. ### World Cup and European Championship debut Francesco Toldo's impressive performances at Euro 2000 meant that he retained his place in the first team for the beginning of Italy's 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. In spite of heavy competition from Toldo, Buffon regained the starting goalkeeping spot for the fourth match of the qualification series, away to Romania, and was the starting goalkeeper for the remaining four matches under Giovanni Trapattoni as Italy qualified with an unbeaten record. Buffon played every minute of Italy's 2002 World Cup campaign, keeping a clean sheet in the opening match against Ecuador, and saving a controversial penalty against co-hosts South Korea in the round of 16, which was not enough to stop the under-performing side from being eliminated by a golden goal in extra time. He also featured in every match at Euro 2004, keeping a clean sheet in his nation's opening 0–0 draw against Denmark, although Italy, despite not losing a match, once again underperformed, and were eliminated in the first round on direct encounters following a three-way, five-point tie with Sweden and Denmark. ### 2006 World Cup champion Buffon was once again the first choice goalkeeper under his former Juventus coach and Trapattoni's replacement Marcello Lippi, as Italy finished first in their 2006 World Cup qualifying group. Although his place in Italy's 2006 World Cup was initially in doubt, as he was being investigated for possible involvement in the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, he was later named by Lippi as Italy's starting goalkeeper for the tournament. During the 2006 World Cup finals, Buffon was in excellent form, setting a World Cup record by conceding just two goals in seven matches, and keeping five clean sheets. In addition, he posted a 453-minute scoreless streak, only 64 minutes short of compatriot Walter Zenga's all-time unbeaten record from the 1990 World Cup. The only goals he conceded were not in open play; an own goal by teammate Cristian Zaccardo after a free-kick against the United States in Italy's second match of the group stage, and a Zinedine Zidane penalty in the final against France. In the final, Buffon later made an important save in extra time on a header from eventual Golden Ball winner Zidane, which Buffon later described as the most important save of his career. The match ended 1–1 after extra time and was followed by a penalty shootout in which neither Buffon nor Fabien Barthez saved a spot kick. The lone miss was David Trezeguet's effort which hit the bottom of the crossbar and failed to cross the line, enabling Italy's Fabio Grosso to seal the victory for Italy. Buffon was named Man of the Match in Italy's 1–0 victory over Australia in the round of 16, and later also received the Yashin Award as the best goalkeeper of the tournament, producing 40 saves, and was elected to the Team of the Tournament. Buffon also finished second to compatriot Fabio Cannavaro in the 2006 Ballon d'Or and eighth in the FIFA World Player of the Year for his performances that season, and was named in the 2006 FIFPro World XI and the 2006 UEFA Team of the Year. In 2013, Nick Miller of ESPN FC named Buffon's save against Lukas Podolski in Italy's 2–0 victory against hosts Germany in the semi-finals as one of the greatest in World Cup history, placing it at number nine in his list of "World Cup's greatest ever saves". In 2019, Diario AS placed the latter save at number eight in their collection of "The 10 greatest saves of all time". ### Post-World Cup victory Buffon wore the captain's armband for Italy for the first time under manager Roberto Donadoni, in a 2–0 home win over Georgia in a Euro 2008 qualifier, due to the suspension of regular skipper Fabio Cannavaro. He was later named Italy's second acting captain for Euro 2008 after incumbent Cannavaro was ruled out of the tournament due to injury, and as Italy's replacement captain Alessandro Del Piero was frequently deployed as a substitute. He made his first appearance as Italy's captain in the nation's opening fixture of Euro 2008 on 9 June, a 3–0 defeat to the Netherlands. In the second game of the group stage against Romania on 13 June, he saved an 81st-minute penalty from Adrian Mutu to keep Italy's hopes alive following their opening defeat, as the match ended 1–1. Buffon kept a clean sheet against France in the final group game, and garnered praise in the media for a notable save against Karim Benzema, as Italy won 2–0 to advance to the quarter-finals. Italy were eliminated nine days later, when a 0–0 draw after extra time led to a 4–2 penalty shootout loss to eventual champions Spain; Buffon saved one penalty in the shootout and was elected to the Team of the Tournament for his performances. Upon Marcello Lippi's return, Buffon was confirmed as the starting goalkeeper. He played all three group matches during Italy's disappointing 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup campaign in South Africa, in which they finished third in their group in three-way three-point tie. He earned his 100th cap on 14 November 2009 in a friendly match against the Netherlands. He was a key player in Italy's World Cup qualifying campaign as they finished top of their group, undefeated. In the 2010 World Cup, Buffon was replaced at half-time in Italy's 1–1 draw in their opening group stage match against Paraguay after he had a problem with his sciatic nerve. He did not play again in the tournament and was substituted by Federico Marchetti. Reigning champions Italy disappointed and failed to win a match, finishing last in their group with just two points earned. Lippi was dismissed after Italy's premature elimination from the World Cup. ### Italy captain and Euro 2012 runner-up After the international retirement of Fabio Cannavaro, Buffon became the new captain of the national team under new manager Cesare Prandelli. On 9 February 2011, after recovering from a back injury, Buffon played his first game as Italy's official captain in a 1–1 friendly draw against Germany in Dortmund. On 6 September 2011, after a 1–0 Italy win over Slovenia, Buffon surpassed Dino Zoff and established the new record for most minutes without conceding a goal in European Championship qualifying matches, going 644 minutes without conceding a goal; the win also allowed Italy to qualify for Euro 2012. On 11 October, prior to Italy's 3–0 win in a European qualifier against Northern Ireland, Buffon received a commemorative cap and medal from UEFA to mark his 100th international appearance; regarding his achievement, he commented: "I feel I'm entering the football nobility today and I'm happy to celebrate this milestone while still playing". On 15 November 2011, in a friendly match against Uruguay, Buffon surpassed Zoff's number of caps for Italy (112), putting him behind only the retired former Italian captains Cannavaro and Paolo Maldini; he overtook Zoff in Italy's next friendly match against the United States on 29 February 2012. He was subsequently selected as Italy's starting goalkeeper and captain for Euro 2012 after leading his national side to qualify for the tournament undefeated, only conceding two goals. At Euro 2012, Buffon acted as captain during the entire tournament. He kept a clean sheet against the Republic of Ireland in the third group stage match and against England, saving a crucial penalty from Ashley Cole in the quarter-final shootout, in which he was elected man of the match. In the semi-final match against Germany, Buffon made several important saves, only being beaten by a penalty from Mesut Özil in the 92nd minute. Italy won the match 2–1 and advanced to the final against defending European and World champions Spain, with whom Italy had drawn 1–1 in the opening group stage match, only having conceded three goals; the semi-final victory qualified Italy for the 2013 Confederations Cup, as Spain had previously won the 2010 World Cup. Italy were beaten 4–0 in the final as Spain claimed a record third consecutive major trophy, and their second consecutive European Championship title. Buffon was once again elected to the Team of the Tournament for his performances. ### 2014 World Cup qualifying and 2013 Confederations Cup On 26 March 2013, in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match against Malta, Buffon earned his 126th cap for Italy, equalling Paolo Maldini's number of caps for the national team. In the same match, Buffon saved a penalty from Michael Mifsud, helping Italy to a 2–0 away win. Buffon was included in the Italian squad for the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil and played in every match of the tournament as captain. On 16 June 2013, he featured in Italy's opening 2–1 win against Mexico, where he was beaten only by a Javier Hernández penalty. In the next game, on 19 June 2013 against Japan, the referee awarded Japan a penalty in the 20th minute of the first half when he declared that Shinji Okazaki had been brought down by Buffon after a misplaced back pass by Mattia De Sciglio; Buffon received a yellow card. The squad's eventual 4–3 win allowed Italy to progress to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time, where they were to face Spain in a rematch of the Euro 2012 final. After a 0–0 draw, they lost 7–6 in the resulting penalty shootout. Although both Buffon and Spanish counterpart Iker Casillas had managed to keep a clean sheet throughout the match, neither goalkeeper was able to stop a penalty in the shootout; the lone miss, by Leonardo Bonucci, was hit over bar. In the third-place match, Italy defeated Uruguay 3–2 in the penalty shootout after a 2–2 deadlock following extra time. Buffon saved three penalties; those taken by Diego Forlán, Juventus teammate Martín Cáceres and Walter Gargano. On 6 September 2013, Buffon earned his 135th cap for Italy in the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria. This cap put him at only one cap from record appearance holder Fabio Cannavaro. Buffon kept a clean sheet for Italy in the 1–0 win and was praised for making several saves, earning the man of the match award. The win allowed Italy to move seven points clear in their qualifying group. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying fixture against the Czech Republic, at Juventus Stadium in Turin on 10 September 2013, Buffon equalled Cannavaro as the Italian national team record appearance holder, with 136 caps. Italy won the match 2–1, allowing them to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as top of their group, with two games at hand; this was the first time that the Italian squad had done so. On 11 October 2013, in a 2–2 World Cup qualifier draw against Denmark, Buffon surpassed Cannavaro, becoming the sole record appearance holder for Italy, with 137. On 2 January 2014, Buffon was awarded the 2013 Pallone Azzurro award, which is given to the Italian national side's best player of the year. ### 2014 World Cup On 12 May, Buffon was named in Italy's 31-man preliminary World Cup squad by Cesare Prandelli, and on 31 May, he was named the starting goalkeeper and captain in the final squad. Italy were placed in Group D, in the so-called "group of death", or "group of champions", with Costa Rica, England and Uruguay. Buffon became the third player to be part of five World Cup squads, tying the records held by Mexican goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal and German footballer Lothar Matthäus. Due to an ankle injury suffered in training, Buffon was not selected to start in Italy's first match of the World Cup against England on 14 June 2014; he was replaced by Salvatore Sirigu. Andrea Pirlo captained the team in his absence, as Italy won the match 2–1. In Italy's next group match, which ended in a 1–0 loss to Costa Rica, he captained his national side for the first time at a World Cup, the fourth World Cup in which he appeared. In Italy's final group game against Uruguay, Buffon saved shots from Luis Suárez and Nicolás Lodeiro, as Italy were reduced to ten men following Claudio Marchisio's controversial red card. Buffon was eventually beaten in the 81st minute by a Diego Godín header, moments after Luis Suárez's bite on Giorgio Chiellini. Buffon was voted man of the match for his performance. Italy finished in third place in their group, and were eliminated in the group stage for a second consecutive World Cup. ### Euro 2016 Buffon made his first appearance for Italy under new manager Antonio Conte on 9 September 2014, captaining his team in their opening European Championship qualifying match against Norway in Oslo. He kept a clean sheet as Italy won the match 2–0. On 12 June 2015, Buffon became the first player to appear in 50 UEFA competitive international matches in Italy's 1–1 away draw against Croatia in a European qualifying match. Buffon saved an early Mario Mandžukić penalty, but was taken off at half time and replaced by Salvatore Sirigu due to an injury. He made his 150th appearance for Italy on 6 September 2015, keeping a clean sheet in a home 1–0 win over Bulgaria, his 62nd clean sheet at the international level. Italy qualified for Euro 2016 on 10 October in a 3–1 win over Azerbaijan. After the Euro qualification, Buffon stated that Euro 2016 would be the final European Championship of his career, but expressed his intentions to retire only after the 2018 World Cup, which would see him play up to the age of 40. On 31 May 2016, Buffon was named the captain of Conte's 23-man Italy squad for Euro 2016. In Italy's first game of the tournament on 13 June, Buffon kept a clean sheet in a 2–0 victory over Belgium. This was Buffon's 14th appearance at the European Championships, making him Italy's out-right most capped player of all-time in the tournament, after overtaking Maldini, Del Piero and Cassano; with his fourth tournament appearance, he also equalled Del Piero for the most UEFA European Championships played in by an Italian player. He kept another clean sheet in a 1–0 win over Sweden in Italy's second group fixture on 17 June, which allowed his nation to top the group and advance to the second round, although he was later booked in injury time for time-wasting. Due to a bout of fever, Buffon was rested in Italy's final group match on 22 June, a 1–0 defeat against the Republic of Ireland, and was replaced by deputy Salvatore Sirigu. He returned to the starting line-up for his nation's round of 16 fixture against Spain on 27 June, making a crucial injury time save on Gerard Piqué to earn his third consecutive clean sheet of the tournament, as Italy avenged their Euro 2012 final defeat with a 2–0 victory over the defending champions. After a 1–1 draw following extra time in Italy's quarter-final fixture against Germany on 2 July, Buffon saved one penalty in the resulting shoot-out, although the reigning World Cup champions would ultimately emerge victorious following a 6–5 shoot-out loss. His one on one save to deny Mario Gómez in regulation time was later nominated for the UEFA Save of the Season Award. By the end of the following month, his nominated save on Gómez finished third with 14% of the votes. ### 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, retirement and brief return On 6 October 2016, Buffon made his 164th appearance for Italy in a 1–1 draw against Spain in a 2018 World Cup qualifying match in Turin, under manager Gian Piero Ventura, making him the joint eighth-most capped international player of all time with Cobi Jones, and the second-most capped active international player, behind only Iker Casillas. On 15 November 2016, Buffon won his 167th Italy cap in their friendly 0–0 draw in Milan against Germany, equalling the European international appearance record jointly held by Iker Casillas and Vitālijs Astafjevs, and making him the most capped active international player in the world alongside Casillas. On 1 January 2017, Buffon was awarded the 2016 Pallone Azzurro Award, as Italy's best international player throughout the calendar year, becoming the first player to win the award more than once. On 24 March, Buffon made his 1,000th career appearance, keeping a clean sheet (his 426th overall for club and country) in a 2–0 home over Albania in a World Cup qualifier, becoming the eighteenth player to reach this milestone; in the process, he also became the sole most capped European player at international level, with his 168th appearance for Italy, and the joint fifth-most capped male international footballer of all time, alongside Iván Hurtado. On 2 September, Buffon made his 170th international appearance in a 3–0 away defeat to Spain in a World Cup qualifier; he later extended his European international appearance record with his 172nd appearance for Italy on 6 October, in a 1–1 home draw against Macedonia in a 2018 World Cup qualifier, making him the fourth-most capped male international footballer of all time, ahead of Egyptian striker Hossam Hassan (169 caps), and behind only Egyptian midfielder Ahmed Hassan (184 caps), Saudi Arabian goalkeeper Mohamed Al-Deayea (178 caps), and Mexican defender Claudio Suárez (177 caps). Buffon's 175th international appearance came on 13 November, in the second leg of the World Cup play-offs against Sweden, at the San Siro Stadium in Milan. Although he kept a clean sheet in the 0–0 draw, Italy's 1–0 away loss in the first leg on 10 November saw Sweden advance on aggregate, meaning that Italy had failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years. Although he had originally intended to retire after competing in the 2018 World Cup, following the match and Italy's failure to qualify the tournament, an emotional and tearful Buffon communicated his retirement from international football, stating: "I'm not sorry for myself but all of Italian football. We failed at something which also means something on a social level. There's regret at finishing like that, not because time passes. There is certainly a future for Italian football, as we have pride, ability, determination and after bad tumbles, we always find a way to get back on our feet." He later confirmed his international retirement on social media, tweeting from the national team's official account: "We are proud, we are strong, we are stubborn. We will pick ourselves up as we have always done. I am leaving a national team set-up that will know how to pick itself up again. Best wishes to everybody, and especially to those with whom I have shared this beautiful journey." After winning the Serie A Footballer of the Year Award later that month, Buffon hinted that he could possibly play for Italy again, stating: "I took a break from the national team. I'm of a certain age, so it's right for me to take a pause. With the way I am though, both for Juventus and for the national team I have always considered myself a soldier, so I could never desert a possible call in the future if needed. Even at 60, if there were a total absence of goalkeepers and they asked me to come back, I'd be there, because I have in me the concept of nation." On 17 March 2018, despite Buffon's initial decision to retire, he was called up for Italy's March friendlies against Argentina and England by caretaker manager Luigi Di Biagio. When asked why he had accepted a call-up after initially announcing his international retirement, he responded: "I'm a consistent person, who feels a great sense of responsibility, that alone is enough to explain my presence. In addition, I've always been an unifying element in the national set-up, and I'd like my presence to be seen in this way. The young lads will grow, some already have, and from tomorrow they'll get their chance," and "I am here for Astori [a former international teammate of Buffon's who had recently died from a heart attack] as well, it's another reason why I wanted to be here." On 23 March, Buffon started in goal for Italy for the 176th time, in a friendly against Argentina, and also surpassed Cannavaro to become the record appearance holder as Italy captain, with 80; Italy were defeated by Argentina 2–0. On 17 May 2018, Buffon announced in a press conference with Juventus that he would not return to the national team for its May and June friendlies. ## Player profile ### Style of play and reception Since his emergence as a precocious talent in his youth, Buffon was renowned for his consistent performances throughout his career, and received praise from managers, players, as well as both present and former goalkeeping colleagues, for his concentration and calm composure under pressure, as well as his work-rate, and longevity. Regarded as one of the best players ever in his position, he was often considered to be the archetype of the modern goalkeeper, and has been cited by many other subsequent goalkeepers as a major influence and role model. He was described as "an agile, strong, and commanding shot-stopper, who is hugely experienced at the highest level" and "an accomplished and well respected keeper" with an "[e]xcellent positional sense, courage, power and class". Buffon was praised for his athleticism, his "outstanding shot-stopping", his acrobatic dives, and his quick reflexes, as well as his ability to produce decisive saves, despite being a tall, large and physically imposing goalkeeper. Although he at times was criticised for not being particularly adept at stopping penalties, he was also proven to be effective in this area, as demonstrated by his penalty-saving record; with sixteen saves, he has stopped the joint-fifth-highest number of penalties in Serie A history, alongside Giuseppe Moro. In his prime, Buffon was a talented, complete, brave, aggressive, and often instinctive and frenetic goalkeeper, who was recognised for his speed, prowess, and anticipation when coming off his line in one on one situations, as well as his confidence, goalkeeping technique, reactions, and ability to get to ground quickly to collect, parry, or even challenge for the ball with his feet; when playing in teams that relied upon high defensive lines and a zonal marking system, he often functioned as a sweeper-keeper, frequently rushing out of his area to clear the ball or face opponents who had beaten the offside trap. He was also highly regarded for his handling, aerial ability, and command of the area on high balls; however, throughout his career, Buffon was occasionally accused by pundits of being overly cautious on crosses and of not always coming out to collect them, and also drew criticism for preferring to punch the ball out to his teammates at times rather than holding on to it. Although not as adept with the ball at his feet as the newer generation of goalkeepers that emerged in his later career, Buffon also possessed good footwork, as well as reliable distribution, which enabled him to adapt to more contemporary systems requiring goalkeepers to play with their feet more frequently and be involved in the build-up of plays. His confidence in possession allowed him to play the ball out from the back on the ground to his defenders and start swift counter-attacks, as well as find his teammates further up the pitch or out on the wing with deeper kicks with his right foot. In his youth, his ball skills even occasionally led him to take on opponents, whenever he was put under pressure by on-running strikers. After struggling with a series of injuries between 2008 and 2010, Buffon effectively adapted his style of goalkeeping to the physical effects of ageing, while also modifying his diet and training regime, and as a result, developed into a less spectacular, but more efficient, calm, and reflective goalkeeper; despite the loss of some of his physical strength, explosiveness, speed and mobility, he continued to excel at the highest level due to the consistency of his performances, as well as his positioning between the posts, tactical intelligence, decision-making, and his ability to read the game and organise his defence. In contrast with his goalkeeping style in his early career, Buffon often preferred to position himself in deeper areas closer to his line in his later career, particularly in one-on-one situations, in order to increase the distance between himself and his opponent, giving himself more time to assess situations and parry the ball. In addition to his goalkeeping abilities, Buffon was singled out for his charisma, strong mentality, discipline in training, vocal presence in goal, and leadership, and was described as "a key dressing room personality". ### Legacy Buffon is widely regarded by players, pundits and managers as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and by some in the sport as the greatest ever. In the introduction of his 2008 autobiography, Numero 1 (Number 1), Roberto Perrone describes him as: "the greatest goalkeeper in the world, one of the four or five that will always live on in the memory of world football". In 2012, he was voted the 20th best footballer in the world by The Guardian, finishing as the second-highest ranked goalkeeper, behind Iker Casillas. Buffon was awarded the Nereo Rocco Prize on 2 September 2014, which is given to a footballer in recognition of their career. In 2015, France Football rated him as one of the ten best footballers in the world over the age of 36. In 2016, he was named the greatest goalkeeper in history by the same magazine. Later that year, he was also voted the UEFA Champions League's greatest goalkeeper of all time in an official UEFA online Twitter poll. In 2015, UEFA ranked Buffon as the third-best player ever not to have won the Champions League, while in 2019, FourFourTwo placed Buffon at number two behind only Ronaldo in their list of "The 25 best players never to win the Champions League". In May 2020, Sky Sports ranked him as the fourth-best player ever to have not won the Champions League or European Cup, and he was also voted the "Greatest Goalkeeper Ever" by users of Eurosport.com. ### Attire Although when he started his career it was more common for goalkeepers to wear long-sleeved jerseys, Buffon was always known for wearing short-sleeves throughout his entire career, even during the winter months; when asked in a 2017 interview with FourFourTwo why he preferred to wear short sleeves, he commented: "I really don't know why. It's just something that I've always done, right from the time I first started playing in goal. It always felt good. And now look: lots of goalkeepers do it. I've started a fashion." When asked again about his goalkeeping attire in a 2018 interview with L'Équipe's magazine Sports et Style, he stated that he first cut the sleeves off of his goalkeeping kit as a youngster, "for convenience and to feel more comfortable", also adding that he "feel[s] more when the ball touches [his] forearms". ## Outside of professional football ### Personal life Buffon was born into a family of Italian athletes on 28 January 1978. His mother, Maria Stella, was a discus thrower and his father, Adriano, was a weightlifter. Following their athletic retirement, they subsequently worked as P.E. school teachers. Buffon's two sisters, Veronica and Guendalina, played volleyball for the Italian national volleyball team, and his uncle, Dante Masocco, was a basketball player in Serie A1, who also represented the national team. Former Milan, Inter, and Italy goalkeeper Lorenzo Buffon is also a cousin of Gianluigi Buffon's grandfather. Buffon is Catholic. Buffon married Czech model Alena Šeredová in June 2011, although they had been in a relationship since 2005. They have two children, Louis Thomas (born in 2007 and named after Buffon's idol Thomas N'Kono) and David Lee (born in 2009 and named after Van Halen singer David Lee Roth). In May 2014, Buffon announced that he had separated from his wife after three years of marriage. He was soon romantically linked to Italian sports pundit, journalist and television host Ilaria D'Amico. In 2015, Buffon announced that the couple were expecting a child together. On 6 January 2016, the couple announced the birth of their son Leopoldo Mattia. In the summer of 2017, the pair became engaged. Prior to his relationship with and marriage to Šeredová, Buffon had also previously been engaged to a sprinter from the Italy national athletics team, Vincenza Calì. On 14 November 2008, Buffon released the Italian edition of his autobiography, Numero 1 (Number 1), which was written in collaboration with writer and Corriere della Sera journalist Roberto Perrone. In his autobiography, he revealed that he had suffered with bouts of depression during the 2003–04 season, following Juventus' penalty shoot-out defeat in the 2003 Champions League final, and due to Juventus' negative performance that season. In 2013, he elaborated that, between December 2003 and June 2004, he regularly visited a psychologist, but refused to take medication, and he overcame his depression prior to Euro 2004. In January 2019, he further revealed that he had even suffered from panic attacks due to his depression during his early career with Juventus, and that he even missed a game as a result. Buffon suffers from spheksophobia, as he is allergic to wasp stings. In his youth, Buffon supported a number of clubs, including his hometown club Carrarese, along with Genoa, and German side Borussia Mönchengladbach; up until the age of seven, he also supported Juventus, while between the ages of eight and twelve, he was a fan of Inter – due to his admiration for manager Giovanni Trapattoni – as well as Pescara, Como, Avellino, and Campobasso, before eventually supporting Genoa. He was a member of the ultras of Carrarese, specifically the "Commando Ultrà Indian Tips", and to this day, he still has the group's name printed on his goalkeeping gloves. ### AIC On 7 May 2012, Buffon was elected vice-president of the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC); this was the first time an active footballer had held this position. ### FIGC On 5 August 2023, Buffon was appointed head of delegation of the Italy national team. ### Media and endorsements Buffon was sponsored by German sportswear company Puma during his career, wearing Puma gloves and Puma King football boots, and has appeared in Puma commercials. Buffon has also featured in Pepsi commercials, including an advertisement for the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, where he lined up alongside several other footballers, including David Beckham, Raúl and Roberto Carlos, in taking on a team of sumo players. In 2009, Buffon, an avid poker player and gambler, was hired by PokerStars to endorse their products. Buffon was featured on the cover of the Italian edition of Konami's PES 2008, alongside global coverstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Buffon also features in EA Sports' FIFA video game series, and was named alongside Manuel Neuer, Iker Casillas and Petr Čech in the Ultimate Team Best Goalkeepers in FIFA 14. In 2011, he featured in a commercial for Italian mineral water company Ferrarelle. In 2016, Buffon was chosen as the new face of Amica Chips. The following year, he was instead chosen as the new face of Head & Shoulders in Italy. Throughout the 2017–18 season, Buffon appeared in the Netflix docu-series First Team: Juventus. In May 2018, Buffon announced his partnership with the video game World of Tanks. Late that same year, he also featured in a commercial for Birra Moretti. In December 2019, Buffon announced his collaboration with the Spanish clothing and accessories retailer Kimoa, which is owned by Spanish race car driver Fernando Alonso, to release four different limited edition models of sunglasses, which represent four European cities associated with Buffon's football career and achievements: Berlin (the location of the victorious 2006 World Cup final), Moscow (the city in which he made his international debut and won the UEFA Cup), Paris (the city in which his former club PSG is based), and Turin (the city in which his club at the time, Juventus, is based). In January 2020, Buffon made a cameo appearance in the music video for "Ti saprò aspettare" by Biagio Antonacci, where he coaches a children's football team against Antonacci as the opposing coach. In the last scene, Buffon takes a shot on Antonacci as goalkeeper, with the video intentionally stopping before the ball is either scored or saved. ### Business On 16 July 2010, Buffon became a share-holding partner of his hometown club Carrarese; he initially owned 50% of the club's shares, along with Cristiano Lucarelli and Maurizio Mian. On 10 June 2011, he acquired an additional 20% of the club's shares. On 6 July 2012, Buffon become the sole shareholder of Carrarese through his family's company, Buffon & co. In May 2015, Buffon stated that he would be stepping down from his position as the owner of Carrarese at the end of the 2014–15 season; in July, he sold 70% of Carrarese's shares to the Italian real estate developer Raffaele Tartaglia, who took control of the club, although Buffon still remained with the club as a minority shareholder. After continuing to struggle with financial difficulties, the club officially declared bankruptcy on 11 March 2016. On 30 May 2011, he joined the board of directors of the Italian textile company Zucchi Group S.p.A., with a share of 19.4%. Despite the company's financial difficulties, in 2015, Buffon, who had by then acquired 56% of the company's shares, had reportedly invested €20 million in order to save the company from bankruptcy. In late December, Zucchi was acquired by a French investment fund, Astrance Capital, which took control of Buffon's company GB Holding, under an agreement to restructure Zucchi Group's debt, while Buffon was allowed to retain a 15% share in the company. In 2017, Buffon launched his own brand of wine under the name "Buffon \#1". ### Philanthropy Buffon is also known for his charity work. In addition to his other charitable endeavours, after every match he auctioned off his personalised captain's armband for charity. In 2012, Buffon joined the "Respect Diversity" Programme, through UEFA, which aimed to fight against racism, discrimination and intolerance in football. On 1 September 2014, Buffon, along with many current and former footballing stars, took part in the "Match for Peace", which was played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, with the proceeds being donated to charity. In October 2019, Buffon was named a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme. ### Politics Prior to the 2013 Italian general election, Buffon publicly endorsed the prime minister at the time, Mario Monti. Buffon was one of over 80 Italian celebrities to sign a petition in favour of the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum promoted by the Democratic Party under then prime minister Matteo Renzi. ### Controversy While at Parma, Buffon's decision to wear the number 88 shirt, rather than his previous number 1 shirt, for the 2000–01 season caused controversy in Italy. Buffon claimed to be unaware of the number's neo-Nazi connotations, stating that 88 represented "four balls", which are symbols of the character and attributes of a person. He stated that they were meant to signify his need for these attributes after his injury prior to Euro 2000, and that they also represented his "rebirth". He subsequently offered to change numbers, choosing the squad number 77 instead. In September 1999, Buffon faced heavy criticism and severe disciplinary sanctions for bearing the Italian fascist slogan Boia chi molla ("Who gives up is a scoundrel") handwritten on a T-shirt under his goalkeeping jersey, which he wore and showed during media interviews after a match against Lazio. Buffon publicly apologised, stating that it was a stupid and naïve gesture because he was completely ignorant of the slogan's neo-fascist connotations, stating that he had first encountered the slogan written on a boarding school desk, and was unaware of its far right-wing association and, in particular, its use with the neo-fascists in Reggio Calabria during the Reggio revolt in the early 1970s. He declared that he merely intended to use the slogan to spur on his teammates and the fans, as Parma had previously encountered some disappointing results. In 2000, Buffon risked a four-year prison sentence for falsifying a high school accounting diploma in order to enroll for a law degree at the University of Parma, and ultimately paid a 6,350,000 Lire fine in 2001; he later described the incident as his biggest regret in life, stating that it had been a dishonest gesture. On 12 May 2006, during the height of the Calciopoli scandal, Buffon was accused of illegally betting on Serie A matches, which initially put his place in Italy's 2006 World Cup squad at risk. Buffon was formally interrogated and admitted placing bets on sporting matches until players were forbidden from doing so in October 2005, but denied ever placing wagers on Italian football matches. He was cleared of all charges in December 2006. Following Italy's 2006 World Cup victory celebrations at Circus Maximus in Rome in July, he attracted further controversy when he displayed a banner he had received from the crowd, with the writing "Fieri di essere italiani" ("Proud to be Italian"), as well as a Celtic cross, a symbol adopted by neo–Nazis into the 21st century; Buffon later stated that he had not seen the symbol. On 11 April 2018, in the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg away to Real Madrid, Juventus needed a 3–0 win to force extra time, which was the scoreline when, deep into second-half stoppage time, referee Michael Oliver awarded a penalty to Real Madrid. Buffon was sent off for dissent after a confrontation with Oliver; Juventus were eliminated from the Champions League as the resulting penalty kick was converted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Buffon's post-match comments made about Oliver drew much media attention and controversy: > "I know the referee saw what he saw, but it was certainly a dubious incident. Not clear-cut. And a dubious incident at the 93rd minute when we had a clear penalty denied in the first leg, you cannot award that at this point. The team gave its all, but a human being cannot destroy dreams like that at the end of an extraordinary comeback on a dubious situation. Clearly you cannot have a heart in your chest, but a bag of rubbish. On top of that, if you don't have the character to walk on a pitch like this in a stadium like this, you can sit in the stands with your wife, your kids, having your drink and eating crisps. You cannot ruin the dreams of a team. I could have told the referee anything at that moment, but he had to understand the degree of the disaster he was creating. If you can't handle the pressure and have the courage to make a decision, then you should just sit in the stands and eat your crisps." On 11 May, Buffon was charged by UEFA over post-match comments made about referee Oliver, and later, on 5 June, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body gave Buffon a three-match ban for UEFA competition matches "for which he would be otherwise eligible". Buffon later issued an apology, stating: > "If I saw the referee again, I would give him a hug and say that he should have taken more time with that decision. With the feelings, emotions and disappointment of the situation, I behaved in a way that was not usual for me. After that match, I went beyond the limits with the things I said about the referee and I apologise for that." ## Career statistics ### Club ### International ## Honours Parma - Coppa Italia: 1998–99 - Supercoppa Italiana: 1999 - UEFA Cup: 1998–99 Juventus - Serie A: 2001–02, 2002–03, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20 - Serie B: 2006–07 - Coppa Italia: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2020–21 - Supercoppa Italiana: 2002, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2020 Paris Saint-Germain - Ligue 1: 2018–19 - Trophée des Champions: 2018 Italy U21 - UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 1996 - Mediterranean Games: 1997 Italy - FIFA World Cup: 2006 Individual - Bravo Award: 1999 - Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year Award: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 - UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year: 2002–03 - UEFA Club Footballer of the Year: 2002–03 - UEFA Team of the Year: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2016, 2017 - ESM Team of the Year: 2002–03, 2016–17 - Best European Goalkeeper: 2003, 2016, 2017 - IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2017 - IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper: Runner-up 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 - IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper: 3rd place 2001, 2005, 2018 - FIFA 100 - FIFA World Cup Yashin Award: 2006 - FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 2006 - Serie A "Fan" Award: 2006, 2007 - FIFA FIFPro World XI: 2006, 2007, 2017 - UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2008, 2012 - Sports Illustrated Team of the Decade: 2009 - ESPN World Team of the Decade: 2009 - IFFHS Best Goalkeeper of the Decade 2001–2011 - IFFHS Best Goalkeeper of the 21st Century 2001–2020 - IFFHS Best Goalkeeper of the Past 25 Years: 1987–2012 - IFFHS All Time World's Best Goalkeeper: 1987–2020 - Serie A Team of the Year: 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 - Pallone Azzurro: 2013, 2016 - UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2013–14 - Premio Nereo Rocco: 2014 - UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season: 2014–15, 2016–17 - UEFA Ultimate Team of the Year substitute (published 2015) - France Football World XI: 2015 - Gianni Brera Award for Sportsman of the Year: 2015 - Juventus MVP of the Year: 2015–16 - UEFA Euro All-time XI (published 2016) - Premio Nazionale Carriera Esemplare "Gaetano Scirea": 2016 - Golden Foot: 2016 - Serie A Footballer of the Year: 2016–17 - The Best FIFA Goalkeeper: 2017 - UEFA Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season: 2016–17 - IFFHS Men's World Team: 2017 - Gazzetta Sports Awards Man of the Year: 2017 - Juventus Greatest XI of All Time: 2017 - Ballon d'Or Dream Team (Bronze): 2020 - IFFHS All-time Men's B Dream Team: 2021 Records - Most appearances in Serie A: 657 - Second-most appearances for Juventus in all competitions: 685, behind Alessandro Del Piero, 705 - Most appearances for Juventus in Serie A: 489 - Most appearances for Juventus in Italian League matches (includes Serie A and Serie B): 526 - Most appearances for Juventus in the Supercoppa Italiana: 8 - Most appearances for Juventus in the UEFA Champions League: 117 (including 4 in the qualifying rounds) - Most appearances for Juventus in UEFA club competitions: 126 - Second-most appearances for Juventus in international club competitions: 126, behind Alessandro Del Piero, 130 - Joint-most appearances for Juventus in Serie B: 37, alongside Federico Balzaretti and Alessandro Birindelli - Most all-time minutes played for Juventus in all competitions: 61,412 - Most all-time minutes played for Juventus in Serie A: 43,549 - Most career club appearances by an Italian player: 975 - Most appearances in Europe's top five leagues: 674 (657 in Serie A and 17 in Ligue 1) - Most appearances for Italy senior team: 176 - Most all-time minutes played for Italy senior team: 15,251 - Most appearances for Italy in FIFA World Cup qualification matches: 39 - Joint second-most appearances for Italy in UEFA European Championship matches: 17, alongside Giorgio Chiellini, and behind Leonardo Bonucci, 18 - Most appearances for Italy in UEFA European Championship qualifying matches: 41 - Most appearances for Italy in UEFA European Championship (final tournament and qualifying matches): 58 - Joint-most appearances for Italy in FIFA Confederations Cup matches: 8, alongside Giorgio Chiellini and Riccardo Montolivo - Most appearances as captain for Italy senior team: 80 - Most goalkeeper appearances as captain for Italy senior team: 80 - Most appearances by a goalkeeper at the UEFA European Championship: 17 - Joint-fewest goals conceded in a single FIFA World Cup edition by a starting World Cup winning goalkeeper: 2 goals in 7 appearances at the 2006 World Cup, alongside Iker Casillas in 2010 and Fabien Barthez in 1998 - Joint-fewest goals conceded in a single UEFA European Championship edition (at least 3 matches played): 1 goal in 4 appearances at Euro 2016, alongside Iker Casillas in 2012, Thomas Myhre in 2000 and Dino Zoff in 1968 - Joint-most clean sheets in a single World Cup edition: 5 at the 2006 World Cup, alongside Iker Casillas in 2010, Oliver Kahn in 2002, Fabien Barthez in 1998 and Walter Zenga in 1990 - Longest consecutive run without conceding a goal in a single Serie A season: 974 minutes in 2015–16 - Most consecutive clean sheets in a single Serie A season: 10 in 2015–16 - Joint-most clean sheets in a single Serie A season: 21 in 2011–12 and 2015–16 - Longest consecutive run without conceding a goal in the qualifying stages of the UEFA European Championship: 644 minutes in 2010 and 2011 - One of only eight players to take part in five FIFA World Cups: 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 - Most clean sheets for Italy senior team: 77 - Most clean sheets for Italy at the FIFA World Cup: 6 - Most clean sheets for Italy at the UEFA European Championship: 8 - Most clean sheets for Italy at the FIFA Confederations Cup: 1 - Most clean sheets for Italy in FIFA World Cup qualification matches: 21 - Most clean sheets for Italy in UEFA European Championship qualifying matches: 23 - Most clean sheets in Serie A: 299 - Most clean sheets by a goalkeeper in men's association football: 505 - Third-most clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League: 53 (excluding 3 in the qualifying rounds), behind Iker Casillas, 57 (excluding 2 in qualifying) and Manuel Neuer, 54 (excluding 2 in qualifying) - Most appearances in the UEFA Champions League by an Italian player: 124 (excluding 8 in the qualifying rounds) - Joint sixth-most appearances in UEFA club competitions: 167 (124 in the UEFA Champions League, 8 in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds and 35 in the UEFA Cup/Europa League) - Third-longest consecutive run without conceding a goal in the UEFA Champions League: 690 minutes in 2016–17, behind Ederson, 706, and Jens Lehmann, 853 - Third-most appearances by a goalkeeper in the UEFA Champions League: 132 (including 8 in the qualifying rounds), behind Iker Casillas, 181 (including 4 in qualifying rounds) and Manuel Neuer, 133 (including 2 in the qualifying rounds) - Third-most appearances by a goalkeeper in UEFA club competitions: 167, behind Iker Casillas, 188, and Pepe Reina, 183 - Most UEFA Champions League final appearances without a victory: 3, alongside Paolo Montero - Most penalties saved for Italy senior team: 5 - Joint-most penalties saved in shoot-outs at the UEFA European Championship: 3, alongside Iker Casillas, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Unai Simón - Joint third-most penalties saved in the UEFA Champions League (excluding shoot-outs): 4 (out of 13), alongside Manuel Neuer (out of 11), and behind Iker Casillas, 7 (out of 23) and Petr Čech, 5 (out of 11) - Third-most senior international appearances by a European footballer: 176, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, 200 and Sergio Ramos, 180 - Ninth-most men's senior international appearances: 176 - Second-most appearances in UEFA European Championship (final tournament and qualifying matches): 58, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, 64 - Only goalkeeper to ever win the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year Award: 2003 - Most Serie A titles won by a player: 10 (all with Juventus) - Third-most consecutive Serie A titles: 7, alongside Stephan Lichtsteiner and Claudio Marchisio, behind Andrea Barzagli, 8 and Giorgio Chiellini, 9 - Joint-most Supercoppa Italiana titles: 6 (1 with Parma and 5 with Juventus), alongside Dejan Stanković - Joint-most Coppa Italia titles: 6 (1 with Parma and 5 with Juventus), alongside Roberto Mancini - Most Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year awards: 13 - Joint-most IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Awards: 5, alongside Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer - Most Top 3 IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Awards: 14 (first place 5 times, second place 6 times and third place 3 times) - Most Pallone Azzurro Awards: 2 - Fourth-most expensive goalkeeper of all time: €52 million, behind Kepa Arrizabalaga, €80 million, Alisson, €72.5 million and André Onana, €52.5 million - Most titles won with Juventus: 21 - Second-oldest player to appear in Serie A: , behind Marco Ballotta, 44 years, 38 days - Second-oldest goalkeeper to appear in the UEFA Champions League: , behind Marco Ballotta, 43 years, 252 days Orders \* CONI: Golden Collar of Sports Merit: 2006 \* 4th Class / Officer: Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2006 ## See also - List of footballers with 100 or more UEFA Champions League appearances - List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps - List of men's footballers with 1000 or more official appearances

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan

Church in Japan

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) (Japanese: 末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会) was established in Japan in 1901 when the church's first missionaries arrived on August 12. Among them was Heber J. Grant, who was then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and later became the church's 7th president. Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor accompanied Grant. The LDS Church's first baptism in Japan was on March 8, 1902, when Grant baptized Hajime Nakazawa, a former Kannushi (Shinto priest). The Book of Mormon was translated three times. The first translation, which took over six years, was completed by Taylor in 1909. It was then recommended that the Book of Mormon be translated into bunshō, a more elegant literary style, which was done by Chōkō Ikuta in 1909, shortly before it was published and distributed. The third translation in 1957 was done by Tatsui Sato. In 1995, the Book of Mormon was translated again into a more colloquial style. Missionary work from the opening of the Japan Mission through 1924 was challenging due to language barriers and cultural differences, as well as the 1923 Tokyo earthquake and the Immigration Act of 1924. Few baptisms were performed during this time period. Due to these difficulties, the Japan Mission was closed from 1924 to 1945, until after the end of World War II. During the twenty years missionary work was halted in Japan, the work was moved to Hawaii to reach Japanese people living there. A small number of Latter-day Saints in Japan met together privately in their homes from 1924 to 1945, under the leadership of Fujiya Nara and later Fujiwara Takeo. The mission was reopened in 1948 with Edward L. Clissold as president. Missionary work flourished after 1948 with the number of baptisms increasing, requiring new missions to be opened. The LDS Church decided to open the Mormon Pavilion during the Expo '70 in Osaka. After the Expo, baptisms doubled from 1969 to 1970. Two days after the Expo finished, the church's first stake in Japan was established in Tokyo in 1970. The Tokyo Japan Temple, the first temple in Japan and in Asia, was dedicated in 1980. As of 2022, the LDS Church reported 130,251 members in 231 congregations in Japan, making it the second largest body of LDS Church members in Asia behind the Philippines. ## History ### 1901–1924: Establishment of the Japan Mission #### Missionary efforts Walter M. Gibson, sent by Brigham Young, attempted to send missionaries to the Pacific in 1861, but stopped his mission in Hawaii. He wrote a book of strict instructions for a morally and physically clean life that the Hawaiian people should follow, called the "Sanitary Instructions". He was excommunicated from the church in 1864 for selling church offices to islanders and using the money to buy large amounts of land on Lanai. In 1895, the Japanese Consul in San Francisco asked Abraham H. Cannon if there were plans to open up a mission in Japan. However, he died before the mission could be established. Then in 1901, the church's First Presidency announced the opening of the Japan Mission. Heber J. Grant, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later the church's seventh president, was assigned to establish the first LDS Church mission in Asia, headquartered in Tokyo. The Panic of 1893 caused him to go into a lot of debt, so at the time, he was in serious financial distress. The First Presidency allowed him one year to get out of debt, which he did in the allotted time. Grant handpicked the first three missionaries to serve with him in Japan: Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor. They became known as the "Japanese Quartet". They arrived in Japan on August 12, 1901. Despite their arrival, the missionaries did not yet have permission from the government to proselyte, so they spent their time learning the language. After lobbying with the chief of police, the missionaries received permission to preach in early October. The missionaries, particularly Grant, had great difficulties learning the language. The missionaries met Takahashi Gorō, who had previously published a defense of the Mormons in the periodical The Sun. Takahashi spoke good English and had a knowledge of other languages. He decided to help Grant by writing a book that would introduce the mission of the Latter-day Saints to the Japanese people. Nakazawa Hajime became the first baptized member in Japan. Nakazawa soon began asking Grant for money to start a new business, and because the LDS Church is prohibited from loaning members money to start businesses, Grant refused. Nakazawa was caught robbing the mission house and was excommunicated from the church and arrested. After the arrest of Nakazawa, Takahashi no longer supported the missionaries, describing Grant as cruel and "cold-blooded" for refusing to pay Nakazawa. From 1902 to 1924, eighty-eight missionaries proselyted in twenty-nine locations, laboring largely in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Osaka, performing 166 baptisms. However, on August 7, 1924, Grant, then president of the church, closed the mission to await a more favorable time, due to the low number of baptisms. Several issues contributed to the low number of baptisms. Ongoing problems in the mission included the difficulty of the language, as well as cultural differences. Also, the small number of missionaries and their extended service caused fatigue among them and hardships for their loved ones. There were also external problems: the earthquake in Tokyo in 1923 stalled proselytizing, the United States' Immigration Act of 1924 caused racial tensions between Japan and the United States. Finally, the general sense of defeatism of the missionaries in Japan and Church leaders in Salt Lake City influenced the decision to close the mission in Japan. Even though they did not baptize many members, they translated the Book of Mormon into Japanese. They also wrote a Japanese hymnbook, a history of the Church, a biography of Joseph Smith, and other literature. Missionaries, as well as the Church in general, gained experience that would make the reestablishment of the mission in 1948 more successful. #### First Japanese church members The first baptized Japanese member was Hajime Nakazawa, a former Shinto priest. He was baptized on March 8, 1902, on the shore of Omori in Tokyo Bay. Although he was the first baptized member, he was not the first active member of the LDS Church. After he was baptized, he and his wife asked the missionaries for a significant amount of money. The missionaries refused and he was later caught attempting to rob the missionaries' home. He was then excommunicated and subsequently arrested. One of the most prominent first Japanese church members was Tomizo Katsunuma, a veterinarian and immigration inspector in Honolulu, honored as the "Father of Immigrants". He is notable as one of the first members of LDS Church with Japanese ancestry. He moved to the United States during the emigration fever. He had many contacts with LDS Church members in Logan, Utah, which influenced his decision to get baptized on August 8, 1895. After his death, the headline of the obituary read "Dr. Katsunuma, first Japanese Mormon, dies". Tokujiro Sato was another one of the church's first Japanese converts. Tokujiro immigrated to Hawaii from Japan. Tukujiro supposedly joined the church in 1892, though because of the lack of records, it is unclear when he was baptized or whether he was baptized at all. He was listed in membership records in the Waipio Branch, but there is no baptism record. However, the baptisms of his children were recorded and, despite the lack of records, Taokujiro attended the LDS Church throughout his life. #### Portrayal of the church in Japan Other Christian churches often preached against the LDS Church, criticizing its doctrines, yet admitting the strange propensity it seemed to have in attracting followers. The doctrine of the church, and polygamy in particular, was seen as a threat to Japanese culture and the Meiji society's ideals of civilization. Even though the Japanese people heard about the church through the Iwakura Mission to the United States in 1872, the earliest official printed introduction of the Japanese people to the LDS Church was likely the 1879 Japanese translation of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Jean Passepartout, a character in the book, heard a lecture on Mormonism and polygamy which disturbed him. Magazine articles helped to spread the knowledge of the church in Japan, however, the articles focused on polygamy and its dangers to women and society in an increasingly Westernizing country. Some Japanese saw the polygamous practices of Latter-day Saints as a direct offense to the attempts to eliminate laws and traditions surrounding concubines. When the church missionaries taught about church's doctrine to the Japanese, it was often necessary to counter the assumptions the Japanese people had about the church and polygamy. The Japanese translation of the book A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints included an extra chapter on polygamy in order to provide some clarification that the LDS Church no longer practiced it. #### Translation of the Book of Mormon The translation of the Book of Mormon began in 1904 and went through 1909, taking almost six years. The elders had no working knowledge of Japanese and the reputation of the LDS Church made it difficult for them to find native speakers who were willing to help them with the language. Mission president Horace S. Ensign requested that each missionary use his spare time translating the Book of Mormon into Japanese. Seven months later, the compiled translation was assigned to Alma O. Taylor who worked full-time to complete it. Taylor finished the translation in 1906, after working 21 months. The next 18 months were used to edit, re-read, and correct the Book of Mormon. Noguchi Zenshirō, a delegate to the World's Parliament of Religions, and Susuzki Genta recommended to Taylor that the style of the Book of Mormon should be changed from the colloquial genbun'itchi style to bunshō, a more elegant written style historically used in literature, records, and official documents. Chōkō Ikuta changed the style of the translation to bunshō and finished in May 1909. Final corrections were made July 24, 1909. The first five thousand copies were released October 11, 1909, with special editions made for monarchs and government leaders. The task of translating the Book of Mormon into Japanese was taken with great care. Taylor read his translations about fourteen times, while critics read the translation seven times. They recruited help from some of the best Japanese authors of the time such as Tsubouchi Shōyō and Hōmei Iwano. A second translation of the Book of Mormon was published in 1957. The translation was made by Tatsui Sato, who belonged to the first baptized Japanese family after the closure of the mission in 1924. The most recent translation of the Book of Mormon was published in 1995 in a colloquial style. This style became more widely used after World War II. ### 1924–1945: Closed Japan Mission From 1924 to 1945, the LDS Church withdrew its missionaries, leadership, and organizational structure, leaving the Japanese Latter-day Saints on their own. Losing contact with the main body of the church created a challenge for the remaining members, with no one to lead their congregation. Because of the lack of church leadership in Japan, the LDS Church in Japan was maintained by a man named Fujiya Nara. Born May 10, 1898, in Japan, he started attending Sunday School in the Sapporo Branch at age thirteen. He was baptized four years later on July 6, 1915, in the Tama River in Tokyo by Joseph H. Stimpson, the Japan Mission president at the time. In 1923, he became the first native Japanese to be ordained an elder. On April 6, 1924, his own wedding to Motoko Yoshimizu was to be the first and last LDS marriage performed in Japan for some time, as the Japan Mission closed down a few months later. In 1927, Fujiya Nara was appointed presiding elder, similar to a branch president who leads a small group of church members, by the First Presidency over the small group of Japanese members (137) that remained and restored some priesthood activities. Nara published a newsletter, "Shuro" (Palm) and held meetings with the remaining members. After the release of Nara, Fujiwara Takeo was set apart as presiding elder. Fujiwara was born in 1905 and was baptized on May 10, 1924, right before the close of the Japan Mission. He was invited to study at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he earned a Master's degree in history. He spent seven years in Utah, where LDS Church leaders prepared him to become presiding elder. Fujiwara focused his work in the church in Japan on reactivation of baptized members. In the mid-1930s, with World War II imminent, Heber J. Grant decided to pursue efforts to work among the Japanese in Hawaii. On February 24, 1937, the Japanese-Central Pacific Mission, a mission primarily aimed at teaching Japanese people in Hawaii, was opened and headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, with Hilton A. Robertson as president. Following World War II, the period from 1945 to 1951, or the Occupation of Japan by the Allied Forces has been called the "Christian boom". With newly declared religious freedom and tough post-war conditions, the Japanese people were more interested in Christianity than they had been for a long time. ### 1948–1965: Reestablishment of the Japan Mission It was not until March 6, 1948, that Edward L. Clissold was given permission to return to Japan, leading the missionary work as the mission president. Clissold had been part of the United States military occupation forces in Japan after World War II. His new task was to find what remained of the Latter-day Saints from twenty-four years before. He put a small advertisement in Japanese (with a translation error) in the newspaper, "URGENT NOTICE—I would like any member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Near-Day [sic] Saints (Mormon Church) to contact me as soon as possible. Daiichi Hotel, Room 548. Lt. Col. Edward Clissold." Nara Fujiya noticed the advertisement, responded, and some Japanese Saints were located and started to take part in Clissold and other servicemen's church activities. From 1943 to 1944, Clissold had been acting president of the Central Pacific Mission, a mission in Hawaii that was primarily aimed at teaching Japanese people. His next task was to establish a mission headquarters. He obtained a partially burned mansion which had belonged to the Japanese Minister of Welfare during the war. After renovation of the mission home, the first five missionaries arrived in Japan on June 26, 1948. Harrison Theodore "Ted" Price, became the first missionary in 1947. Other missionaries included a Japanese born abroad, Kooji Okauchi (nisei) and two American soldiers who had fought the Japanese in the Pacific Theater just years prior. After Clissold's eighteen-month long presidency, Vinal G. Mauss succeeded him and served from 1949 to 1953. Membership in the church in Japan increased from 211 to more than 800, with the number of districts increasing from one to five, the number of branches grew to twenty-five, and the number of missionaries increased to eighty-four. 184 people were baptized in 1950, more than had joined the church in the twenty years that it had been open in the early 1900s. Hilton A. Robertson replaced Mauss as mission president. Robertson was one of the missionaries in the early Japan mission, and had presided over the Japanese-Central Pacific Mission from 1937 to 1940. When Robertson was set apart as president of the Japan Mission, he was told he would also be in charge of presiding over the Chinese Mission. He supported Tatsui Sato in re-translating the Book of Mormon as well as translating the Mormon works Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. He bought more land for the church to use as chapels and living quarters for missionaries. He strengthened auxiliary organizations such as the Young Men and Young Women programs (collectively known as the Mutual Improvement Association), Sunday School, and Relief Society. On July 28, 1955, the Japan Mission was split into the Northern and the Southern Far East Mission. This split created the largest transfer within a mission boundary in the world from Naha, Okinawa, to Asahigawa, Hokkaidō. Paul C. Andrus became the next mission president, serving from 1955 to 1962. Membership grew from 1,000 to more than 6,600. The church grew rapidly in Korea, so a separate Korean mission was made, as it had previously been included in the Japan Mission. The number of missionaries grew from 82 to 179. After inventing a new proselytizing plan based on teaching the Bible, bearing testimony, and inviting the investigator to be baptized, baptisms grew from 129 in 1956 to 616 in 1957. Andrus was also instrumental in preparing Japan and Korea for stakes by advancing the priesthood of the members. He also worked to make other church material like auxiliary manuals and handbooks available in Japanese. The number of branches grew from 26 to 37. One of the most profitable purchases of the church at the time was the purchase of a Yoyogi Street property in Omote Sando, Tokyo, serving as the Central Branch meetinghouse. Eventually, the church sold the building in 1973 for \$24,150,943, having originally spent less than \$150,000 for it. Having served as a missionary under Mauss, Dwayne N. Anderson became the new mission president in 1962. At the time, there was 7,000 church members in Japan, with the number of missionaries exceeding 180. Anderson made large strides in constructing new church buildings and remodeling older ones. The number of priesthood holders increased significantly. Fundraising was done for members to travel to the Hawaii Temple to receive temple ordinances. On April 26, 1964, the first meetinghouse in Asia, the Tokyo North Branch, was dedicated by Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In July 1965, 164 Japanese Latter-day Saints traveled to Hawaii to attend the temple. Trips such as these occurred almost yearly until the Tokyo Temple was built in 1980. In 1965, Anderson was succeeded by Adney Y. Komatsu. #### Relief Society For much of the early history of the LDS Church in Japan, few church meetings were held. The charity organization called Relief Society began in the early 1950s. In a normal Latter-day Saint church meeting, the Relief Society meetings serves as one hour of the three hour block, where women meet together and are taught lessons about various topics concerning Jesus Christ by another member of the Relief Society who is assigned to teach. Unable to organize an official Relief Society, women would often meet together in sister missionaries' apartments and learn to cook. The women would deliver welfare supplies from the Relief Society in the United States to families with children in Sunday School. In Japan, the members of the Relief Society held bazaars selling cheap goods for low prices to raise money in postwar Japan. The Relief Society worked to help repair missionary clothing and wash missionaries' bedding. Eventually, branches formed small, official groups of the Relief Society; however, auxiliary manuals had not yet been translated into Japanese, so Relief Society materials came from sister missionaries. From 1965 to 1966, materials for Christian instruction came in Seito-No-Michi (a worldwide church magazine), but sometimes no lessons were featured, as only issues October through May contained lesson plans. During the months when the Relief Society didn't have lessons, they had "work meetings", creating their own manual to be approved by the Relief Society General Board. ### 1968–1980: Church expansion On September 1, 1968, Walter Bills was named the new mission president of the Northern Far-East Mission, renamed the Japan Mission. The Southern Far-East Mission was named the Japan-Okinawa Mission and was presided over by Edward Okazaki. Due to the Japan Mission being headquartered in Tokyo, it grew much more quickly than the Japan-Okinawa Mission. Bills opened three new branches and nine cities for proselytizing and instituted the Book of Mormon placement program, stating that the Book of Mormon would lead to conversion. In 1969, Japanese missionaries carried more copies of the Book of Mormon, distributing over 208,000 books. Bills attributed at least 60% of the baptisms during his presidency to the program. Bills also focused on training people to run stakes, the administrative units of the LDS Church. In this way, he was preparing for a stake in Tokyo. All auxiliaries were established in Japan at this time, including the Primary, the children's organization. Okazaki was the second mission president of Japanese ancestry. At the end of Bill's service in 1971, baptisms were up to one baptism per missionary per month, which was about 200 baptisms total. In 1969, a language-training center for Japanese and other Asian and African languages was established at BYU-Hawaii. Future missionaries assigned to Japan were sent to Hawaii for two months where they learned the language, as well as working to learn about the Japanese people, food and culture. Within the same week, the church opened a display at Expo '70 in Osaka, featuring a new version of the LDS film Man's Search for Happiness created specially for this event. BYU's Young Ambassadors also performed at the Expo. The church received a lot of attention due to the World Fair. The LDS Church was the only Christian denomination to have its own pavilion at the fair. Ten percent (6,658,532) of the guests who attended the Expo visited the Mormon Pavilion, which was a temporary display that introduced the people of Japan to the LDS Church. Fifty thousand copies of the Book of Mormon were distributed and there were 779 baptisms in Japan in 1970, double that of 1969. The Tokyo Stake was the church's first in Asia. It was organized on March 15, 1970, two days after the Expo. Tanaka Kenji became the first president of the Tokyo Stake. The Japanese missions were changed again and split into four missions. The Japan Mission became the Japan East Mission and the Japan-Okinawa Mission. The Japan-Okinawa Mission became the Japan Central Mission and the Japan West Mission. Two new mission presidents were introduced, while Bills and Okazaki retained their positions over their respective missions. Russell Horiuchi, a professor at BYU, became president of the Japan East Mission. Watanabe Kan became president of the Japan West Mission and became the first native Japanese mission president. In 1965, Adney Y. Komatsu became mission president, the first of Japanese ancestry, and in 1975, during the first area conference in Japan, he became the first general authority of Japanese ancestry. Yoshihiko Kikuchi became the first native Japanese general authority in 1977. In 1979, the Japanese Missionary Training Center (JMTC) was created. The JMTC closed in 2009. The first LDS temple in Asia was the Tokyo Temple, which was dedicated on October 27, 1980, by Spencer W. Kimball. ### 1980–Present: Recent developments The Mormon Tabernacle Choir traveled to Japan for its second tour in 1985. Tsuneo Ishikawa, president of the Chukyo Television Broadcasting Company, hosted an extravagant reception for the choir in Nagoya. The LDS Church provided extensive humanitarian services and resources to Japan after the Kobe or Osaka earthquake in 1995 and the record-breaking earthquake and tsunami that destroyed northern Japan in March 2011. Gordon B. Hinckley, then serving as the church's president, traveled to Japan in May 1996. On September 1, 2001, the 100th anniversary of Mormon missionary work in Japan was celebrated with two new bronze monuments in Yokohama. The Fukuoka Japan Temple was dedicated in 2000, with the Sapporo Japan Temple, the third in Japan, dedicated in 2016. ## Recent problems Two events that created challenges to Latter-day Saint missionary work in Japan were the death of Emperor Hirohito in 1989 and the Tokyo subway attack in 1995 by the religious group Aum Shinrikyō. The death of the emperor made Japanese citizens reevaluate the role of the emperor in the state and in their lives. Even though the period after WWII had been characterized by a "de-deification" of the emperor, after the death of Emperor Hirohito, his death rituals were widely publicized. This reignited an interest in old Japanese symbols, rites, and rituals. Due to deeply rooted religious and cultural belief systems that have lasted for centuries, converting to another religion was associated with becoming non-Japanese. The second event that created challenges for LDS missionaries in Japan was the Tokyo subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyō. This attack, which killed twelve and injured more than five thousand people, greatly affected the Japanese people. It caused fear of and a resentment to Japanese New Religions and the Japanese people had a hard time distinguishing between proselytizing LDS missionaries and New Religions. ### Cultural obstacles Japan is culturally and historically a non-Christian nation. This poses problems in LDS missionary work, because the Japanese are culturally not familiar with the western notion of God. However, despite the Japanese unfamiliarity with Christian or Western religiosity, the Japanese are a religious people. Many Japanese people state to be a part of one or more religion, mostly Shinto and Buddhism and these religions affect their world view deeply. Thus, the cultural differences in ethics and morality challenge missionary work. Another cultural difference is the impact of Confucian ethics. Western culture puts emphasis on the individual, while Japanese culture values the group over the individual. The Japanese culture values harmony over individual ambition and aggressiveness. Large decisions are often made together. For example, a Japanese person may be more willing to be baptized if their family joined them in their decision. If not, they will likely not choose to be baptized, in order to avoid isolation from their family. Mormonism emphasizes individual agency and the individual's relationship with Jesus Christ, values which make Mormon baptism in Japan less likely. Several scholars have pointed out that little study has been made of the internal factors that have limited the success of the LDS missions in Japan. Specifically, the distinctiveness of LDS culture, as well as its specific American characteristics, may have limited to what extent the Japanese have accepted Mormonism. ## Statistics and other information As of year-end 2022, the LDS Church reported 130,251 members, 6 missions, 231 congregations, and 3 temples in Japan with one additional temple under construction. There were also 22 stakes, 11 districts, 143 wards, and 88 branches at that time. While Japan has 63 family history centers, the website FamilySearch, through which LDS members do genealogical research and perform ordinances, is not generally available in Japan. ### Stakes and Districts ### Missions Over the years, border shifts, mission dissolutions, additions, and consolidations have affected all missions in Japan. From 1984 to 1995 there were ten missions in Japan; as of July 1, 2019, there were six. ### Temples On October 27, 1980, the Tokyo Japan Temple (formerly the Tokyo Temple) (東京神殿, Tōkyō Shinden) was dedicated. This was the first LDS temple in Asia and the first in a non-Christian country. Church president, Spencer W. Kimball, described it as "the most significant and important event in the history of Asia". The Tokyo Temple was followed by the Fukuoka Japan Temple (福岡神殿, Fukuoka Shinden), dedicated on June 11, 2000, and the Sapporo Japan Temple (札幌神殿, Sapporo Shinden), dedicated on August 21, 2016. On April 7, 2019, the church announced a temple would be built in Okinawa City, Okinawa Prefecture. A groundbreaking, to signify the beginning of construction of the Okinawa Japan Temple, took place on December 5, 2020. ## See also - Bernard P. Brockbank - Yuki Saito - Yukihiro Matsumoto - Kent Derricott - Kent Gilbert - Christianity in Japan

Scott Niedermayer

Canadian ice hockey player (born 1973)

Scott Niedermayer (born August 31, 1973) is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman and current special assignment coach of the Anaheim Ducks. He played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Niedermayer is a four-time Stanley Cup champion and played in five NHL All-Star Games. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2003–04 as the NHL's top defenceman and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2007 as the most valuable player of the playoffs. In 2017, Niedermayer was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history. As a junior, Niedermayer was a member of a Kamloops Blazers team that won two Western Hockey League championships and was voted the most valuable player of the 1992 Memorial Cup, leading the Blazers to the Canadian Hockey League championship. The third overall selection at the 1991 NHL Entry Draft by New Jersey, Niedermayer played the majority of his professional career with the Devils before moving to Anaheim in 2005. Internationally, Niedermayer played with Team Canada on several occasions. He is a member of the Triple Gold Club, having won the Stanley Cup as well as a World Championship (2004) and Olympic gold medals (2002, 2010). Niedermayer also played for the Memorial Cup champions, and championship teams at the 1991 World Junior Championships and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, making him and Corey Perry the only players in history to have ever won each of the six major North American and international competitions available to players. He was introduced in to the IIHF All-Time Canada Team in 2020. Regarded as one of the greatest defencemen in NHL history, Niedermayer has earned numerous accolades throughout his career. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012, into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2013, and into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2015. The New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks, and Kamloops Blazers have all retired his uniform number. ## Early life Niedermayer was born in Edmonton, Alberta, but spent the first three years of his life in Cassiar, British Columbia before his family settled in Cranbrook, British Columbia. His father, Bob, was a doctor in Cassiar and then Cranbrook, and his mother Carol was a teacher. He has a younger brother, Rob. Scott and his brother were inseparable when they were younger and often played hockey together. While their father was often their team doctor, their mother taught them to skate. She enrolled them in figure skating to aid their skills development and taught power skating classes in Cranbrook in exchange for ice time for her sons. An offensive defenceman, Scott led his Cranbrook midget team in scoring with 55 goals and 92 points in 1988–89. ## Playing career ### Junior Niedermayer played three seasons of junior hockey with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League (WHL) between 1989 and 1992. He recorded 69 points in 64 games in his first season, 1989–90, and helped the Blazers win the President's Cup as WHL champions. The Blazers advanced to the 1990 Memorial Cup as the top ranked team in Canada, but disappointed in the tournament by losing all three games. Niedermayer earned several accolades in 1990–91. He scored 26 goals and 82 points in 57 games to earn a place on the Western Conference All-Star team. Additionally, he was named the recipient of the Daryl K. (Doc) Seaman Trophy as the WHL's scholastic player of the year and won the Canadian Hockey League Scholastic Player of the Year award. A top prospect for the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, Niedermayer was selected in the first round, third overall, by the New Jersey Devils. He began the 1991–92 season with New Jersey as the team wanted him to experience the NHL before being returned to Kamloops. After sitting out the Devils first five games, Niedermayer made his NHL debut on October 16, 1991, against the New York Rangers. He appeared in four games with the Devils, recording one assist, before he was sent back to junior. Though he appeared in only 35 games in the 1991–92 WHL season, Niedermayer's 39 points were enough to earn him a second berth on the West All-Star team. After losing in the Western Conference Final the previous season, the Blazers rebounded to win their second WHL championship in three years in 1992. Niedermayer tied for third place in playoff scoring with 23 points. At the 1992 Memorial Cup, he scored seven points in five games to lead the Blazers to the national championship. He was voted the recipient of the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player of the Memorial Cup. ### New Jersey Devils Niedermayer joined the Devils full-time in 1992–93. He scored his first NHL goal on November 8, 1992, against goaltender Brian Hayward in a 6–1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Overall, Niedermayer appeared in 80 games, scoring 11 goals and 40 points and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team on defence. Niedermayer improved to 48 points in 1993–94, and added 4 points in 20 playoff games as the Devils reached the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers, a series they lost in seven games. The Devils made another long playoff run in the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season, reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history. Niedermayer scored 11 points in 20 playoff games, including a key goal in game two of the Final as the Devils won the Stanley Cup with a four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings. A 33-point season followed for Niedermayer in 1995–96, but the Devils became the first defending champion in 26 years to miss the playoffs. After a 35-point season in 1996–97, Niedermayer's best statistical season in New Jersey came in 1997–98 with a 14-goal, 57-point campaign. He played in his first NHL All-Star Game, scoring a goal, and was named to the NHL's Second All-Star team at the season's end. After finishing second in league scoring amongst defencemen, despite playing in New Jersey's stifling defensive system that suppresses offence, Niedermayer demanded a significant raise. He rejected an offer that would have paid him a base salary of \$3.25 million and, unable to come to terms before the start of the 1998–99 season, began the year as a holdout. As the dispute dragged into the season, he joined the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League (IHL). After missing the first month of the NHL season, Niedermayer and the Devils finally agreed to a multi-year contract, the terms of which were not released. He appeared in 71 games with the Devils that season, recording 46 points. Late in the 1999–2000 season, Niedermayer was involved in a violent incident with Peter Worell of the Florida Panthers. After being elbowed by Worell, Niedermayer responded by swinging his stick at his opponent's head. Worell suffered a concussion and missed six games, while Niedermayer was suspended for ten games – nine in the regular season, and New Jersey's first playoff game. After returning from his ban, Niedermayer's steady defensive contributions in the playoffs helped the Devils win their second Stanley Cup by defeating the Dallas Stars in six games in the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals. While celebrating his day with the Cup, Niedermayer took the trophy to Fisher Peak, overlooking his hometown of Cranbrook and was famously pictured hoisting it over his head. The expiration of his contract following the season resulted in another lengthy dispute with the Devils. While he wanted a contract similar to the \$5.3 million per season average the top ten paid defencemen in the league made, the Devils offered a deal with a base salary of \$3.5 million. He was again a holdout at the start of the 2000–01 season, and missed nearly two months of play before finally agreeing to a four-year, \$16 million contract. Niedermayer recorded 35 points in 57 games and played in his second All-Star Game. Late in game four of New Jersey's first round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Niedermayer was knocked unconscious by a vicious elbow from Toronto's Tie Domi. Niedermayer later claimed that Domi had threatened to retaliate against him over a previous hit earlier in the series. Domi apologized for the incident, calling it a "stupid reaction", but was suspended for the remainder of the 2001 Stanley Cup playoffs. New Jersey reached the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, but lost the series to the Colorado Avalanche in seven games. Niedermayer missed several games early in the 2001–02 season due to back pain, and his 33 points on the season was his lowest in six seasons. Niedermayer and the Devils reached their fourth Stanley Cup Finals in 2002–03. The series was a family affair, as Scott's brother Rob was a member of the opposing Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. When asked, their mother admitted she was hoping Rob's Mighty Ducks would win as Scott already had two championships to his name. Scott dashed his brother and mother's hopes, recording two assists in the deciding seventh game to lead the Devils to a 3–0 victory, and win his third Stanley Cup. Niedermayer cemented his reputation as an elite NHL defenceman in 2003–04, earning praise from both teammates and opponents for his play throughout the season. Injuries to fellow defencemen Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski resulted in Niedermayer averaging over 25 minutes of ice time per game, sometimes topping 30, and he temporarily inherited the Devils' captaincy from Stevens. Offensively, Niedermayer posted his second career 50-point season, finishing with 14 goals and 40 assists. He played in his third All-Star Game and was named a First Team All-Star for the first time. After finishing second in league scoring amongst defencemen, recording a plus-minus rating of +20 and leading the Devils to a modern NHL record low 164 goals against, Niedermayer was voted the winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league's top defenceman. Upon the expiration of his previous contract, Niedermayer was again a restricted free agent, and he again endured a difficult negotiation with the Devils, even after he changed agents. Initially demanding a five-year, \$45 million contract, Niedermayer chose to go to arbitration. He was awarded a one-year contract for the 2004–05 season, and the \$7 million salary he was given tied John LeClair's award in 2000 as the highest ever given in arbitration. However, the contract was wiped out when the entire season was cancelled as a result of the 2004–05 NHL lockout. ### Anaheim Ducks As an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2005, Niedermayer was in considerable demand; 14 teams contacted his agent on the first day they were allowed to talk to him. The Devils offered him a five-year contract that would have paid him \$7.8 million per season, the maximum allowed under the new salary cap, but Niedermayer chose instead to sign a four-year contract worth \$6.75 million per season with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He chose to take the shorter term and lower salary to play and try to win a Stanley Cup with his brother. The Ducks immediately named Scott the team's captain. In his first season in Anaheim, 2005–06, Niedermayer scored 63 points and was named a First Team All-Star for the second time. In the playoffs, the Ducks reached the Western Conference Final, but were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers. Joined on Anaheim's blueline by Chris Pronger, Niedermayer helped the Ducks set franchise records in 2006–07 for most wins (48) and points (110). Both were named finalists for the Norris Trophy, but lost to Detroit's Nicklas Lidström. Individually, Niedermayer played his 1,000th career game, against the Edmonton Oilers on November 28, 2006. He set career highs of 15 goals, 54 assists and 69 points during the regular season and was named a First Team All-Star. He added 11 points in the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, and was named recipient of the Conn Smythe Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player of the post-season after leading Anaheim to the franchise's first championship in a five-game series victory over the Ottawa Senators in the final. As team captain, Niedermayer was the first player given the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. He passed the trophy to his brother; it was Rob's first championship victory. Of the moment, Scott stated: "You don't really dream of passing it to your brother. I never have. To be able to do that is definitely a highlight of my career." Coming off his fourth championship, the 34-year-old Niedermayer contemplated retirement. Remaining undecided on his future as the 2007–08 season began, he failed to report to the team and was suspended by the Ducks as a formality. Pronger replaced him as captain, and Niedermayer remained undecided until early December when he finally chose to return. He appeared in only 48 games that season, scoring 25 points, but played in his fourth All-Star Game. After the Ducks were eliminated in the first round of the 2008 playoffs, he again contemplated retirement, but quickly made the decision to return for the 2008–09 season. He regained captaincy of the Ducks, and played in his fifth All-Star Game during the season in which he scored 59 points in 82 games. In what proved to be his final season, 2009–10, Niedermayer scored 48 points in 80 games. He announced his retirement as a player on June 22, 2010, but remained with the Ducks organization as a consultant to general manager Bob Murray. He turned to coaching in 2012–13 season, serving as a special assignment coach with the Ducks. ## International play Niedermayer enjoyed a long and successful international career, winning championships at all levels. He made his international debut as a 17-year-old with the Canadian junior team at the 1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He appeared in three games as Team Canada used a late goal by John Slaney in the final game of the tournament, against the Soviet Union, to win the gold medal. He returned for the 1992 tournament, one which The Sports Network described as one of the most disappointing in Canadian history, as the team finished sixth in the eight team event. Four years later, in 1996, Niedermayer first joined the senior team at the inaugural World Cup of Hockey. He had a goal and three assists in eight games, but Canada lost the championship final to the United States. Niedermayer next made his Olympic debut in 2002. He appeared in six games, and helped Canada defeat the United States, 5–2 in the final as the country won its first Olympic gold medal in hockey in 50 years. Gold medal victories followed in 2004 as Niedermayer scored five points in nine games at the World Championship then added two points in six games at the World Cup of Hockey. In the latter event, Niedermayer scored a goal in the championship game, a 3–2 victory over Finland. He was set to make his second Olympic appearance in 2006, however a knee injury suffered during NHL play that required surgery forced him to withdraw from the tournament. Niedermayer's final international competition came at the 2010 Olympics, four months before his retirement as a player. He was named captain of the team for the tournament that was held in his home province, in Vancouver. He led Canada to the gold medal, culminating in a 3–2 overtime win over the United States. ## Playing style An offensively-minded defenceman, Niedermayer was best known for his skating ability and drew comparison's to the game's offensive greats from the time he broke into the NHL. He was compared to Paul Coffey for his ability to take the puck from his own goal line and convert a defensive situation into an offensive rush. He often chafed at playing within the Devils' defence-oriented system, feeling it restricted his offensive creativity, but also admitted that he learned to place greater emphasis on his defence and develop his overall game. Niedermayer earned a reputation for inconsistency early in his career. He often played his best games against top opposition, but his failure to consistently apply his skills against all opposition occasionally frustrated his teammates and left his coaches lamenting that he was a player capable of being dominant but often was not. By the end of his career however, and following his Norris Trophy win in 2004, Niedermayer was regarded as one of the top offensive defencemen of his generation and as one of the game's greatest winners. Niedermayer and former Ducks teammate Corey Perry are the only players in hockey history to win every major contemporary North American and International Competitive titles: the Memorial Cup, World Junior championship, Stanley Cup, World Championship, World Cup and Olympic Games. Niedermayer has been honoured on several occasions. The New Jersey Devils retired his jersey number 27 in 2011, and the Kamloops Blazers retired the number 28 he wore in junior in 2013. He has been inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Niedermayer was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of its 2013 class, and was inducted on November 11, 2013. ## Personal life Niedermayer and his wife Lisa have four sons. The family resides in Penticton, British Columbia, but often returns to Cranbrook, where they spent the off-seasons while he was playing. Scott and Lisa are active in the community. They serve as honorary co-chairs of the Walk for Kids, a charity event that supports the Ronald McDonald House of Orange County, while Scott and his brother Rob operate a hockey school in Cranbrook and established a fund that offers grants to community associations. An active environmentalist, Scott has also joined with WWF-Canada to speak out in favour of efforts to maintain British Columbia's natural wilderness. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International ## Awards and honours ## See also - List of family relations in the NHL

Martin O'Donnell

American video game composer

Martin O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955) is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's series, such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny. O'Donnell collaborated with his musical colleague Michael Salvatori for many of the scores; he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy. O'Donnell was Bungie's audio lead until April 11, 2014. O'Donnell began his career in music writing television and radio jingles such as the Flintstones Vitamins jingle and scoring for radio stations and films. O'Donnell moved to composing video game music when his company, TotalAudio, did the sound design for the 1997 title Riven. After producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell to work on their other projects, including Oni and the project that would become Halo: Combat Evolved. O'Donnell ended up joining the Bungie staff only ten days before the studio was bought by Microsoft, and would be the audio director for all Bungie projects until he was fired. O'Donnell's score to the Halo trilogy has received critical acclaim, earning him several awards, and the commercial soundtrack release of the music to Halo 2 was the best-selling video game soundtrack of all time in the United States. He went on to compose the scores for Halo 3 (2007), Halo 3: ODST (2009), and Halo: Reach (2010). His final work for Bungie was composing music for the 2014 video game Destiny. He successfully sued Bungie for unpaid wages and stock ownership. Subsequently, he co-founded Highwire Games and composed the score for their debut virtual reality game Golem, which was released in late 2019. ## Early life and career O'Donnell describes his upbringing as "typical"; he received piano lessons and wanted to start a rock band when he reached junior high school. His father made films while his mother taught piano. Despite his interest in progressive and fusion rock, O'Donnell studied the classical component of music and composition at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and received his Masters of Music Degree in composition with honors from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s. After getting his degree, O'Donnell moved to Chicago, where he expected that he would teach at the American Conservatory of Music. The job fell through, and instead he worked as a grip in the film and television business. O'Donnell began his musical career in the field after one of his colleagues who knew of his music background approached him to write for his film. O'Donnell talked to his friend Michael Salvatori, who had his own recording studio, and offered to split the profits from the job with him; the two became constant partners. After completing a film score and a few commercials, the two decided to quit their day jobs and produce music in Chicago; they founded a production company, TotalAudio. O'Donnell composed the music for jingles for Mr. Clean and Flintstones Vitamins. After fifteen years of composing for TV and radio commercials, he decided that he wanted to work on game soundtracks and move on from commercial-sounding music. "I was hoping to find some other medium that would be new and cutting-edge and sort of the Wild West," he recalled. ## Video games In 1993, Dick Staub, a Chicago radio personality and friend of O'Donnell's, asked if his eighteen-year-old son Josh could visit O'Donnell's studio, as he was interested in computer games and audio. O'Donnell agreed, and in talking with Josh learned that he had friends in Spokane, Washington who were making a game O'Donnell had never heard of called Myst. In hearing the theme music to the game, O'Donnell realized that the game industry was making great strides in creating "legitimate music" that contained dramatic elements. O'Donnell became acquainted with the game's developers, including brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, and was hired four years later as a sound designer for Myst's sequel, Riven. Among the games Riven's developers would play in their downtime was a title called Marathon, created by Chicago-based Bungie. On returning to Chicago O'Donnell emailed a Bungie staffer and pursued them for a job. TotalAudio produced the music for Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords the same year. The company later composed the music for Valkyrie Studio's Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, during which O'Donnell met Steve Downes, whom he would later recommend as the voice actor for the Master Chief. O'Donnell described the work for Septerra Core as his most difficult assignment; during the production the TotalAudio studio burned to the ground and O'Donnell had to be hoisted through a window in order to save some 20 hours of recordings. Soon after producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell for several of Bungie's other projects, including the third-person game Oni. In 1999, Bungie wanted to re-negotiate the contracts for Oni, and the negotiations resulted in O'Donnell joining the Bungie team, only ten days before the company was bought by Microsoft. O'Donnell was one of only a handful of Bungie employees who remained working at the company since then, until his termination as of April 2014. While O'Donnell worked at Bungie, Salvatori handled the business side of TotalAudio. ## Halo series After producing the music for Oni, O'Donnell was tasked with composing the music for Bungie's next project, which would be unveiled at E3 2000. After talking with Joseph Staten, O'Donnell decided the music needed to be "big, exciting, and unusual with a classical orchestra touch to give it some weight and stature. We also wanted it to have some sort of 'ancient' feel to it." O'Donnell came up with the idea of opening the piece with gregorian chant and jotted down the melody in his car. Because he did not know how long the presentation would be, O'Donnell created "smushy" opening and closing sections that could be expanded or cut as time required to back up a rhythmic middle section. The music was recorded and sent to New York the same night the piece was finished; the resulting music became the basis for the Halo series' "highly recognizable" signature sound, and what has been called one of the best-known video game themes. The use of the chant in the main theme has been credited with contributing to popular interest in the genre. Halo's music used an interactive engine to change music in response to player's actions; this non-linear method has since become widespread. The scores for Halo and its sequel Halo 2 garnered awards such as The Game Developers Choice Award and Best Original Video Game Soundtrack from Rolling Stone. The music for Halo 3 contained refinements and revisions to previous themes heard in the series, as O'Donnell stressed the importance of using previous motifs in the final installment of the trilogy; the composer wanted to "blow out" the epic sounds from the first game. O'Donnell also introduced a distinctive piano theme which had never been heard before, and first made its appearance in the Halo 3 announcement teaser. In an interview, O'Donnell stated that he has always approached music from the keyboard, and that at the Electronic Entertainment Expo—where the trailer would first be shown—he had a feeling that, "no [other announcement] would start with a piano." O'Donnell planned on composing the music "at the last minute", saying he had no intention of producing a large amount of music that would never be used. "It drives everyone crazy but it worked for me in the past and it works for the game in the best way. Writing music before the end just doesn't work for me," he said. For Halo 3: ODST, a planned expansion to Halo 3 that became a full game, O'Donnell and Salvatori abandoned all previous Halo themes and started anew. Due to ODST'''s shift to a new protagonist, O'Donnell created new music that was evocative of past Halo but branched in a different direction. Since Bungie was aiming for a smaller, detective story feel, O'Donnell felt that a jazz-influenced approach worked best in echoing the film noir atmosphere. In creating music for Halo: Reach, a prequel to Combat Evolved, O'Donnell wanted to create music with a "grittier" feel because of the dark nature of the story. Reach was Bungie's last Halo project. O'Donnell called the prospect of writing new music both a challenge and a relief to step away from the iconic themes of Halo. In 2015, music from the Halo series was voted by listeners into the Classic FM Hall of Fame for the first time, reaching position 244. ## Destiny and post-Bungie In 2013, O'Donnell began composition of an eight-movement symphonic suite entitled Music of the Spheres. Collaborating with Paul McCartney as well as Michael Salvatori and C. Paul Johnson, the symphony contained music to be implemented in the 2014 video game, Destiny, as well as any future installments of the franchise. On April 11, 2014, O'Donnell announced via Twitter he had been fired from Bungie "without cause". In June 2014, he filed a lawsuit against Bungie president Harold Ryan, claiming he was terminated without cause and that Ryan withheld pay for vacation and sabbatical time. In a response filed in Washington's Superior Court, Ryan denied wrongdoing. The suit was settled in June 2014, with a final arbitration ruling decided September 4, 2015, in which the court stated that "[...]Bungie breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing when it caused the closure of O'Donnell's stock and denied him any participation in the Profit Participation Plan". At the 2015 D.I.C.E. awards, Destiny was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design. In 2015, O'Donnell founded video game development studio Highwire Games. He worked on the soundtrack to their debut game Golem, a VR game which was released on November 15, 2019. A musical prequel album to the game, Echoes of the First Dreamer (The Musical Prequel to Golem) was released by video game music label Materia Collective. ## Selected music projects for video games ## Collections O'Donnell's music has been packaged into several soundtrack collections. For Halo's music, O'Donnell created "frozen" arrangements that represented an approximation of a play-through of the games. The Halo Original Soundtrack sold over 40,000 copies, and was followed by two different releases of the music to Halo 2. The two volumes of the Halo 2 Original Soundtrack were produced by Nile Rodgers, with the first album being released in sync with the video game in 2004 and became the best-selling game soundtrack of all time in the United States. The second album was released more than a year after the soundtrack had been mixed and mastered. The Halo 3 Original Soundtrack was released in November 2007, and featured a fan contribution that was the select winner from a pool of entries judged by O'Donnell, Rodgers, and others. All of O'Donnell's work on the series was repackaged as Halo Trilogy—The Complete Original Soundtracks in December 2008, alongside preview tracks written by Halo Wars composer Stephen Rippy. The music to Halo 3: ODST was released as a two-disc set to coincide with the game's release on September 22, 2009. Reach's soundtrack was available in digital formats the same day as the game's release on September 14, 2010; the physical two-disc soundtrack was released September 28, 2010. On September 26, 2014, O'Donnell's soundtrack to Bungie's first installment of the Destiny franchise was released, several months after his termination from the company. ## Composition O'Donnell has used an Apple Macintosh computer for composition. In an interview O'Donnell wished that his software would easily upgrade to newer revisions; "for the last twenty years of technology, every time a 'new' version of something comes out, the old version gets trashed and I find myself unable to do something that I used to depend on," he said. O'Donnell was involved in the implementation of his music as well as the composition, and was Bungie's Audio lead. He composed at Bungie from a sound-proofed room in the corner of Bungie's office, dubbed the "Ivory Tower". O'Donnell said in an interview that he feels that one problem with games is those that play music non-stop, which he feels detracts from the overall impact. Composers are forced to either write ambient music, he says, or very light music that is not emotionally driven, which he said is a detriment. O'Donnell prefers to write music towards the end of the development cycle, because he would rather score the final timing for things like cinematics and gameplay changes. O'Donnell credits part of the success of the Halo theme to his background writing jingles. For that music, O'Donnell had to make sure he could write music that would "get in people's heads" after 15 to 30 seconds. O'Donnell pushed Bungie to spend money on hiring singers and musicians to record the theme before Macworld as a way to present a strong showing. Among the video game composers O'Donnell admires are Jeremy Soule, Jason Hayes, Koji Kondo, and Nobuo Uematsu, but he notes that he is older than most fellow game composers and that he was not directly influenced by them. Instead classical music by Beethoven, Brahms, and Barber and progressive rock groups like Jethro Tull and Genesis informed O'Donnell's taste and works. In addition to composition, O'Donnell also arranges his work. He created a special arrangement that was used for a Halo 3 segment of Video Games Live in London, after which O'Donnell appeared. He has also appeared with and without Salvatori at other shows featuring his music, including later Video Games Live tours and Play! A Video Game Symphony. ## Personal life O'Donnell has been married for more than 30 years to his wife, Marcie, and has two daughters, Alison and Christine. His children were part of a singing choir for the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins commercial jingle O'Donnell composed. His father did voice work for Myth as the "Surly Dwarf", as well as "The Prophet of Objection" in Halo 2''. O'Donnell is a self-described political conservative, and Bungie coworkers described him as the most right-leaning employee at the company. Despite his extensive work with Bungie, O'Donnell remained co-owner and president of TotalAudio.

SR Lord Nelson class

Class of 16 four-cylinder 4-6-0 locomotives

The SR class LN or Lord Nelson class is a type of 4-cylinder 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Richard Maunsell in 1926. They were intended for Continental boat trains between London (Victoria) and Dover harbour, but were also later used for express passenger work to the South-West of England. Sixteen of them were constructed, representing the most powerful (although not the most successful) Southern 4-6-0 design. They were all named after famous admirals. The class continued to operate with British Railways until withdrawn during 1961 and 1962. Only one example of the class – the first engine, Lord Nelson itself – has been saved from scrapping. This has been seen running on mainline tours and preserved railways throughout Britain. ## Background Although the improved ”King Arthur” class 4-6-0 locomotives were capable of the heaviest express passenger work between London and South West England, there was a growth in demand for Continental traffic travelling via Dover and Folkestone. By the mid-1920s the Southern Railway Traffic Department wished to begin operating 500-long-ton (510 t; 560-short-ton) express trains on these routes during peak periods. These would require a more powerful locomotive, able to pull heavier loads at sustained speeds of 55 mph (89 km/h), so as not to impede the congested electrified lines around London. However, any enlargement of the existing 2-cylinder design was not possible due to weight restrictions imposed by the railway's Civil Engineer. After examining the practice of other British railways, Richard Maunsell, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, secured agreement for a 4-cylinder design, with an improved boiler and Belpaire firebox. The drive would be divided between the front coupled axle for the inside cylinders and the middle coupled axle for the outside cylinders giving better weight distribution and reduced hammer blow. The new design was an inevitable compromise between the need for additional power and to keep the weight down to an acceptable limit. There were two unusual features of the design: the first of which was the setting of the crank axles at 135°, rather than the standard 90° of other locomotive types. This design necessitated four sets of valve gear, and gave rise to eight beats per revolution, rather than the usual four, designed to give a more even draw on the fire and less chance of wheelslip when starting. The second difference was that fire grate was in two sections, the rear portion was horizontal and the front sloped away sharply. ## Construction history The prototype E850 named Lord Nelson was ordered from Eastleigh railway works in June 1925 but production proceeded slowly, at Maunsell's insistence, to ensure that the weight was kept to a minimum at every stage, so the locomotive did not appear until August 1926. It was tested on a variety of duties over the next year, with sufficiently encouraging results for an initial order for ten more locomotives for delivery between May 1928 and April 1929 to be placed. These were originally scheduled to be allocated to Battersea depot and fitted with 4,000 gallon 6-wheeled tenders suitable for the Continental ports. However, during construction, it was decided to equip half of the class with 5,000 gallon 8-wheeled tenders necessary for the longer West of England routes and to allocate them to Nine Elms depot. A further batch of ten locomotives was ordered in 1928, before the previous batch had been delivered, but when it became apparent that the Stock Market Crash of 1929 would be likely to reduce the demand for Continental travel, this second order was reduced to five. ### Naming the locomotives The locomotives were all named after famous Royal Navy admirals, with the doyen of the class being named Lord Nelson. As a result, the rest of the locomotives belonged to the Lord Nelson (LN) class. ### Modifications The performance of the new locomotives was mixed, depending upon the experience of the crew and the circumstances under which they were operating. At times it was no better than their smaller predecessors. Maunsell therefore undertook a number of experiments to try to improve the performance of the new locomotives. No. E859 was fitted with smaller 6 ft 3 in (1.905 m) driving wheels to see if this would improve performance over the heavily graded London-Dover line, but the difference was marginal. No. E860 was fitted with a longer, heavier boiler but once again with little improvement. The whole class however benefitted from the fitting of smoke deflectors during the late 1920s. Maunsell was aware of the reputation for poor steaming enjoyed by the class and attempted to address it by the fitting of twin Kylchap blastpipes to No. 860 in 1934. However, the problem was ultimately solved by Oliver Bulleid, Maunsell's replacement as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern in 1938. He fitted larger diameter chimneys and Lemaître multiple jet blastpipes, which effectively transformed their performance. Thereafter the class was highly respected. ## Operational details For a period after its introduction to the Southern Railway network, the Lord Nelson class held the title of "most powerful locomotive in Britain" – a claim based on its tractive effort. The advanced design of the locomotive led to the GWR introducing the GWR 6000 Class in order to regain the title lost by their GWR 4073 Class locomotives when the Lord Nelsons were constructed. The planned 500-ton trains never materialised, but the class was regularly used on 460 ton trains such as the Golden Arrow. After the Second World War they were also frequently used on heavily laden Boat Trains between London Waterloo station and Southampton docks. The Lord Nelsons were notoriously difficult for inexperienced crews to fire properly, due to their long firebox, and specific crews who had proven experience in firing the locomotives were therefore allocated to them. This was due to the relatively few locomotives in the class for crews to train on. The LMS Royal Scot Class was loosely based on this design. ## Accidents and incidents - One member of the Lord Nelson class was involved in what could have been a major accident on 23 January 1930. This entailed the leading driving wheels jumping off the track, though the locomotive ran for many yards before they re-railed themselves over a set of points. - No. 860 Lord Hawke was derailed at St. Denys, Hampshire on 14 August 1940 due to enemy action. A bomb fell on the track ahead of the train, which was unable to stop in time. - No. 852 Sir Walter Raleigh received a direct hit from an enemy bomb on 18 April 1941, and was so severely damaged that it was not returned to service until June 1942. - No. 854 Howard of Effingham suffered a firebox failure due to lack of water on 23 April 1945, killing the fireman and injuring the driver. - No. 851 Sir Francis Drake was involved in a serious derailment at Byfleet on 27 December 1946, due to the poor condition of the permanent way. - On 26 November 1947, No. 860 Lord Hawke was hauling a passenger train that was run into by another at Farnborough, Hampshire due to a signalman's error. Two people were killed. - No. 30854 Howard of Effingham was hauling a passenger train that overran signals and was derailed by trap points at Shawford, Hampshire on 20 July 1952. ## Withdrawal The class was gradually superseded on top link expresses during the 1940s by growing numbers of Bulleid Pacifics, although throughout the 1950s they were frequently called upon during peak periods or to deputise for failures. The rebuilding of the Pacifics in the late 1950s and their subsequent increased reliability rendered the Lord Nelson surplus to operational requirements, and they were gradually phased out of service. The entire class was withdrawn during 1961 and 1962. ## Livery and numbering ### Southern Railway The Lord Nelson class was initially painted in Maunsell lined olive green, which later changed to a lighter shade in the mid-1930s. From 1938, some of the locomotives were painted in a semi-matt Malachite Green finish when Bulleid replaced Maunsell as CME of the Southern. During the war years, the locomotives were painted in wartime black livery, though retained the word "Southern" in yellow on the tender. After the war, the livery was reverted to the Southern Railway Malachite Green standard with "Sunshine Yellow" lining on the boiler rings. Numbers allocated to the locomotives were a variation of LSWR practice and, being constructed at Eastleigh, were given the prefix "E" before the number to distinguish from the locomotives of other pre-grouping railway companies that also carried the same number. In the case of the Lord Nelson class the numbering ranged from E850 to E865. This was eventually superseded by numbers without the "E" prefix, becoming 850 to 865 from 1931. ### Post-1948 (nationalisation) The initial livery applied following the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 was modified Southern malachite green and sunshine yellow with "British Railways" on the tender, and the Southern numbering system was temporarily retained with an "S" prefix (such as S850) until superseded by the British Railways numbering system. The locomotives then carried British Railways Brunswick green livery with orange and black lining. By this stage the locomotives were renumbered under standard British Railways procedure, from 30850 to 30865. ## Preservation The only survivor, first-of-class (30)850 Lord Nelson, has been preserved as part of the National Railway Collection, and has run on the national rail network. As of 2020 it is based on the Mid-Hants Railway. Its boiler certificate expired in 2015. It is now stored awaiting overhaul. ## See also - List of Lord Nelson class locomotives

Deus Ex: Invisible War

2003 video game

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a 2003 action role-playing video game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. It is the second game in the Deus Ex series. The gameplay—combining first-person shooter, stealth, and role-playing elements—features exploration and combat in environments connected to multiple city-based hubs, in addition to quests that can be completed in a variety of ways and flexible character customization. Conversations between characters feature a variety of responses, with options in conversations at crucial story points affecting how some events play out. Invisible War takes place twenty years after Deus Ex. The game follows a scenario whereby the first game's events led to a period of war and economic depression dubbed the "Collapse", which resulted in several factions attaining power and influence across the world. The player character, Alex D, is evacuated from Chicago to Seattle following a terrorist attack, soon becoming embroiled in a network of plots as the world's factions fight for control of the world. In addition to the series' recurring cyberpunk setting and conspiracy theory motif, the story focuses on the theme of terrorism. Development of Invisible War began following the success of Deus Ex. The aim was to create a more accessible version of the original game's systems while preserving its essentials. Original designer Harvey Smith directed the game, while Alexander Brandon and Sheldon Pacotti returned respectively as composer and scenario writer. Additional music and voice work was provided by the rock band Kidneythieves. Due to being developed for PC and Xbox, the game's environments needed to be designed with the console's hardware limitations in mind. In later interviews, members of the team have faulted their decisions for the title. The game was acclaimed for its graphics, narrative and the freedom of choice in both gameplay and story. Criticism was directed towards enemy artificial intelligence, some of the design choices and problems with the PC port. The game has sold over one million copies worldwide as of 2011. Later opinions from both journalists and the game's staff have been polarized, with several websites calling Invisible War the weakest entry in the Deus Ex series. After several unsuccessful efforts to create a third Deus Ex game prior to Ion Storm's 2005 closure, a prequel to the first game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, was developed by Eidos Montréal and released in 2011. ## Gameplay Deus Ex: Invisible War is an action role-playing game with incorporated first-person shooter and stealth mechanics. Players take the role of Alex D, whose gender and general appearance can be customized at the beginning of the game. The game has multiple difficulty settings; these range from "Easy", which increases damage to enemies, to "Realistic", which raises enemy health while also decreasing available ammunition. The player moves around the environment, being able to climb ladders and jump onto crates, and crouch to negotiate narrow spaces. Items such as datacubes and holoprojectors can be accessed to expand upon the narrative and progress the story. Certain objects in the game can be carried or thrown, from small items to human bodies. Each hub area of the game has a variety of missions given to the player by non-playable characters (NPCs), which the player can choose to accept or ignore; these missions include quests linked to the main story and side quests unique to each hub area. These objectives can be completed in a variety of ways; these include using stealth to infiltrate an area, opening access points using hacking, or launching an armed assault. When talking with NPCs, the player has access to multiple dialogue options, with the option chosen influencing the course of the conversation. There are a variety of melee and ranged weapons in the game, both lethal and non-lethal; the melee weapons include a combat knife, a baton, and a "stun prod" shock device. Ranged weapons include a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, an SMG, and a rocket launcher. Other weapon types include a variety of grenades and bombs. All guns found in the game share the same ammunition pool, which is represented by a bar, and each gun type uses different amounts from the pool. Guns can be customized with items and pieces of equipment, such as outfitting a gun with a silencer or allowing it to shoot through glass silently. Other upgrades increase maximum damage and decrease ammunition use. Items, weapons, ammunition, and equipment are purchased with credits, the in-game currency either gathered in the environment or earned through quests. Items range from tools such as disposable multitools for unlocking doors to canisters that replenish health or energy. Defeated enemies drop items that can be collected, or can be found in the environment or in containers such as boxes and cabinets. The player can carry up to twelve item types, with consumable items able to be stacked in a single slot. During the course of the game, the player acquires biomods – nanite-filled canisters that enhance their physical and mental attributes. There are two types of biomod canisters in the game: standard canisters and black market versions, both either found in the environment or purchased from certain NPCs. Standard and black market biomods cannot be installed in the same slot. Biomods are installed in five different slots representing different parts of the body—"Arm", "Cranial", "Eye", "Leg", and "Skeletal". Each region has three enhancement options the player can activate. Some biomod enhancements are exclusive to either standard or black market biomods. Biomod abilities range from enhancements to strength and agility to abilities linked to hacking terminals and taking control of hostile robots. Once activated, further biomod canisters can be used to upgrade existing abilities, or uninstall an ability to change it around, deleting and replacing the chosen enhancement with the new one. Biomod abilities tied to abilities such as cloaking use up the a portion of the player's energy bar when activated. ## Synopsis ### Setting Invisible War is set in the year 2072, twenty years after the events of the original Deus Ex; the Deus Ex series is set in a cyberpunk future rife with secret organizations and conspiracies such as the Illuminati and Majestic 12, an Illuminati splinter faction. During the first game's events in 2052, original protagonist JC Denton—a clone designed to serve Majestic 12—was drawn into a secret war between the Illuminati and Majestic 12, led by industrialist Bob Page. Page intended to make himself a global dictator by first undermining the Illuminati by creating a pandemic to blackmail the world's elite into supporting Majestic 12, then merging himself with the artificial intelligence (AI) Helios. In the back-story revealed in the course of Invisible War, a combination of all three possible endings of Deus Ex took place; JC kills Majestic 12 leader Bob Page, merges with Helios, destroys Majestic 12's base in Area 51 to cripple the world communication network, then sides with the Illuminati to rebuild the world in the wake of these events. JC's actions triggered a worldwide period of war and depression dubbed the "Collapse". Following the Collapse, major capitals organize themselves into city states, creating walled enclaves where the population can be watched and expansion is closely controlled. The story moves between a variety of locations across the world, starting in Seattle and moving on to Cairo, Trier and Antarctica. A recurring feature are "Augmentations", advanced nanotechnologies that enhance the human body; the type used in Invisible War are dubbed "biomods". ### Characters and factions The main protagonist is "Alex D"; their full name is Alex Denton, a clone from the same program which created JC and Paul Denton. Spirited away shortly before the events of Deus Ex, Alex is raised in Chicago before being inducted into the Tarsus Academy, a group controlled by the Denton-created ApostleCorp. At Tarsus, Alex is trained in the use of biomods. Alex's gender is chosen at the beginning of the game, with their selected gender affecting how some people react to them in conversations. Along with Alex, three other Tarsus students are encountered through the story: Billie Adams, a long-term friend of Alex; Leo Jankowski, a high-ranking and impulsive trainee; and Klara Sparks, a modest student who acts as Leo's friend and support. The students are overseen by Leila Nassif. Returning characters from Deus Ex include JC Denton; his brother Paul, who is rendered comatose after an unsuccessful biomod infusion; and Tracer Tong, an ally of the Dentons. There are several factions within Invisible War that Alex is contacted by and can choose to side with and represent different viewpoints on how humanity's post-Collapse society should develop. The two factions handling reconstruction in city enclaves are a future version of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which builds and maintains the emergent city states, acting as the de facto government body; and the Order, a religion combining concepts from multiple faiths which has gained support from people outside the enclaves and is opposed to the WTO's policies. Both the Order and the WTO are puppet organizations of the Illuminati, respectively led by Illuminati members Nicolette DuClare and Chad Dumier, the latter a veteran of the war against Majestic 12. Two other factions are the Knights Templar, a group led by former Order leader Saman that makes militant strikes against groups espousing biomod use; and the Omar, a cult of cybernetically-enhanced humans who share a hive mind. ### Plot Note: While the general plot of Invisible War follows a distinct path, many elements such as faction alliances and character interactions are subject to the player's decisions. The game also offers several subplots and explanations which the player may or may not encounter, depending on their actions within the game. This synopsis concentrates on the main, unavoidable plot thread of the game. The game opens after a terrorist attack on Chicago by the Knights Templar: a nanite bomb turns the entire city into grey goo, with the staff and trainees of the city's Tarsus Academy facility barely escaping in time to Tarsus' Seattle facility. After that too is attacked by terrorists, Alex discovers with Billie's help that Tarsus has been observing their trainees in secret under the guidance of Nassif, escapes the facility and is subsequently offered missions by Tarsus, the Order, the WTO, and the Omar. During these missions, Alex learns that their biomods were created by ApostleCorp, and follows Nassif from Seattle to Cairo, which is being disrupted by fighting between the factions. Alex's fellow students follow different paths during the narrative; Billie initially allies with the Order before joining the Knights Templar, Klara joins the WTO, while Leo becomes involved with the Omar and can become an unwilling convert. After locating Nassif, Alex learns that they are part of JC's plan to distribute their biomod technology worldwide, and that JC is currently incapacitated due to his own augmentations clashing with Helios. Alex goes to Trier to use a teleportation gate to reach JC's hiding place in Antarctica. While in Trier, Alex meets up with Tong and is sent to save key figures from being killed by the Templars, learning of the Illuminati's involvement. After activating the teleportation gate and reaching Antarctica, Alex is confronted by Billie and then revives JC. JC explains his plan of connecting all of humanity to Helios using Alex's biomods, paving the way for an ideal democracy. Alex is sent to Cairo to revive Paul with their compatible biomods. There Alex has the option of saving Paul, killing him under orders from Dumier, or handing him over to Saman. Brought by JC's agents to Liberty Island, Alex learns that the island holds an old part of the pre-Collapse worldwide communication network which can be used by each faction. No matter what choices Alex has made up to now, they can choose to side with any faction, or kill all the leaders on Liberty Island. If Alex follows JC's plan, the biomods are distributed worldwide, giving Helios the ability to access all human thought, allowing it to govern humanity. If Alex sides with the Illuminati, they use the network to help create a global surveillance state where communication and the economy are controlled. If Alex joins the Templars, they help unite humanity under a theocracy where biomod use and those considered impure are ruthlessly suppressed. Killing all other factions on Liberty Island leads to global chaos, turning Earth into a wasteland dominated by the Omar. ## Development Development of Invisible War began at series creator Ion Storm following the success of the original Deus Ex. Most of the development team returned, eager to both tell a new story and refine the original gameplay. There were also relative newcomers who had worked on the original game's PlayStation 2 (PS2) port. Harvey Smith, lead designer for the original game, was chosen by the original director and series creator Warren Spector to direct the game; Spector instead took on a supervisory role for both Invisible War and other projects within the company. While Smith was tempted to act as both director and designer, he saw that it would be too much work, so brought on Ricardo Bare as lead designer. Bare had been involved in the later development of Deus Ex, and despite his lack of experience as a designer was given the role when more qualified staff members were unavailable. The music for the game was composed by Alexander Brandon and Todd Simmons; Brandon had previously worked on the original game. Brandon's guidance when composing the music for Invisible War was the sparse musical style of the Thief series, shifting away from the style used for the original game. The voice acting style also underwent changes, with the aim being for more professional performances. The improved voice acting was attributed to the team being given a larger budget. The soundtrack included six tracks from the album Trickster by industrial rock band Kidneythieves; the band's lead singer Free Dominguez provided voice work for the idol character NG Resonance. Dominguez described the experience of recording her voice work being fun. When creating the game, the team's main aim was to create an experience that emulated the original game's freedom of choice while giving mainstream players more options for defining the player character. The gameplay drew inspiration from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, System Shock, Dungeon Master and Thief: The Dark Project. Due to the game being designed for both consoles and PC players, the team wanted to minimize the number of menus to navigate, maintaining the core feeling of a first-person shooter. One of the aims was to improve the stealth elements, which the team felt was "broken" in Deus Ex. When designing the stealth, the team received input from the team developing Thief: Deadly Shadows, which was also in production at Ion Storm. They also had staff who had worked on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, then regarded as one of the best recent stealth-focused games. The original game's two different levelling systems of augmentations and skill points were combined into the biomod system. The use of universal ammunition was implemented so players would not need to worry about collecting ammunition types for multiple gun types. Spector later explained these changes as a means of helping sell the game to players outside the core fanbase; with both Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows, they needed a wider player base in order to make the games profitable. A multiplayer mode, which had been added to the original game via a patch, was not included in Invisible War due to time and quality concerns. The story was influenced by popular conspiracy theories, spy stories, and science fiction. The original writer for Deus Ex, Sheldon Pacotti, returned to write the game's script with newcomer Sarah Paetsch. A major difference from the first game was the player's freedom to change factions throughout the game, something not available in the first game. A core part of the experience was the branching narrative, giving the player multiple options of progress despite missions having a linear progression. Paetsch estimated that the game contained over 30,000 lines of voiced dialogue. The game's subtitle referred to the unseen battle that took place both around people and within them. The suggestion that all endings of Deus Ex should be part of the canon series of events was suggested by a staff member who worked on the original game's Hong Kong storyline. The locations were chosen for their distinct feel and—in some cases—iconic landmarks. They also chose locations associated at the time with the organizations featured in-game, such as Seattle and the WTO. The Antarctica setting was influenced by the John Carpenter's film The Thing. Rather than use JC as the main protagonist due to his actions in Deus Ex making him a grand figure in world history, the team created newcomer Alex, someone who would share JC's roots and begin "at the bottom of the pyramid", as was a popular element of many "immersive sim" games at the time. One of the themes included in the game was the nature of terrorism, and how people could be classified as terrorists or freedom fighters depending on circumstance. While the original game was developed for Windows, the team developed Invisible War for console, using their experience creating the Deus Ex PS2 port. They chose the Xbox as it had the largest memory capacity. The biggest problem was the smaller processing power and RAM compared to PCs. Due to the limited hardware of the Xbox, the environment sizes needed to be scaled down compared to the first game, but the team tried to make the smaller areas denser, with more interactive elements. When creating the game, the team rebuilt all the systems from scratch from the engine to the render and sound system. The game used a combination of the Unreal Engine and the Havok physics software. The choice of Unreal was governed by several factors including familiarity with the engine and the wish to develop for both PC and console environments; while the basic structure of the Unreal Engine was used, the team replaced the renderer, artificial intelligence (AI) programming and physics engine. Integrating Havok allowed for "richer" simulation of real-time physics. The AI was designed to exhibit a wider range of responses than the original game, noticing disturbances, searching environments and being able to call in reinforcements. A sequel to Deus Ex was revealed by Eidos in 2001 through job listings advertising for designers to work on the game. Later that month at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Eidos confirmed that both the second Deus Ex and the next Thief game would be coming to consoles before arriving on PC; the explanation was that taking the restrictions of console hardware into account would make later ports to PC more effective. Eidos officially announced the game E3 2002; the platforms listed were PC, Xbox and PS2. It was later revealed that Ion Storm were struggling to work out how to port the game to PS2 given the extensive hardware differences between the three platforms, and were reluctant to do so due to these issues. Following the game's release, it was clarified that no PS2 version would be developed. As part of the promotion, the soundtrack was made available for download through the game's website. A demo was released in November 2003. The game was released in North America on December 2, 2003. Following the North American release, Ion Storm released a patch to fix issues with the graphics and additional gameplay elements such as quick saves. The game released in Europe on March 5, 2004. The Xbox version was also released in Japan. First announced in March 2004, the game was released on June 17. ## Reception ### Sales During its debut week in the United Kingdom, the game reached \#3 in the charts, described as a respectable debut. In their financial report in April 2005, Eidos reported that Invisible War was among the titles to have sold between 500,000 and one million copies since release, placing it among their successful titles. As of April 2011, Invisible War has sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide, placing it above the original game in terms of copies sold. ### Critical reception Computer and Video Games called both versions of the game enjoyable despite elements of world building and gameplay not carried over from the original lessened the experience. Eurogamer's Rob Fahay, while noting that its focus on some aspects of the first game over others left it at a disadvantage, still called it "excellent". Adam Biessener and Justin Leeper of Game Informer, respectively reviewing the PC and Xbox versions, praised the variety of choices in gameplay and the quality of the story and voice performances, calling both great examples of games within the science fiction genre. GamePro praised the story, its extensive voice acting, the number of choices available in gameplay progression and the completion of objectives. GameSpot's Greg Kasavin, who reviewed both versions, praised the game's ambition and the elements that worked, but said that people would focus on the faults with its narrative delivery and gameplay structure; he summed up the game as a "great and original experience that's well worthwhile". Steve Butts of IGN said that, while some would say the gameplay made too many concessions towards casual players, it was still a well-built and enjoyable video game, praising most of the alterations made by the developers. Ryan McCaffrey of Official Xbox Magazine called the game a "brilliant RPG" despite noting its short length, praising its narrative, gameplay freedom, and in-game physics. Kieron Gillen, reviewing the game for PC Gamer, praised the game's wide variety of choice despite some elements such as the biomod upgrade system not evolving. He noted that the elements that had not been directly carried over from Deus Ex would taint people's perception of the game. General praise went to the variety of choice in its narrative and gameplay, despite the former being seen as lacking in places and the latter being held back by other factors such as the limitations of the Biomod upgrade system and its limited environment sizes. Poor AI behavior was also a recurring criticism. The Xbox version was praised for its performance and graphics despite several reviewers noting distracting drops in frame rate and other technical issues. The PC version was frequently criticized as having similar frame rate issues in addition to problems with the controls, the necessity for a powerful computer to run the game properly, and the fact that the game was scaled down to run on the Xbox. ### Accolades As part of his review, McCaffrey named the game as "Editor's Choice". At the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers 2003 awards ceremony, Invisible War was nominated for awards in the "Character Design" and "Lighting/Texturing" categories. At the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards, Pacotti and Paetsch were nominated in the "Excellence in Writing" category for their work on the game. At that year's Interactive Achievement Awards, the game was nominated in the categories of "Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year" and "Console First-Person Action Game of the Year". ## Legacy Invisible War has retrospectively been seen as the weakest mainline entry in the Deus Ex series compared to both the original game and subsequent titles. IGN's Brian Albert, in a history of the series, felt that its technical shortcomings and science fiction aesthetics prevented Invisible War from finding the same appeal as the original game. Neon Kelly of VideoGamer.com said the game was "widely regarded as a disappointment" due to the controversial design choices relating to its gameplay and console-focused structure. Several retrospectives on the game have cited it as a disappointing game in the wake of the highly acclaimed original: both Heather Alexandra of Kotaku and Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer said that—while the game was not bad in itself—it failed to live up to the Deus Ex series traditions and worked against the brand. In a dedicated retrospective of the game for Eurogamer, Tristan Donovan said that the game was "destined to spend its future living in the shadow of the game that came before it and, now, the game that came after it", despite it having enough elements to be considered an entry in the Deus Ex series. Members of staff have also spoken out against their role in the game: Spector openly regrets listening to the focus testers during early development as this influenced the shift in setting, Brandon faulted the sound—the more professional voice acting and sparse musical style—as being foreign to the Deus Ex series, while in multiple interviews Smith expressed disappointment with the design decisions taken with the game despite him still liking it. In a conversation with Spector during a lecture at the University of Texas, Smith voiced his opinions on the game's development: > "I feel like we f----- up the technology management of it, [...] We had bad team chemistry. We wrote the wrong renderer. We wrote the wrong kind of AI. And then we shipped too early. The story was even bad. Like, it wasn't a bad story story. It was more like we moved into the future, which – we didn’t realize at the time – undermined a lot of what made Deus Ex great." ### Future games Following the release of Invisible War, multiple attempts were made to create a third Deus Ex title, even after both Spector and Smith left Ion Storm. The two main projects were dubbed Deus Ex: Insurrection, which used the same engine as Invisible War while moving away from its divisive mechanics; and Deus Ex 3, which aimed to be an open world game with a branching narrative. Prospective development on the third Deus Ex game was halted when, following further staff departure and financial difficulties, the studio's owner Eidos Interactive closed them down in 2005. A separate project developed by Crystal Dynamics, intended as the fourth Deus Ex project following Insurrection and titled Deus Ex: Clan Wars, was reworked as Project Snowblind. Invisible War was the last Deus Ex game developed by Ion Storm prior to its closure. In 2007, the next entry in the Deus Ex series at the newly-established Eidos Montréal with the aim of revitalizing the Deus Ex series, with the game being both a prequel and a reboot of the series. First announced shortly after beginning development, Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011 to critical and commercial success. A direct sequel to Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, released in 2016. Mankind Divided and other projects following Human Revolution form part of a project dubbed the "Deus Ex Universe", with both games and additional media designed to expand upon the series setting.

Hurricane Katrina (1981)

Category 1 Atlantic hurricane in 1981

Hurricane Katrina was a late-forming tropical cyclone that impacted portions of the Greater Antilles and Bahamas in November 1981. The twenty-first tropical cyclone, eleventh named storm, and seventh hurricane of the 1981 Atlantic hurricane season, Katrina developed from an area of cloudiness in the western Caribbean Sea early on November 3. The initial tropical depression deepened slowly, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Katrina on November 5. About six hours later, Katrina peaked with sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h). The storm made landfall along the south coast of Camagüey Province in Cuba early on November 6. Katrina quickly weakened to a tropical storm, before emerging into the Atlantic Ocean hours later. The system then accelerated northeastward and crossed the Bahamas late on November 6. Katrina dissipated late on November 7, shortly before merging with a frontal system. On Grand Cayman, a waterspout ripped out a grape tree and slammed it into the Brac Reef Hotel's bar. Heavy rainfall was observed on Cuba, peaking at 15.74 inches (400 mm). As a result, Cuba experienced flash flooding in mountainous areas as Katrina moved across the country. In southern Camagüey Province, several bridges and railroads were reportedly washed out. Two sugar mills suffered damage. An estimated 4,641 homes suffered impact, 39 of which were destroyed. In addition, approximately 80% of sugar cane crops were damaged. Two people drowned in Cuba while attempting to cross a swollen river in Camagüey Province. The Bahamas received up to 14 in (360 mm) of rain, causing flood damage to watermelon, tomato and corn crops, particularly on Long Island. ## Meteorological history On November 1, an area of disturbed weather – a mass of cloudiness and thunderstorms – developed over the western Caribbean Sea. Subsequently, a low pressure area began to form. The system was designated a tropical depression early on November 3, while located about 150 miles (240 km) to the south of the Cayman Islands. Operationally, the National Hurricane Center began issuing advisories on the tropical depression at 2200 UTC on November 3. In the initial advisory, it was noted that the depression would slowly strengthen, but reach tropical storm status within 24 hours due to "strong" convection. The depression remained disorganized through early on November 4, with satellite imagery and weather stations in the Caribbean Sea region indicating no intensification. However, only a few hours later, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina, while drifting northward. Continuing to strengthen, Katrina slowly recurved north-northeastward and eventually to the northeast. The National Hurricane Center operationally classified Katrina as a tropical depression until 1600 UTC on November 4, after a reconnaissance aircraft flight reported tropical storm force winds. At 0600 UTC on November 5, the storm strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Later that same day, Katrina attained its peak intensity after another reconnaissance aircraft flight reported a minimum barometric pressure of 980 mbar (29 inHg), and observed maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph (140 km/h) on the surface. However, Katrina weakened slightly while approaching Cuba. Early on November 6, the storm made landfall in Camagüey Province with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h). Shortly after moving inland, the system weakened to a tropical storm. A deepening trough offshore the East Coast of the United States caused Katrina to accelerate east-northeastward. By 1330 UTC on November 6, the storm emerged into the Atlantic Ocean. Katrina slowly weakened while crossing through the central Bahamas later that day. After a reconnaissance aircraft flight failed to locate a closed circulation, the system dissipated late on November 7, while located about 380 miles (610 km) south-southeast of Bermuda. ## Preparations and impact In anticipation of Katrina, 150,000 people and 120,000 head of cattle in central Cuba were evacuated, according to a broadcast by Havana radio. As a result, Cuban Civil Defense officers issued a storm alert for five provinces. A hurricane watch was declared for the central and eastern Bahamas. Along the southeast coast of Florida, small craft were advised to remain close to port. However, the storm was not expected to, and did not, pose a threat to the United States. Throughout the Cayman Islands, Katrina dropped up to 12 inches (300 mm) of precipitation. In Grand Cayman, a waterspout ripped out a grape tree and slammed it into the Brac Reef Hotel's Bar. The highest observed 24-hour precipitation total in Cuba was 13.03 inches (331 mm), while rainfall in the nation peaked at 15.74 inches (400 mm). As a result, Cuba experienced flash flooding in mountainous areas as Katrina moved across the country. In southern Camagüey Province, a number of bridges and railroads were washed out. Two sugar mills suffered damage. About 4,641 homes suffered impact, 39 of which were destroyed. In addition, an estimated 80% of sugar cane crops were damaged. Two people drowned in Cuba while attempting to cross a swollen river in Camagüey Province. The Bahamas received up to 14 in (360 mm) of rain. Although no deaths or injuries were reported there, heavy rains in the central islands caused flood damage to watermelon, tomato and corn crops on Long Island. Bad weather from Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the 15th running of the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup Race. ## See also - Other storms named Katrina - North Atlantic tropical cyclone

Kennedy Road, Durban

Informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Kennedy Road is an informal settlement in Durban (eThekwini), in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the settlement was mentioned by the African National Congress (ANC) after the end of apartheid but amenities were not improved. The site is mostly not connected to sanitation or electricity. Dissatisfaction with local councillors led to 2005 protests including a road blockade, out of which the shack dwellers movemment Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) formed. In 2009, an AbM meeting was attacked resulting in two deaths and a court case. More recently, the municipality has improved facilities and promised to relocate inhabitants. ## History The Kennedy Road informal settlement is located on a steep hillside between a large rubbish dump and the Clare Estate, a suburb of Durban (eThekwini). Reports state that the site has been occupied since the late 1970s or early 1980s. Various attempts to force people off the land were met with resistance; by the late 1980s, the city had accepted the permanency of the settlement. After the end of apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) mentioned Kennedy Road by name as it pledged to improve informal settlements across the country. In the 1999 South African general election, inhabitants voted for the ANC. Most residents worked in the informal economy as cleaners or construction labourers. By the mid-2000s, there was a crumbling community hall and a self-managed creche, but the city had stopped emptying the latrines and only five were working on the entire site. The lack of decent roads meant that rubbish was rarely collected by the municipality and there were only five taps with running water. Around 40 percent of the site was connected to electricity, often illegally, which led to frequent shack fires. By 2005, the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) was pressuring local councillors to improve living conditions and believed it had secured a promise from the director of housing of eThekwini Municipality of extra land. Aoibheann O'Sullivan, an Irish film-maker, produced the 16-minute documentary Kennedy Road and the Councillor that same year. It juxtaposed claims made by local councillor Yacoob Baig with responses from residents of Kennedy Road. ## 2005 road blockade When Kennedy Road inhabitants saw that the land they had been promised was in fact being developed, they became angry. On 19 March 2005, around 800 people from the settlement blocked Umgeni Road and held it against the police for four hours, resulting in 14 arrests. Over a thousand people marched to the police station in Sydenham to demand the release of the "Kennedy Road 14". After 10 days, the arrestees were all released and permission was sought for a legal protest march, which occurred two weeks later on 13 May 2005. Over 3,000 people from Kennedy Road and other informal settlements marched to demand better amenities; this second march led to visits from city officials but no actual improvements. By September the latrines had been emptied but no new land was provided. Out of these protests, a city-wide movement of shack dwellers was formed known as Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM). As of 2009, the settlement was home to approximately 7,000 people and S'bu Zikode, elected leader of AbM, lived in the settlement. The Dlamini King Brothers, an isicathamiya choir, also lived there until the 2009 attacks displaced them. ## September 2009 attack On 26 September 2009, it was reported that a group of about 40 people wielding guns and knives attacked an Abahlali baseMjondolo youth meeting. The attackers demolished residents' homes and two people were killed in the resulting violence. The attacks continued through Tuesday 28 September 2009. It was reported by independent local and international academics as well as members of the AbM that the attackers were affiliated with the local branch of the ANC and that the attack was sanctioned by the local police. The attacks garnered national and international condemnation. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in Geneva issued a statement that expressed "grave concern about reports of organized intimidation and threats to members of advocacy group, Abahlali baseMjondolo". The police then arrested 12 members of AbM and put them on trial for offences ranging from murder to public violence, whilst Zikode and other AbM leaders went into hiding. The trial later collapsed. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa said that the "charges were based on evidence which now appears almost certainly to have been manufactured". Sociologist Marie Huchzermeyer has argued that the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo at the Kennedy Road settlement was linked to the movement's successful challenge to the so-called 'Slums Act' in the Constitutional Court. ## Recent events In 2020, as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, eThekwini Municipality planned to relocate inhabitants of Kennedy Road to alleviate overcrowding. In 2021, the municipality claimed it had been unable to aid recent victims of shack fires because workers had been attacked. It assessed that 483 shacks had been destroyed, displacing 781 people, including 135 children. Survivors of the fire told how difficult it was for them having lost possessions such as identification papers and birth certificates.

Clarkson railway station, Perth

Railway station in Perth, Western Australia

Clarkson railway station is a commuter rail station in Clarkson, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It is on the Joondalup line, which is part of the Transperth network. Located in the median of the Mitchell Freeway, the station consists of an island platform connected to the west by a pedestrian footbridge. A six stand bus interchange and two carparks are located near the entrance. Planning for an extension of the Joondalup line north of Currambine railway station was underway by 1995. The government committed to an extension to Clarkson the following year, and a plan detailing the extension was released in 2000. The first contract for the project, a \$14 million earthworks contract, was awarded to Brierty Contractors in March 2001. In April 2002, Barclay Mowlem and Alstom were awarded a contract worth \$17 million to design and build the extension's rail infrastructure, and in November 2002, a \$8.7million contract was awarded to Transfield for the construction of the station. The station opened on 4 October 2004, with five new Transperth B-series trains entering service that day. The following day, bus services in the area were realigned to feed into Clarkson station. On 3 September 2013, there was a minor train crash at Clarkson station. On 21 September 2014, an extension of the Joondalup line 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) north to Butler railway station was opened. Clarkson station is 33.2 kilometres (20.6 mi) from Perth railway station, with train journeys there taking 32 minutes. Train headways reach as low as five minutes during peak hour, with off peak services at 15 minute headways. There are six bus routes that serve Clarkson station. ## Description Clarkson railway station is in the median of the Mitchell Freeway along the Joondalup line. It is owned by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government agency, and is part of the Transperth system. The station is in Clarkson, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It is 33.2 kilometres (20.6 mi), or a 32-minute train journey, from Perth railway station, placing the station in fare zone four. The next station to the north is Butler railway station, which is the terminus of the Joondalup line, and the next station to the south is Currambine railway station. The station consists of two platform faces on a single island platform. The platform is 150-metre (490 ft) long, or long enough for a Transperth six-car train – the longest trains used on the network. The platforms are linked to the west by a pedestrian bridge. To the east is Neerabup National Park, and so there is no access to the east. The pedestrian bridge is linked to the platforms by stairs, a lift and a set of escalators. On the western side is a six-stand bus interchange, a drop off area and two carparks. The carparks have 1,059 standard bays, 10 short term parking bays and 20 motorcycle bays. At the entrance building is a transit officer booth, toilets and bicycle parking shelters. Clarkson is listed as an independent access station on the Transperth website as the platform can be accessed using lifts, the platform gap is small, and tactile paving is in place. ### Public art On the wall of the entrance building is a piece of public art titled The Bag Project, by Margaret Dillon from art design and construction company Concreto. It consists of a series of 44 500-by-500-millimetre (20 by 20 in) terrazzo tiles. The tiles, which have various colours, "depict images associated with the everyday commuter experience". The other piece of public art at Clarkson station is Line over Contour, by Stuart Green. This consists of stainless steel and painted steel panels mounted on a steel tower above the entrance building. ## History The original stage of the Joondalup line began construction in November 1989. It was opened between Perth station and Joondalup station on 20 December 1992, and extended to Currambine railway station on 8 August 1993. By 1995, planning for extending the Joondalup line north of Currambine was underway. On 20 November 1996, Richard Court, the premier of Western Australia, announced that his government would extend the railway to Neerabup Road in Clarkson at a cost of \$28 million, including \$12 million in additional rolling stock. On 28 November 1999, the Parliament of Western Australia passed the Railway Northern and Southern Urban Extension Bill, enabling the construction for the extension to Clarkson and a new railway to Mandurah south of Perth to begin. The Northern Rail Master Plan was released on 21 June 2000. The plan detailed the extension to Clarkson as well as the construction of Greenwood railway station along the Joondalup line. The cost of the extension had been revised to \$58 million, with an additional \$23 million for rollingstock. The new railway to Mandurah, the extension to Clarkson and the new station at Greenwood were all brought into a single project called the Perth Urban Rail Development Project (renamed New MetroRail in March 2003). Clarkson station was going to be built just north of Neerabup Road, with 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of double track to be built. The railway was to bridge over Burns Beach Road and go under Neerabup Road. Murray Criddle, the minister for transport, was hoping for the extension to open by September 2003. In October 2000, Court said that the cost was now \$99 million for the extension to Clarkson. The first contract for the extension was awarded in March 2001, when Brierty Contractors signed a \$14 million earthworks contract. Work began in May 2001, with the superintendent being Gutteridge Haskins and Davey Pty Ltd Consulting Engineers. Earthworks were completed in November 2002. In July 2001, the contract for the construction of the rail bridge over Burns Beach Road was awarded to Transfield Pty Ltd at a cost of \$1.7 million. The transport minister, now Alannah MacTiernan, was still confident in the service commencement date of September 2003. The Burns Beach Road bridge was completed on 6 May 2003. In April 2002, Barclay Mowlem and Alstom were awarded a contract worth \$17 million for the rail infrastructure for the extension. This contract included the design and construction of the track, traction power, signalling and communications systems. It also included work at Greenwood station. In May 2002, the government signed a contract with EDI Rail–Bombardier Transportation for the delivery and maintenance of 31 three car B-series trains, and the construction of the Nowergup depot 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Clarkson station. The initial batch of those trains was scheduled to be commissioned in September 2004 for the Clarkson extension. The same month, it was revealed that the project's completion date was now September 2004. On 13 November 2002, it was announced that a \$8.7million contract was awarded to Transfield for the construction of Clarkson station. When John Holland Group bought Transfield in January 2003, the company took over the project. By July 2004, the rail infrastructure was complete and the station was almost done. On 4 October 2004, the station opened, making it the first extension of Perth's rail network since the extension to Currambine in 1993. Five new B-series trains went into operation that day. In celebration of the opening, travel on Transperth train services was free that day, costing the state \$50,000. Bus services to Clarkson station commenced on 5 October 2004. At 6:30 am on 3 September 2013, an empty train travelling at low speed crashed into an occupied train carrying about 40 passengers stopped at Clarkson station. Three people were taken to hospital as a precaution, and five people suffered sore necks due to the crash. Following the crash, the Public Transport Authority investigated whether Portuguese millipedes were the cause. When crushed by train wheels, the millipedes can make the track slippery. There had been previous cases on the Transperth network where trains had overrun platforms due to the millipedes. Later that week, the tracks around the station were sprayed with insecticide. Later, the Rail Tram and Bus Union said that it was unsafe shunting practise that caused the crash, not the millipedes. On 21 September 2014, an extension of the Joondalup line 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) north to Butler railway station was opened. In 2017, the Mitchell Freeway was extended up to Hester Avenue north of the station, passing through Clarkson. The freeway's carriageways were built along both sides of Clarkson station. ## Services Clarkson station is served by Joondalup line trains operated by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the PTA. The line goes between Butler railway station and Elizabeth Quay railway station in the Perth central business district, continuing south from there as the Mandurah line. During the middle of peak hour, trains stop at the station every 10 minutes. At the start of peak hour, southbound trains stop at the station approximately every 5 minutes, with half of those services commencing at Clarkson station after exiting the Nowergup railway depot. At the end of peak hour, northbound trains stop at the station approximately every 5 minutes, with half of those services terminating at Clarkson station to enter the Nowergup railway depot. Services that terminate or start at Clarkson station are part of the K stopping pattern. During weekday between peak hour, on weekends and public holidays, trains stop at Clarkson station every 15 minutes. At night, trains are half-hourly or hourly. In the 2013–14 financial year, Clarkson station had 1,367,712 people board, making it the fifth busiest of the stations on the Joondalup line. In March 2018, Clarkson station had approximately 2,850 boardings on an average weekday, making it still the fifth busiest station on the line. Bus services are operated by Swan Transit under contract from the PTA. Six regular bus routes serve the station. Route 474 links to Joondalup railway station, passing through Kinross. Routes 480, 482, 483 and 484 link to Butler railway station, passing through suburbs including Butler, Jindalee, Merriwa, Mindarie, Quinns Rocks and Ridgewood. Route 481 goes northwest from Butler station, terminating at the coast in Quinns Rocks. Rail replacement bus services operate as route 904.

Gyromitra infula

Species of fungus

Gyromitra infula, commonly known as the hooded false morel or the elfin saddle, is a fungus in the family Helvellaceae. The dark reddish-brown caps of the fruit bodies develop a characteristic saddle-shape in maturity, and the ends of both saddle lobes are drawn out to sharp tips that project above the level of the fruit body. The stipe is white or flushed pale brown, smooth on the outside, but hollow with some chambers inside. It is found in the Northern Hemisphere, usually in the late summer and autumn, growing on rotting wood or on hard packed ground. G. infula is considered inedible as it contains the toxic compound gyromitrin which, when metabolized by the body, is converted into monomethylhydrazine, a component of some rocket fuels. The toxin may be removed by thorough cooking. Gyromitra fungi are included in the informal category "false morels". ## Taxonomy The fungus was first described in 1774 by German mycologist Jacob Christian Schäffer as Helvella infula (the original genus spelling was Elvela). In 1849, Elias Magnus Fries established the genus Gyromitra, distinguishing it from Helvella based on a gyrose hymenium (marked with wavy lines or convolutions); the genus was based on the type species Gyromitra esculenta. Later, in 1886, French mycologist Lucien Quélet transferred the species to Gyromitra. The next few decades witnessed some lingering confusion as to the correct taxonomical placement of these fungi. In 1907, Jean Boudier moved both G. esculenta and H. infula into a newly created genus he called Physomitra; he retained the genus Gyromitra but "based it on an entirely different character so as to exclude from the genus the very species on which it was founded". In an attempt to reconcile the confusion surrounding the naming and identity of the two mushrooms, Fred J. Seaver proposed that both were synonymous, representing variable forms of the same species. His suggestion was not adopted by later mycologists, who identified various differences between the two species, including fruiting time as well as macroscopic and microscopic differences. The genus name is derived from the Greek words gyros/γυρος "round" and mitra/μιτρα "headband"; the specific epithet is from the Latin infǔla, a heavy band of twisted wool worn by Roman officiants at sacrifices. It is known more commonly as the elfin saddle or the hooded false morel. Additionally, G. infula is a member of a group of fungi collectively known as "false morels", so named for their resemblance to the highly regarded edible true morels of the genus Morchella. This group includes other species of the genus Gyromitra, such as G. esculenta (brain mushroom), G. caroliniana (beefsteak mushroom) and G. gigas (snow morel). ## Description The cap of the fruit body (technically an apothecium) is up to 12 cm (4+3⁄4 in) high by 10 cm (3+7⁄8 in) wide and is reddish brown, and somewhat saddle-shaped with 2–4 lobes. It frequently develops blackish-brown spots on the surface. During the development of the mushroom, the periphery of the cap grows into the stipe below, to form a hollow, roughly bell-shaped structure with the fertile spore-bearing surface (the hymenium) on the outside; as the surface growth of the hymenium continues to expand even after joining to the stipe, the hymenium can no longer follow and it arches up into folds and pads. The stipe, typically between 2–6 cm (3⁄4–2+3⁄8 in) high and 1–2.5 cm (3⁄8–1 in) thick, can be various colors from reddish brown to whitish or even bluish, but is typically lighter colored than the cap. The stipe is minutely tomentose – covered with a layer of very fine hairs. The context is thin (1–2 mm) and brittle. G. infula does not have any appreciable odor or taste. ### Microscopic characteristics Ascospores are ellipsoidal in shape, hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, with dimensions of 17–22 by 7–9 μm. They are also biguttulate, containing two large oil droplets at either end. The spore-producing cells, the asci, are roughly cylindrical, eight-spored, operculate (opening by an apical lid to discharge the spores) and have dimensions of 200–350 by 12–17 \|μm. The diameter of the club-shaped paraphyses is 7–10 μm at the apex. ### Edibility This fungus is inedible, as it contains the toxic compound gyromitrin, which when digested is metabolized into monomethylhydrazine, a major component of rocket fuel. Although much of the gyromitrin may be removed by parboiling with generous volumes of water, consumption is not advisable due to possible long-term health effects. There is evidence that even small doses of gyromitrin may have a cumulative carcinogenic effect. ### Similar species Gyromitra esculenta has a wrinkled surface (similar to brainlike convolutions), not wavy or bumpy like G. infula. Gyromitra ambigua is very similar in appearance, and although it is usually not possible to discern between the two species without examining microscopic characteristics, G. ambigua is said to have more pronounced purple tints in the stipe. G. ambigua has larger spores that are about 22–30 μm long. The saddle-shaped cap of G. infula might also lead to confusion with some species of Helvella, but these latter fungi typically have grayer colors and thinner, fluted stipes. ## Habitat and distribution This fungus can be found growing singly to scattered in or near coniferous woodland in autumn, often on rotten wood. It is also commonly found on packed ground, such as beside country roads, or in campgrounds. Associated conifers include Picea glauca, Picea mariana, Picea sitchensis, Pinus contorta, Pinus banksiana, Pinus monticola, Abies balsamea, Abies grandis, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Tsuga heterophylla, Larix occidentalis, Thuja plicata, as well as the deciduous tree species Populus balsamifera, Populus tremuloides, Acer macrophyllum, Alnus species, and Betula papyrifera. Gyromitra infula is widely distributed throughout boreal, montane and coastal forests in North America. The North American range extends north to Canada and south to Mexico. It has also been reported from South America, Europe, and Asia.

The Crescent, Taunton

Street in Taunton, United Kingdom

The Crescent is a street in Taunton, a town in the English county of Somerset. Construction began in 1807, during a period of extensive redevelopment in the town, driven by the Market House Society and the Member of Parliament Sir Benjamin Hammet. Lined on the eastern side by a Georgian terrace, the street follows a shallow crescent shape, broken in the middle by Crescent Way and a bit further south by St George's Place. It links Upper High Street, at its southern end, with Park Street and Tower Street to the north. On the western side, Somerset County Council have their offices in the County Hall, erected in 1935, and extended in the 1960s. The Georgian terrace, the Masonic Hall, and the County Hall are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as listed buildings. ## History During the 17th and 18th centuries Taunton suffered, first due to the Civil War (1642–1651), during which two thirds of the town was burnt down, and then the decline of the cloth industry upon which the town's economy relied. In the late 18th century, the Taunton Market House Society formed with the aim of improving Taunton town centre, most notably the Market House. Benjamin Hammet, a prominent member of the society, was elected as a Member of Parliament for Taunton in 1782, and tried to start clearing the slums in the town centre. In 1770, the old Market House was knocked down and replaced, and less than ten years later, Hammet Street was built, to connect the Market square with the Church of St Mary Magdalene. The Crescent formed part of Hammet's plan for Taunton. It was built to the north of Upper High Street, in what was known at the time as Paul's Field. It follows a shallow crescent shape, which Nikolaus Pevsner notes is "hardly noticeable". Although Hammet died in 1800, the foundation stone was placed in 1807 by William Kinglake, as part of a ceremony that was attended by "an immense number of persons." The Monthly Magazine noted that the street was intended to add to the "ornament, respectability, and advantage" of Taunton, while the Taunton Courier reported that the houses were intended for "genteel families". When the street was built, each end featured a cottage with high iron gates which limited traffic to residents and their visitors. The footpaths were less restricted, but featured "three or four posts between which a corpulent person had difficulty in squeezing." These gates and posts have since been removed. The Crescent comprised a terrace of houses along the street's eastern side; the other side was not built on and was eventually converted into parkland. In 1822, a Catholic chapel, known as St George's Chapel was built at the southern-end of the terrace, the first Catholic church built in Taunton since the Reformation. The Catholic congregation moved out to a larger church in 1878 and the chapel was bought by the Freemasons, who converted it into a Masonic Lodge. In 1935, County Hall was built on the open side of The Crescent, providing Somerset County Council with more space than their previous offices at Shire Hall. Early plans for further buildings at the site did not come to fruition, but County Hall was extended in the 1960s to cover most of the open land in front of The Crescent. Despite the work done by Hammet, the area between The Crescent and the High Street was still considered a slum until it was redeveloped around the Second World War. During this period, the General Post Office (GPO) built "Telephone House", a telephone exchange and office building, replacing the houses in the middle of the terrace. ## Architecture On the eastern side of The Crescent, a Georgian terrace was erected in 1807. Built of "pinkish-brown" brick, each house is of three-storeys plus a basement, and is two windows across. The houses are split by plain pilasters and topped with hipped slate roofs. While the first and second storey windows are rectangular, those on the ground floor are round-headed, as are the doorways. The first floor windows have small, circular segmental balconies. A variety of six- and eight-panel doors are reached by climbing a small flight of steps, and the entire terrace is fronted with railings. This terrace forms two separate listed building designations from Historic England; numbers 1–11 and 15–20, both of which are Grade II\* listed. The terrace is intersected by Crescent Way, which leads to the Crescent car park. On the southern side of Crescent Way, the northern end of the terrace formed by numbers 15–20, is Exchange House, the former GPO Telephone House, which was built in place of original numbers 12–14. According to Pevsner, this building breaks the modesty of the street, with "its thick-set Tuscan porch". At the southern end of the same terrace is the Masonic Hall, another Grade II\* listed building, which forms the end of the terrace, and features a series of prominent Ionic pilasters along the front and southern end. A further terrace to the south of the Masonic Hall is split from the hall by St George's Place. It is formed of numbers 21 to 23 The Crescent, and number 42 Upper High Street. The terrace forms two listed building designations, both Grade II. Numbers 21 and 22 The Crescent are two-storey roughcast houses, each spanning three windows. The doorways are round-headed, and are flanked by ground floor bay windows. Number 23 forms the back of 42 Upper High Street, and is a two-storey red brick building. On the western side, the first part of the County Hall was built in 1935, and is known as "A Block". It was designed by Vincent Harris, and is Neo-Georgian. It is a three-storey, built out of red and buff-coloured bricks forming an English bond, with Portland stone dressings. The central section is curved, with wings at 45 degrees to the formed main entrance. The ground-floor is fronted with ashlar, and has three round arches, the middle one of which forms a doorway. The doorway is topped by an engraved coat of arms in the tympanum. The central block spans nine windows, while each wing has a prominent window at the end, framed by an aedicule. The first and second floors of the wings feature eleven sash windows. An extension was made to the south of the building in the 1960s. The original "A Block" is designated as a Grade II listed building. ## See also - Grade II\* listed buildings in Taunton Deane

The Lost Tapes (Nas album)

The Lost Tapes is a compilation album by American rapper Nas. It was released on September 23, 2002, by Ill Will Records and Columbia Records, who wanted to capitalize on what was seen in hip hop music as Nas' artistic comeback the year before, and compiles previously unreleased tracks that were discarded from recording sessions for the rapper's previous studio albums I Am... (1999) and Stillmatic (2001). It features production by L.E.S., The Alchemist, Poke and Tone, and Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, among others. With low-key, sparse sounds and observational lyrics about urban life, the songs are largely autobiographical and nostalgic, departing from the thug persona of Nas' previous records. Released with little promotion, The Lost Tapes debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week. It received widespread acclaim from critics, some of whom viewed it as Nas' best record since his 1994 debut album Illmatic. A second volume of previously unreleased songs was planned before Nas had signed with Def Jam Recordings in 2006, but the project was delayed because of issues with his record label; The Lost Tapes 2 was eventually released on July 19, 2019. ## Background In 2001, Nas made an artistic comeback with the release of his fifth album Stillmatic and his highly publicized feud with rapper Jay-Z. Both events revitalized his image in hip hop music at the time, following a string of commercially successful but critically subpar albums. Nas' record label, Columbia Records, capitalized on his comeback with a promotional campaign that included the release of two archival albums, the extended play From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes and The Lost Tapes, while leading up to the release of his 2002 studio album God's Son. ## Preparation The Lost Tapes compiles previously unreleased tracks that Nas recorded during 1998 to 2001 in the sessions for both his 1999 album I Am... and Stillmatic. Several songs from the sessions for the former album, including "Blaze a 50", "Drunk by Myself", and "Poppa Was a Playa", were bootlegged prior to its release and leaked to the Internet through MP3 technology, which led to their exclusion from I Am.... Most of the compiled songs first became available as bootlegs on underground mixtapes before being selected and mastered for The Lost Tapes. Songs on The Lost Tapes were recorded in several recording studios in New York, including Right Track Studios, The Hit Factory Studios, and Sony Studios in New York City, Lobo Studios in Long Island, and Music Palace in West Hempstead, as well as South Beach Studios in Miami, Florida and Westlake Studios in Santa Monica, California. Production was handled by The Alchemist, L.E.S., Poke and Tone, Precision, Rockwilder, Al West, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, and Hill, Inc. The album was packaged with a booklet featuring artwork by Chris "C-Money" Feldman and photography by Kareem Black, along with liner notes displaying the slogan "No cameos. No hype. No bullsh\*t". ## Music and lyrics The Lost Tapes features introspective lyrics and themes of urban life, sociology, and despair. Its music is characterized by low-key beats, sparse production, subtle string flourishes, mellow piano work, and subdued soul music loops. Stylus Magazine's Brett Berliner said songs such as "Doo Rags" and "No Idea's Original" incorporate classical melodies, while songs such as "Purple" and "Fetus" feature neo-classical themes. John Bush of AllMusic said the songs "have more in common with his early recordings; there's more of a back-in-the-day, wasn't-it-all-so-simple-then sound to 'Doo Rags' and 'Poppa Was a Playa,' two tracks that definitely wouldn't have fit on the raging Stillmatic." Music writer Craig Seymour observed "spare beats" in the music and few boasts in Nas' rapping, while Chris Conti from the Boston Phoenix said the simple beats "counteract Nas's complex bars of braggadocio and street-life storytelling." According to Robert Christgau, The Lost Tapes abandons the thug persona of Nas' previous work in favor of more sensitive, nostalgic, and autobiographical lyrics. Slate magazine's David Samuels interpreted "a message that begins with a rejection of the materialism of his ... rival Jay-Z" and "the home truth about how most kids in the projects feel about the real-life gangstas who live in their neighborhoods", citing "No Idea's Original" as an example. New York Daily News writer Jim Farber commented on his lyrical observations, "Nas focuses on linear scenarios and on human motivations ... "unlike many hard rappers, Nas' tales of ghetto horror are not covert boasts but expressions of true fear". Farber took note of "a cinematic tale of self-destruction in 'Drunk by Myself,' and a compelling autobiography narrated from the womb in 'Fetus.' " The opening track "Doo Rags" contemplates Nas' youth and society's cyclical nature. It features a contemporary piano loop and jazz tones. Richard Hazell from HipHopDX describes the song as "a piano propelled painting of time and space as seen through the third eye of Nas, which can easily be envisioned by any New York City dweller." On "My Way", he meditates over his rise out of poverty to the "life of a rich thug", recalls the death of his childhood friend Ill Will, and concedes that he "still feels broke with millions in the bank." On "U Gotta Love It", Nas makes reference to the "'86 crack blitz" and discusses his own significance: "This thug life you claimed it, I make millions from entertainment / Now back in the hood, certain cats they wanna kill me / They ice-grill me, but on the low, niggas feel me." "Nothing Lasts Forever" advises to appreciate life's small epiphanies and be optimistic about the future. On "No Idea's Original", Nas notes the similarities of people in life and views other rappers as creatively derivative, while distinguishing himself from them: "No idea's original, there's nothin new under the sun / It's never what you do, but how it's done / What you base your happiness around material, women, and large paper / That means you inferior, not major." He references the line "there's nothing new under the sun" from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the song's chorus. "No Idea's Original" samples Barry White's 1973 song "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby", a frequently sampled recording in hip hop music. "Blaze a 50" features a violin-based instrumental and a complex narrative that follows a tale of murder, sex, and betrayal. Nas narrates the tale in conventional fashion until the ending, at which the track rewinds to an earlier point and he revises his original ending. "Everybody's Crazy" features complex rhymes and braggadocio rap by Nas: "Gangsta see, gangsta do / A Langston Hughes predecessor / Gun in my dresser, slang I use." In "Purple"'s narrative, Nas lights up a blunt and expresses his thoughts, including criticism of hoodlums and their effect on their neighborhoods: "The 'hood love you, but behind your back they pray for the day / A bullet hit your heart and ambulance take you away / That ain't love it's hate / Think of all the mothers at wakes / Whose sons you've killed and you ain't got a cut on your face?" "Drunk by Myself" has lyrics concerning alcohol and self-medication. "Black Zombie" is an impassioned, self-reflective critique of problems afflicting the African-American community, including prejudice ("You believe when they say we ain't shit, we can't grow / All we are is dope dealers and gangstas and hoes"), economic insolvency ("What do we own? The skin on our backs / We rent and we ask for reparations, then they hit us with tax"), and dependency ("I'm a Columbia record slave / So get paid / Control your own destiny, you are a genius / Don't let it happen to you like it did to me, I was a black zombie"). Its socially conscious lyrics deride media stereotypes of African Americans, inequality in the educational system, and black-on-black violence. According to writer Dax-Devlon Ross, the song foreshadowed the themes and "world view" of Nas' subsequent albums. "Poppa Was a Playa" features uncredited co-production by Kanye West, and discusses Nas' complicated relationship with his father, jazz musician Olu Dara, addressing his lusty, itinerant lifestyle throughout Nas' youth. Gabriel Alvarez of Complex calls it an "honest dedication to his old man: a jazz player, a rolling stone" and writes of the song, "The love is there despite the man's faults. Nas crafts a full picture of the past, looking at the infidelity and fights from both parents' perspectives." An untitled hidden track follows "Poppa Was a Playa" and has Nas rapping from the perspective of his prenatal self. It was originally recorded for I Am... and had planned titles "Fetus" and "Belly Button Window". The track opens with solemn guitar chords and the sound of bubbling liquid before being overlaid with a beat and a piano riff. An introductory verse is delivered by Nas in a spoken word tone: "Yeah. I want all my niggas to come journey with me / My name is Nas, and the year is 1973 / The beginning of me / Therefore I can see / Through my belly button window / Who I am." The narrative follows the time before his birth, covering subject matter such as his parents fighting and his expectations for life. In Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009), writer Adam Bradley denotes the track's lyrical narrative of an MC's story of birth as "one of the core narratives in rap", having its roots in a similar autobiographical convention found in African-American slave narratives. Of Nas' narrative, Bradley states, "By endowing the insensible with voice, he aspires to an expressive level that transcends speaking for oneself, or of oneself, to one that self-consciously constructs itself as an artist giving shape to that which lacks coherence." ## Marketing and sales The Lost Tapes was released by Ill Will Records and Columbia Records, and distributed through Sony Music Entertainment. It was first released on September 23 in the United Kingdom, then September 24 in the United States, October 9 in Japan – where it was issued with three bonus tracks – and January 20, 2003, in Australia. The release received little marketing, with hip hop journalist Rob Markman noting no promotional music videos were produced and Nas' absence from the cover. On October 2, 2002, The Lost Tapes was reported to have sold more than 70,000 copies in its first week of release, giving it a chart debut of number 10 on the Billboard 200. It ultimately spent eight weeks on the chart. It also charted at number three on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. By July 2008, the album had sold 340,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan. ## Critical reception The Lost Tapes was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on 12 reviews. Reviewing for Entertainment Weekly in September 2002, Craig Seymour said Nas' "gritty, yet hopeful, reflections make Lost Tapes a real find." Rolling Stone critic Jon Caramanica hailed it as "the real Stillmatic", writing that it "displays Nas' gifts for tightly stitched narrative and stunningly precise detail." In The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin deemed it a masterpiece whose assorted tracks cohere as well as any of Nas' official studio albums while reaffirming his reputation as "rap music's poet laureate of urban despair". Ken Capobianco from The Boston Globe said the leftover songs prove why Nas had so much promise early in his career, while Spin's Chris Ryan viewed the record as a hip hop version of Bob Dylan's much-bootlegged Basement Tapes—"a raw document [that] still proves that Nas had it all along." PopMatters critic Marc L. Hill called it a "masterfully arranged" and "necessary addition to the collection of any hip-hop fan". In The Village Voice, Christgau was particularly impressed by the four autobiographical songs closing the album, preferring them to other songs he felt are nothing more than outtakes. In a less enthusiastic review, Brett Berliner from Stylus Magazine wrote that as good as the songs were, "they don't make a real album ... [more] like a superb mixtape", while Billboard's Rashaun Hall believed the production on some of the songs sounds outdated. In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor John Bush recommended The Lost Tapes to "hip-hop fans who want to hear some great rhyming with no added features" and commented that tracks such as "Doo Rags", "No Idea's Original", and "Black Zombie" "stand up to anything Nas has recorded since the original Illmatic." Jesal Padania of RapReviews commented that the album "proves remarkably consistent throughout, and is a superb listening experience", and considered it a studio release, stating "this is a short sharp shock of awesome lyricism, and many, unofficially, consider this to be the closest cousin we will ever get to Illmatic II." Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal cited the album as one of Nas' "finest moments". About.com's Henry Adaso called it "noteworthy because of its superiority to half the stuff in Nas' catalog." In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Chris Ryan was less enthusiastic about the album, finding it "somewhat inconsistent, and certainly too scattered to be considered an album per se," even though it features "some classics, such as the nostalgic 'Doo Rags,' that are not to be missed." In its 2007 issue, XXL included The Lost Tapes in its list of "classic" albums to be given the publication's maximum "XXL" rating. In 2012, Complex included The Lost Tapes in their list of "25 Rap Albums From the Past Decade That Deserve Classic Status". ## Sequel A follow-up compilation, The Lost Tapes II, was originally intended to be released on December 16, 2003, and include unreleased recordings, remixes, and freestyle tracks. However, its release was delayed, and in 2006, Nas signed to Def Jam Recordings. In a June 2010 interview for Hot 97.5 KVEG, he said of following-up The Lost Tapes, "I do got a lot of songs that really didn't make no album, that's just sittin' around [or] got lost. So I've got enough actually, for a Lost Tapes 2 and 3 by now. So I've just got to set it up, put them together – 12 songs for one album, 12 songs for another album, and figure it out. That's all it takes." In September, he announced plans to release The Lost Tapes 2 on December 14. However, its release was further delayed by Def Jam, whom Nas accused of mishandling the project and its budget in a personal e-mail sent to label executives. Reports of the project's delay incited fans to create an online petition in December asking for Def Jam to release the album. After losing time to the project's delay, Nas began recording for a new studio album and put plans for The Lost Tapes 2 on hold. In a May 2011 interview for MTV News, he explained why the sequel was abandoned: > When I released Lost Tapes, it was on Sony. Being at Sony for so long, I was used to things going easy. Kinda easy. At Def Jam, I just got there, I'm still in my ways at Sony. I'm like, 'yeah, this record'll come out this time, a few months later I'ma drop this.' But we just started working together, so they're like, 'We can do this, but wait, maybe we should do it like this,' and I wasn't used to that. And then there was no communication at all, and I wasn't used to that. With Sony, I wasn't used to a lot of communication, it was just, we understood what we were doing. [...] Def Jam, it was more, 'Let's sit down, let's have tea and talk this over.' I wasn't so used to that, and I saw kinda things falling behind. It kinda messed up my flow, I thought. The timing for that is gone. Now, it's all about the new record. On June 11, 2019, Nas shared a promotional video via his Instagram account, announcing the release of The Lost Tapes 2 in the near future. Its track listing and cover art were revealed on July 2, and the album was released on July 19. ## Track listing Notes - "U Gotta Love It" contains excerpts from the composition "Love Song" performed by Mandrill, written by Carlos Wilson, Louis Wilson, and Ricardo Wilson. - "No Idea's Original" contains excerpts from "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" written and performed by Barry White. - "Poppa Was a Playa" contains excerpts from the composition "The Newness Is Gone" written by Allan Wayne Felder and Norman Ray Harris, performed by Eddie Kendricks. - A hidden track begins at 3:49 of track 11. ## Personnel Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. - The Alchemist – producer - Julian Alexander – artwork - Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie – producer - Pablo Arraya – assistant engineer, mixing assistant - Kareem Black – photography - Kevin Crouse – engineer, mixing - Chris "C-Money" Feldman – artwork - Bryan Golder – engineer - Paul Gregory – assistant engineer - Hill, Inc. – producer - Ken "Duro" Ifill – engineer - L.E.S. – producer - Nikki Martin – coordination - Jonathan Merritt – assistant engineer, mixing assistant - Nas – composer, executive producer - Lenny "Linen" Nicholson – A&R - Jake Ninan – assistant engineer - Poke and Tone – producer - Precision – producer - Rockwilder – producer - John Shriver – engineer - Grayson Sumby – assistant engineer, mixing assistant - Richard Travali – mixing - Al West – producer ## Charts ### Year-end charts ## See also - Conscious hip hop - Nas discography

Bukit Panjang MRT/LRT station

Mass Rapid Transit and light rail station in Singapore

Bukit Panjang MRT/LRT station is a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) interchange station on the Downtown line (DTL) and the Bukit Panjang LRT line (BPLRT) in Singapore. Located in the namesake estate of Bukit Panjang, the station is at the junction of Upper Bukit Timah Road and Petir Road. The station serves the commercial buildings of Bukit Panjang Plaza, Hillion Mall and Junction 10. It forms a part of the Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub (BPITH), which also contains a bus interchange. The LRT station opened on 6 November 1999 along with the other stations on the BPLRT. It later became an interchange station and the terminus of the DTL after the opening of DTL Stage 2 on 27 December 2015. Primarily serving the estate and other developments in the vicinity, the DTL station is not directly linked to the BPLRT station, with an unpaid link connecting the two stations. Nevertheless, it is recognised as a paid transfer within a 15-minute grace period. ## History ### Bukit Panjang LRT The station was announced on 12 April 1996 when details for the BPLRT line were revealed by then Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan. The LRT station opened on 6 November 1999. An LRT train had hit a switch beam at the Bukit Panjang station at about 5:40 pm on 29 August 2001, resulting in the power failure. As a result, 10,000 peak-hour commuters were stranded at the station the next morning for repair works to the LRT service. Service resumed at 10:15 am later on that day. In 2015, half-height platform barriers were installed on the LRT platforms. Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang stations were first prioritised on the BPLRT line to have them installed due to foreseen high commuter traffic from the DTL. These barriers were installed in an effort to mitigate people falling or trespassing onto the tracks. ### Downtown Line On 15 July 2008, when the station locations were revealed for Downtown line Stage 2 (DTL2), the DTL station for the Bukit Panjang area was initially called Petir as a working name. When questioned by the public if the station could be directly linked to Bukit Panjang LRT station instead, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) replied that there were technical constraints for the line to sharply turn towards the LRT station and back to Woodlands Road. Nevertheless, plans were made for connections between Petir DTL station and the Bukit Panjang LRT station. In the end, the station was located along Upper Bukit Timah Road and was not directly connected to the BPLRT. The DTL station name was eventually finalised as Bukit Panjang on 16 June 2009. Contract 912 for the design and construction of Petir station and its associated tunnels was awarded to Lum Chang Building Contractors Pte Ltd at approximately in June 2009. Construction was scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2009 and targeted to complete by 2015. Excavation works for DTL2 caused a sinkhole on Woodlands Road on 16 March 2013. The sinkhole, which was reported to be as wide as one lane, was patched up soon after. Investigations revealed that the construction works destabilised the soil, rupturing an underground water pipe. The soil movement and the rupture of the pipe caused the sinkhole to open up. No motorists or pedestrians were injured in the incident. On 9 April 2014, a fire broke out at a construction site for the Downtown line in the early morning. No injuries were reported and the fire was put out in 30 minutes. Originally expected to open in 2016, the station opened on 27 December 2015 along with the other DTL Stage 2 stations, a few months ahead of schedule. Exit C began construction in 2014, significantly later than the rest of the station as only two entrances to the station were initially planned. A successful campaign by residents living in the Senja area to their local Members of Parliament (MPs) led to the approval of an additional exit by LTA. Originally slated to open in December 2016, it opened later on 9 February 2018, connecting the station to Bukit Panjang Road. The construction of the entrance faced challenges such as the presence of high rock levels during excavation and multiple utilities crossing over the construction shaft of the new entrance. More time was needed for manual mining works for the entrance, to prevent damage to vital utilities which cannot be diverted. #### Extension to Sungei Kadut An additional extension of the DTL to Sungei Kadut station from Bukit Panjang station was announced on 25 May 2019 by the LTA. The extension is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s. ## Station details ### Services The station is an interchange between the DTL and BPLRT. The station code is BP6/DT1, as reflected on official maps. On the BPLRT, the LRT station is after Phoenix station. Services on the BPLRT then loop around the Bukit Panjang estate, via Petir station (Service B) or Senja station (Service A) after this station. There were services to Ten Mile Junction station until it closed on 13 January 2019 via Service C which operated with reduced frequency due to low ridership. Train frequencies on the BPLRT range between 2.5 and 5 minutes. On the DTL, the station is currently the line's terminus. The DTL station is not directly connected to the BPLRT station and hence commuters have to exit either of the stations to transfer to another line via a link bridge at the LRT station's mezzanine level. The transfer is considered a "valid transfer" of a "journey" as long as it does not exceed 15 minutes. Train frequencies on the DTL range between 2 and 5 minutes. ### Station design The LRT station has the conventional barrel-roof design seen on other BPLRT stations. The design was chosen by the Bukit Panjang residents during the construction of the BPLRT. The DTL station, designed by local architectural firm SAA Architects, has three levels. Like all stations on the DTL, the station has barrier-free access for the disabled, with features such as lifts, wheelchair-accessible toilets, wider faregates and tactile flooring for the visually-impaired. The station entrances are shaped like pavilions along a park connector. The entrances' design is intended to mimic passenger flow with vertical screens interspersed with streaks of blue, giving the appearance of rippling waves. Such patterns are also adopted for the vent shafts which blends into the landscape. In addition, the patterns provide a distinguishing marker for the station. ### Public artwork An artwork Punctum of the Long Hills by John Clang is displayed at the DTL platforms of the station as part of the network's Art-in-Transit Programme. The artwork showcases a row of tall Housing Development Board (HDB) flats, subtly reflecting the long hilly landscape for which Bukit Panjang is named after. The two giant-sized boys peeking around public housing blocks in the artwork signifies a sense of curiosity and the spirit of adventure.

Aquaporin

Cellular membrane structure that selectively passes water

Aquaporins, also called water channels, are channel proteins from a larger family of major intrinsic proteins that form pores in the membrane of biological cells, mainly facilitating transport of water between cells. The cell membranes of a variety of different bacteria, fungi, animal and plant cells contain aquaporins through which water can flow more rapidly into and out of the cell than by diffusing through the phospholipid bilayer. Aquaporins have six membrane-spanning alpha helical domains with both carboxylic and amino terminals on the cytoplasmic side. Two hydrophobic loops contain conserved asparagine–proline–alanine ("NPA motif") which form a barrel surrounding a central pore-like region that contains additional protein density. Because aquaporins are usually always open and are prevalent in just about every cell type, this leads to a misconception that water readily passes through the cell membrane down its concentration gradient. Water can pass through the cell membrane through simple diffusion because it is a small molecule, and through osmosis, in cases where the concentration of water outside of the cell is greater than that of the inside. However, because water is a polar molecule this process of simple diffusion is relatively slow, and in tissues with high water permeability the majority of water passes through aquaporin. The 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Peter Agre for the discovery of aquaporins and Roderick MacKinnon for his work on the structure and mechanism of potassium channels. Genetic defects involving aquaporin genes have been associated with several human diseases including nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and neuromyelitis optica. ## History The mechanism of facilitated water transport and the probable existence of water pores has attracted researchers since 1957. In most cells, water moves in and out by osmosis through the lipid component of cell membranes. Due to the relatively high water permeability of some epithelial cells, it was long suspected that some additional mechanism for water transport across membranes must exist. Solomon and his co-workers performed pioneering work on water permeability across the cell membrane in the late 1950s. In the mid-1960s an alternative hypothesis (the "partition–diffusion model") sought to establish that the water molecules partitioned between the water phase and the lipid phase and then diffused through the membrane, crossing it until the next interphase where they left the lipid and returned to an aqueous phase. Studies by Parisi, Edelman, Carvounis et al. accented not only the importance of the presence of water channels but also the possibility to regulate their permeability properties. In 1990, Verkman's experiments demonstrated functional expression of water channels, indicating that water channels are effectively proteins. ## Discovery It was not until 1992 that the first aquaporin, 'aquaporin-1' (originally known as CHIP 28), was reported by Peter Agre, of Johns Hopkins University. In 1999, together with other research teams, Agre reported the first high-resolution images of the three-dimensional structure of an aquaporin, namely, aquaporin-1. Further studies using supercomputer simulations identified the pathway of water as it moved through the channel and demonstrated how a pore can allow water to pass without the passage of small solutes. The pioneering research and subsequent discovery of water channels by Agre and his colleagues won Agre the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003. Agre said he discovered aquaporins "by serendipity." He had been studying the Rh blood group antigens and had isolated the Rh molecule, but a second molecule, 28 kilodaltons in size (and therefore called 28K) kept appearing. At first they thought it was a Rh molecule fragment, or a contaminant, but it turned out to be a new kind of molecule with unknown function. It was present in structures such as kidney tubules and red blood cells, and related to proteins of diverse origins, such as in fruit fly brain, bacteria, the lens of the eye, and plant tissue. However the first report of protein-mediated water transport through membranes was by Gheorghe Benga and others in 1986, prior to Agre's first publication on the topic. This led to a controversy that Benga's work had not been adequately recognized either by Agre or by the Nobel Prize Committee. ## Function Aquaporins are "the plumbing system for cells". Water moves through cells in an organized way, most rapidly in tissues that have aquaporin water channels. For many years, scientists assumed that water leaked through the cell membrane, and some water does. However, this did not explain how water could move so quickly through some cells. Aquaporins selectively conduct water molecules in and out of the cell, while preventing the passage of ions and other solutes. Also known as water channels, aquaporins are integral membrane pore proteins. Some of them, known as aquaglyceroporins, also transport other small uncharged dissolved molecules including ammonia, CO₂, glycerol, and urea. For example, the aquaporin 3 channel has a pore width of 8–10 Ångströms and allows the passage of hydrophilic molecules ranging between 150 and 200 Da. However, the water pores completely block ions including protons, essential to conserve the membrane's electrochemical potential difference. Water molecules traverse through the pore of the channel in single file. The presence of water channels increases membrane permeability to water. These are also essential for the water transport system in plants and tolerance to drought and salt stresses. ## Structure Aquaporin proteins are composed of a bundle of six transmembrane α-helices. They are embedded in the cell membrane. The amino and carboxyl ends face the inside of the cell. The amino and carboxyl halves resemble each other, apparently repeating a pattern of nucleotides. This may have been created by the doubling of a formerly half-sized gene. Between the helices are five regions (A – E) that loop into or out of the cell membrane, two of them hydrophobic (B, E), with an asparagine–proline–alanine ("NPA motif") pattern. They create a distinctive hourglass shape, making the water channel narrow in the middle and wider at each end. Another and even narrower place in the AQP1 channel is the "ar/R selectivity filter", a cluster of amino acids enabling the aquaporin to selectively let through or block the passage of different molecules. Aquaporins form four-part clusters (tetramers) in the cell membrane, with each of the four monomers acting as a water channel. Different aquaporins have different sized water channels, the smallest types allowing nothing but water through. X-ray profiles show that aquaporins have two conical entrances. This hourglass shape could be the result of a natural selection process toward optimal permeability. It has been shown that conical entrances with suitable opening angle can indeed provide a large increase of the hydrodynamic channel permeability. ### NPA motif Aquaporin channels appear in simulations to allow only water to pass, as the molecules effectively queue up in single file. Guided by the aquaporin's local electric field, the oxygen in each water molecule faces forwards as it enters, turning around half way along and leaving with the oxygen facing backwards. The arrangement of opposite-facing electrostatic potentials in the two halves of the channel prevents the flow of protons but permits water to pass freely. ### ar/R selectivity filter The aromatic/arginine or "ar/R" selectivity filter is a cluster of amino acids that help bind to water molecules and exclude other molecules that may try to enter the pore. It is the mechanism by which the aquaporin is able to selectively bind water molecules and so to allow them through, and to prevent other molecules from entering. The ar/R filter is made of two amino acid groups from helices B (HB) and E (HE) and two groups from loop E (LE1, LE2), from the two sides of the NPA motif. Its usual position is 8 Å on the outer side of the NPA motif; it is typically the tightest part of the channel. Its narrowness weakens the hydrogen bonds between water molecules, enabling the arginines, which carry a positive charge, to interact with the water molecules and to filter out undesirable protons. ## Taxonomic distribution ### In mammals There are thirteen known types of aquaporins in mammals; six of these are located in the kidney, but the existence of many more is suspected. The most studied aquaporins are compared in the following table: ### In plants In plants, water is taken up from the soil through the roots, where it passes from the cortex into the vascular tissues. There are three routes for water to flow in these tissues, known as the apoplastic, symplastic and transcellular pathways. Specifically, aquaporins are found in the vacuolar membrane, in addition to the plasma membrane of plants; the transcellular pathway involves transport of water across the plasma and vacuolar membranes. When plant roots are exposed to mercuric chloride, which is known to inhibit aquaporins, the flow of water is greatly reduced while the flow of ions is not, supporting the view that there exists a mechanism for water transport independent of the transport of ions: aquaporins. Aquaporins can play a major role in extension growth by allowing an influx of water into expanding cells - a process necessary to sustain plant development. Plant aquaporins are important for mineral nutrition and ion detoxification; these are both essential for the homeostasis of minerals such as boron. Aquaporins in plants are separated into four main homologous subfamilies, or groups: - Plasma membrane Intrinsic Protein (PIP) - Tonoplast Intrinsic Protein (TIP) - Nodulin-26 like Intrinsic Protein (NIP) - Small basic Intrinsic Protein (SIP) These five subfamilies have later been divided into smaller evolutionary subgroups based on their DNA sequence. PIPs cluster into two subgroups, PIP1 and PIP2, whilst TIPs cluster into 5 subgroups, TIP1, TIP2, TIP3, TIP4 and TIP5. Each subgroup is again split up into isoforms e.g. PIP1;1, PIP1;2. As isoforms nomenclature are historically based on functional parameters rather than evolutive ones, several novel propositions on plant aquaporines have been arisen with the study of the evolutionary relationships between the different aquaporins. Within the various selection of aquaporin isoforms in plants, there are also unique patterns of cell- and tissue-specific expression. When plant aquaporins are silenced, the hydraulic conductance and photosynthesis of the leaf decrease. When gating of plant aquaporins occurs, it stops the flow of water through the pore of the protein. This may happen for various reasons, for example when the plant contains low amounts of cellular water due to drought. The gating of an aquaporin is carried out by an interaction between a gating mechanism and the aquaporin, which causes a 3D change in the protein so that it blocks the pore and, thus, disallows the flow of water through the pore. In plants, there are at least two forms of aquaporin gating: gating by the dephosphorylation of certain serine residues, in response to drought, and the protonation of specific histidine residues, in response to flooding. The phosphorylation of an aquaporin is involved in the opening and closing of petals in response to temperature. ### In Heteroconts Specific aquaporins called Large Intrinsic Proteins (LIP) have been found in Heterokonts, including diatoms and brown algae. LIPs contain an NPM-motif in place of the second conserved NPA-motif typical of the majority of MIPs. ### In other organisms Aquaporins have been discovered in the fungi Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast), Dictyostelium, Candida and Ustilago and the protozoans Trypanosoma and Plasmodium. ## Clinical significance There have been two clear examples of diseases identified as resulting from mutations in aquaporins: mutations in the aquaporin-2 gene cause hereditary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in humans, while mice homozygous for inactivating mutations in the aquaporin-0 gene develop congenital cataracts. A small number of people have been identified with severe or total deficiency in aquaporin-1. They are, in general, healthy, but exhibit a defect in the ability to concentrate solutes in the urine and to conserve water when deprived of drinking water. Mice with targeted deletions in aquaporin-1 also exhibit a deficiency in water conservation due to an inability to concentrate solutes in the kidney medulla by countercurrent multiplication. Aquaporins play a key role in acquired forms of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, disorders that cause increased urine production. Aquaporin 2 is regulated by vasopressin which, when bound to the cell-surface receptor, activates the cAMP signaling pathway. This results in aquaporin-2 containing vesicles to increase water uptake and return to circulation. Mutation of the aquaporin 2 vasopressin receptor is a cause of acquired diabetes insipidus. In rats, acquired nephrogenic diabetes insipidus can be caused impaired regulation of aquaporin-2 due to administration of lithium salts, low potassium concentrations in the blood (hypokalemia) and high calcium concentrations in the blood (hypercalcemia). Autoimmune reactions against aquaporin 4 in humans produce Devic's disease. If aquaporin could be manipulated, that could potentially solve medical problems such as fluid retention in heart disease and brain edema after stroke.

Echinognathus

Extinct genus of arthropods

Echinognathus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. The type and only species of Echinognathus, E. clevelandi, is known from deposits of Late Ordovician age in the United States. The generic name is derived from the Neo-Latin echino- ("spiny") and the Greek gnáthos ("jaw"), in reference to a spiny endognathary (used to handle food) appendage part of the fossil type material. Echinognathus is only known from fragmentary fossil material, consisting of body segments, an appendage used to handle food and possibly other body segments. The genus is distinguished from other eurypterids by the large number of elongated and curved spines, blade-like in life, on its limbs. Initially assumed to represent a species of Eurypterus, these distinguishing features were quickly noticed and deemed important enough to designate Echinognathus as its own genus. With some additional fossil assigned to Echinognathus in the early 20th century, the genus was noted to be similar to Megalograptus, another eurypterid with spiny limbs. In 1955, Echinognathus and Megalograptus were placed into their own taxonomic family of eurypterids, the Megalograptidae. Based on the proportions of other eurypterids, Echinognathus would have been a medium-sized predator, reaching approximately 45 centimeters (17.7 in) in length. The spines on its limbs were presumably used for active prey capture, securing food and carrying it to the mouth. The fossils of Echinognathus are known from what was once marine environments, and it lived alongside a fauna including graptolites, brachiopods, cephalopods and trilobites. ## Description Echinognathus is only known from fragmentary fossil remains. It was a medium-sized megalograptid eurypterid, reaching approximately 45 centimeters (17.7 in) in length. On account of being known from such fragmentary remains, most of the body of Echinognathus is unknown. Based on the related Megalograptus, it is possible that the head was subquadrate (vaguely quadratic) in shape. Echinognathus was probably robustly built. The most distinguishing feature apparent in the fossil material was the spines of the known endognathary (used to handle food) appendage. The limb was formed by eight or nine joints, most probably eight, six of which were equipped with large, curved and elongated spines. The spines, similar to but also distinct from those of the related Megalograptus, were flattened, had a subtriangular intersection and were distinctly striated (had grooves) longitudinally. In life, they would have had a distinct blade-like appearance. The body segments of Echinognathus were ornamented with prominent oblong scales, similar in shape to "raindrops running down a windowpane". The metastoma (a large plate located on the underside of the body) of Echinognathus was broad and cordate (heart-shaped) in shape, a feature similar to most eurypterids but differentiating it from Megalograptus, which had a more unique metastoma. ## History of research The type material of Echinognathus clevelandi was first reported in February 1882 by Charles Doolittle Walcott. The fossils were recovered in deposits of Katian (Late Ordovician) age north of Utica, New York by William N. Cleveland, a friend of Walcott. At first, Walcott provisionally referred the fossils to the genus Eurypterus, proposing the species name Eurypterus? clevelandi, the name honoring Cleveland. The fossils consisted of the remains of a large endognathary appendage equipped with intact fossil spines, and part of a body segment. Later that same year, Walcott formally described the fossils. Because comparisons with other known eurypterids yielded few similarities, Walcott named Echinognathus clevelandi as a new genus and species, the genus name referring to the spiny endognathary appendage. Etymologically, the name derives from the Neo-Latin echino- ("spiny") and the Greek gnáthos ("jaw"). The main distinguishing feature of the Echinognathus fossils, as noted by Walcott, was the long and curved spines of the appendage. Further fossils from the type locality of E. clevelandi were referred to Echinognathus in the early 20th century by John Mason Clarke and Rudolf Ruedemann (and later Ruedemann alone), who described several fragments of body segments, and mentioned a larger collection of unpublished fragments, in 1912 and 1926. Fragments of a spine, or possibly the telson (the final body segment, often in the shape of a spike), were referred to Echinognathus by Ruedemann in 1916. Ruedemann's spine/telson fragments were covered in scales and not striations (as the spines of the type specimen were), and as such he noted that they might either belong to a new, second species of Echinognathus, or that the striations of the spines broke up into scales as Echinognathus matured. The spine was suggested by Kenneth E. Caster and Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering in 1964 to instead belong to Megalograptus. ## Classification In his original description of Echinognathus, Walcott made no assessment of the relationship between the genus and other eurypterids. In Clarke's and Ruedemann's 1912 The Eurypterida of New York, Echinognathus was tentatively associated with the genus Stylonurus, particularly the subgenus Ctenopterus (later raised to a full, distinct, genus). The association was made since Echinognathus had so many paired spines on its appendage, most known eurypterids at the time, with the exception of Stylonurus and some others, only having one pair per segment. The continuous series of spines was noted to specifically be characteristic of Ctenopterus. The blade-like spines and the striations on the spines were also noted to be characteristics also seen in Ctenopterus. In The Eurypterida of New York, August Foerste compared the Echinognathus fossils to those of Megalograptus, also fragmentarily known at the time, and concluded that the two were likely closely related, if not congeneric. The discovery of more Megalograptus fossils, and more fragmentary fossils of Echinognathus, later in the 20th century allowed for the two to be firmly established as distinct, but closely related genera. In 1934, Leif Størmer classified Megalograptus and Echinognathus, together with the genera Mixopterus and Carcinosoma, into the family Carcinosomatidae. The taxonomy was amended by Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering in Størmer's 1955 Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, wherein Mixopterus was transferred to its own family, the Mixopteridae, and Megalograptus and Echinognathus were also placed within their own family, the Megalograptidae. Though the taxonomic position of this family has been contested historically, phylogenetic analyses support the Megalograptidae as grouped with the Carcinosomatidae and Mixopteridae in the superfamily Carcinosomatoidea. The cladogram below is simplified from the results of a 2015 phylogenetic analysis by James Lamsdell and colleagues, collapsed to only display the Carcinosomatoidea. ## Paleoecology Echinognathus is known from marine deposits. The spines on the appendages were initially hypothesized by Walcott to have been related to the branchial (i. e. respiratory) system. Walcott noted that it was "not apparent" that they were used to secure food or carry it to the mouth of the animal, the only other viable hypothesis. Based on the related Megalograptus, the second hypothesis, that the spines of Echinognathus were used for active prey capture and to move food to the mouth, is more likely. There were numerous other organisms present at the fossil site where the Echinognathus fossils were found, including graptolites Mastigograptus, Geniculograptus, Orthograptus and Climacograptus, orthocerid cephalopod Geisonoceras, lingulid brachiopod Leptolobus, rhynchonellatan brachiopod Camarotoechia and trilobite Triarthrus. ## See also - List of eurypterid genera - Timeline of eurypterid research

Japan Echo

English language Japanese periodical

Japan Echo was an English-language periodical on Japanese issues which was initially published in print form by Japan Echo Inc. between 1974 and 2010. Consisting mainly of translations into English of magazine and news articles originally published in Japanese, Japan Echo was launched with the support of Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry "to enable people abroad to learn what the Japanese themselves are thinking and writing about the issues of the day." Though independently published, the Japanese government provided most of Japan Echos funding for the duration of its existence. In 2010 budget cuts compelled the magazine to rebrand itself as Japan Echo Web, a purely online magazine published on a website operated by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. However, two years later the Japanese government shut it down and replaced it with a similar project called the Japan Foreign Policy Forum. ## Origin and content Japan Echo was the brainchild of Kazutoshi Hasegawa, an employee at the Overseas Public Relations Division of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, who was disturbed by what he perceived to be misinformation and misunderstandings about Japan printed in the foreign press. Hasegawa recruited Yoshihiko Seki, a social scientist teaching at Tokyo Metropolitan University, to be the first editor of the new journal, which was to be published independently by a new company called Japan Echo Inc. founded in June 1974 by Jiji Press reporter Takeshi Mochida. Most of Japan Echos contents were translations, sometimes abridged, of Japanese language essays. For each issue the journal's editors selected what they considered the best articles published in major Japanese magazines on topics which were of Japanese or international significance at that time. For instance the first issue of November 1974 included eighteen articles from periodicals including Chūōkōron, Shokun!, Jiyū, Shūkan Gendai, Bungeishunjū, and Seiron grouped into topics like the oil crisis, the Solzhenitsyn case, Japanese relations with southeast Asia where Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's state visits had been greeted by mass protests, and the case of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda. The editors of Japan Echo said that they desired to "faithfully reflect a spectrum of responsible and informed Japanese opinion", though most of its editors were considered to be politically right-of-center. Japan Echo was at first released on a quarterly basis, but switched to a bimonthly format from 1997 and onward. It also had a French language edition which existed from 1979 and 2009 and a Spanish language edition from 1988 to 2009. Sumiko Iwao, a member of the editorial board from 1985 until 2007, also served as the magazine's editor-in-chief from 1997 until her retirement in 2007. ## Sources of funding and support At the magazine's founding the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry promised Japan Echo Inc. CEO Takeshi Mochida that it would not interfere with the selection of articles, but even so Japan Echo was always highly reliant on support from the Japanese government. Throughout the journal's existence the Japanese government bought 70 percent of its print run, amounting to 50,000 copies annually, and distributing it free of charge to its embassies and consulates and then in turn to universities, libraries, and researchers. The Economist magazine concluded that the Foreign Affairs Ministry continued to sponsor Japan Echo because it presented "a view of the country that the Japanese government likes the world to see." However, Japan Echo magazine also earned revenue from other sources including private subscriptions, bulk sales to Toyota Motors and Japan Airlines, and from the independent translation services provided by Japan Echo Inc. ## Praise and criticism The reference book, Magazines for Libraries described Japan Echo as an "excellent quarterly" which was "particularly valuable because it presents the Japanese in their own terms, unmediated by foreign 'experts'." "Controversial topics", the book noted, "are not avoided." Japan Echo was also praised by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for its quality and readability. Its 1987 special edition on Tokyo was described by a The Japan Times columnist as "one of the best pieces ever done" on the subject and its coverage of the controversy over the Nanking Massacre was endorsed by the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun for its "focus on facts, rather than getting caught up in emotional bluster." Many scholars supported the magazine including Hugh Cortazzi, although he also condemned one issue from 2006 which reprinted an interview between Shōichi Watanabe and Tarō Asō in which Watanabe denied the Nanking Massacre and advocated Japanese exceptionalism. In the same vein The Globe and Mail was highly critical of a 1984 issue in which a series of authors seemed to be watering down Japan's responsibility for World War II by arguing that "Japan, simply to assure its own survival, was given little choice but to wage war with the United States." Roy Andrew Miller's book Japan's Modern Myth includes an extended criticism of Japan Echo, which he accuses of being a "public-relations organ" promoting the same discredited ideas of Japanese linguistic and cultural uniqueness found in the Kokutai no Hongi. ## End of the print magazine To deal with Japan's mounting fiscal deficits, the newly elected government of Yukio Hatoyama formed the Government Revitalization Unit in 2009 to look for areas where the budget could be trimmed. The Unit recommended that the government cease purchasing and distributing foreign language periodicals like Japan Echo. The government initially followed through with this recommendation but the move was widely disapproved of by scholars of Japanese affairs including Cortazzi and thanks in part to their protests the Foreign Affairs Ministry eventually agreed to revive Japan Echo as an online magazine, which would be produced on an annual basis by whichever company put forward the best bid. ## Japan Echo Web Japan Echo Inc. won the first competitive bid to publish Japan Echo Web in 2010. The new online magazine would be released bimonthly in English and Chinese on a website owned by the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, though as before the editors of Japan Echo Inc. had the final say over its contents "in order to keep the publication from being government propaganda." The launch of the new magazine was praised in the journal Asian Politics & Policy for eschewing propaganda and providing "up-to-date, reliable information on current events". In 2011 Japan Echo Inc. concluded that annual bidding for its status as publisher of Japan Echo Web was "not a sustainable business model" and broke with the Japanese government after 37 years of cooperation. Japan Echo Inc. became the Nippon Communications Foundation which today has its own online magazine Nippon.com "driven by the same spirit that inspired the journal Japan Echo". A new group called The Japan Journal took over the magazine for the next fiscal year, after which the government terminated the Japan Echo brand for good and replaced it on November 26, 2012 with an official successor called Japan Foreign Policy Forum. ## See also - Contemporary Japan

1963 Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion

Mass casualty event

The Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on October 31, 1963; 81 people died and about 400 others were injured. It was one of the worst disasters in the history of both the city and the state. On the night of October 31, over 4,000 people were in the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum to watch a Holiday on Ice performance. While this was happening, liquefied petroleum gas was leaking from a tank that was stored with several others in a supply room underneath a part of the grandstands. Shortly after 11 p.m. ET, the gas came into contact with an electrical heating element from the concessions area, causing a major explosion that killed many seated above the room and caused significant damage to the stands. After the initial blast, while people were evacuating, a second blast caused by the remaining, unexploded tanks caused further destruction. Firefighters and other emergency responders were at the site within minutes and survivors were transported via ambulance to various hospitals in the area. The gas tanks were discovered by firefighters during cleanup operations and later testing revealed that they were the cause of the explosion. Following the disaster, a grand jury indicted seven people in total, including employees of the gas provider and the company that operated the arena, as well as the state fire marshal and the city fire chief. However, at a later date all of the individuals either had their charges dropped or their convictions overturned. Victims of the explosion were eventually awarded \$4.6 million in settlements. Several city and state agencies investigated the explosion, and it was one of the first events studied by the Disaster Research Center, a research group organized earlier that year to study large-scale disasters. The arena reopened about six weeks after the incident and still stands on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. ## Background The Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum is a multi-use arena with a seating capacity of about 7,800 located on the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. On the night of October 31, 1963, 4,327 spectators were present at the arena to see the opening-night performance of Holiday on Ice. This was the first performance of the ice show's scheduled eleven-day run in Indianapolis, and the coliseum promoted it as part of its "Shriners Night". It had been raining throughout the night and, because it was Halloween, the Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) had activated more police officers than usual. The show had been scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. EST, but it had started about fifteen minutes behind schedule, and around 11 p.m., the finale was about to begin. ## Explosion The explosion occurred at 11:06 p.m., during the show's finale. The explosion was centered on the southeastern end of the arena, just underneath the box seats of Aisle 13. The initial blast lifted approximately 700 square feet (65 m²) of floor and launched debris and spectators towards the ice rink. Shortly thereafter, a load-bearing wall underneath the stands gave way and caused an additional cave-in of about 500 square feet (46 m²) of floor. A few minutes after the initial blast, a smaller explosion occurred that produced a fireball that rose 40 feet (12 m) high. Both before and after this second blast, evacuations of the arena were underway, with the spectators mostly leaving in an orderly fashion. During the evacuation, the Holiday on Ice orchestra continued to play and reports of the evacuation make note that there was no significant mass panic, with many of the evacuees experiencing shock. The location of the explosions had left a crater measuring approximately 50 feet (15 m) across that contained a great deal of rubble and a small fire. ## Emergency response Within a minute of the first explosion, an off-duty firefighter who was in the audience telephoned the headquarters of the Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD) and informed them of the situation, immediately identifying the incident as a gas explosion. This call also alerted the IPD, as the dispatchers for the IFD and the IPD regularly monitored each other's calls. Very shortly after this call, another off-duty firefighter at the coliseum called the IFD and requested that ambulances be sent to the scene. As a result, in the first notification that any hospital received of the disaster, the dispatcher called a local hospital and requested all three of their ambulances to the arena. At 11:11 p.m., the IFD contacted the IPD directly to ensure that they were aware of the situation. A police car first arrived on the scene at 11:15 p.m., and additional cars were dispatched to the scene shortly thereafter. This initial police car radioed that an estimated 10 to 15 people had died. Around this same time, additional crisis organizations in the area, such as The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, were alerted to the situation and began to mobilize, sending some of their personnel to the coliseum to assist. Within nine minutes of the explosion, a photographer for local television station WFBM-TV was at the scene, and news of the event would be broadcast on the late-night news. The Indianapolis Star would have over 40 employees work to have the story quickly added to the next morning's paper before the press deadline of 1:30 a.m. At 11:23 p.m., a police car at the scene radioed a request for cranes and tow trucks to be sent to the arena. While the dispatcher notified them that all available tow trucks would be sent to the site, no further mention was made of sending cranes, and as much of the rubble in the arena needed to be lifted and not dragged, the trucks saw only minimal use. Around this same time, the first fire engine, which had been stationed near the entrance to the fairgrounds, arrived and began to put out the fire, with a firefighter on board giving an estimate that between 50 and 100 people had been injured. IFD dispatchers radioed the Indianapolis Fire Chief Arnold W. Phillips and called for an additional engine and rescue squad to go to the coliseum. The fire chief ordered that heavy equipment be brought in to help free some of the injured spectators from the rubble, as the firefighters' electric hacksaws had proved ineffective. Because the fairgrounds were state property, local police notified the Indiana State Police, who had been mobilized by Indiana Governor Matthew E. Welsh. The state police immediately sent three officers to the site. While initial estimates from the state police put the death toll at 12 to 15, that number continued to rise and more state police troopers were called in through the night. The District Chief from the Office of Civil Defense's 5th District also arrived on the scene shortly after being notified by the IFD and requested both additional manpower and that all hospitals in the area be contacted and informed of the situation. In total, about 250 volunteers participated in the direct emergency response. Meanwhile, the Civil Defense officials began sending their own emergency equipment, primarily focusing on tools that could remove the debris. Around 11:35 p.m., they contacted the police department of nearby Speedway, Indiana, and requested that they borrow a mobile crane from the a local heavy equipment company. Speedway police responded shortly afterwards that the mobile crane was on its way via a police escort and that it arrived at around 12:50 a.m. As the response efforts increased, traffic quickly became a problem as more vehicles arrived to bring emergency equipment, with ambulances being hindered in their ability to remove injured people from the site. As a result, Civil Defense officials began directing ambulances to enter the fairgrounds on the north side and exit to the west. As more injured people were removed from the coliseum, the west field of the fairgrounds became a makeshift triage center. Civil Defense officials began directing some ambulances to take their injured to a nearby military base to avoid possibly overcrowding local hospitals. U.S. Army ambulances from this facility were also deployed. By 11:30 p.m., only 10 injured people remained in the arena. The Marion County Coroner arrived at the scene at 11:45 p.m. and was one of the first physicians present. Due to the large number of victims, the coroner established a temporary morgue on a sectioned-off part of the ice. About five minutes after the coroner arrived, the Indianapolis chief of police arrived and set about establishing a command post in a building near the fairgrounds. This post was in place by midnight and was led by five individuals: the Marion County sheriff, the police chief, the county coroner, the director of civil defense, and a representative from the state police. By midnight, almost all of the injured people who were not trapped under rubble had been taken outside of the coliseum. Shortly after midnight, the superintendent of the Indiana State Police, as well as the Salvation Army's canteen truck and nurses from the American Red Cross Motor Corps, arrived at the fairgrounds. As cleanup efforts continued into the early morning of November 1, five liquefied petroleum gas (LP gas) tanks were discovered in the wreckage and were moved to the Fire Headquarters for inspection. By 1 a.m., all wounded individuals had been removed from the site and were being treated in hospitals around the area. At 1:47 a.m., the police chief, attempting to reduce traffic congestion around the arena, barred any additional vehicles from entering the fairgrounds. About 15 minutes later, at 2:00 a.m., the police chief called a meeting of the command post to outline the process for body identification. At the time, only 21 bodies had been identified from the wreckage, and the police had a team of four ministers and priests to contact the deceased's next of kin. Around the same time, it was decided that the command of the situation would be slowly handed over from the chief of police to the Indiana State Police, as the fairgrounds were state property. At about 3:00 a.m., some relatives of those thought to be dead from the explosion began to arrive to identify their bodies, and half an hour later, a press conference was held wherein the command post gave updates about the state of the response and answered some questions regarding the cause of the incident. At 6:30 a.m., the IPD handed over control of the site to the State Police and, save for those who were assisting the coroner, most IPD officers left the site. At this point, most of the emergency tasks at the site had been completed. By 3 p.m., all but two of the deceased had been identified, and shortly thereafter, the coroner ordered that the remaining two be moved to a nearby hospital and that the coliseum be closed. By 4:00 p.m., the coliseum was almost entirely vacated, except for State Police officers who were stationed at the entrances. ## Aftermath ### Severity of the disaster The explosion was one of the worst disasters in both Indianapolis and Indiana history. Approximately 54 people died in the initial explosion, and others later succumbed to their injuries, raising the number of fatalities to approximately 81. Among the dead was a former mayor of nearby Lafayette, Indiana. The 1963 coliseum explosion became the deadliest in Indianapolis's history, passing an 1869 boiler explosion that had killed 30 people. Coincidentally, this previous explosion had also occurred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. According to a 1968 case study, the explosion was also "the highest single death toll ever to occur in an Indiana disaster". In addition to the fatalities, approximately 400 people were injured. A later statement from the Marion County Sheriff's Department projected that had the performance begun on time, there would not have been as many casualties. It took until October 30, 1964, for the last person who had been injured in the explosion to be released from the hospital. A memorial service was held the following day for the victims of the explosion on the event's one-year anniversary. ### Cause of the explosion The investigation into the cause of the explosion began shortly after the injured people were removed from the coliseum and was headed by Indiana Fire Marshal Ira J. Anderson, the Indianapolis Fire Prevention Chief, and the State Police. The cause of the explosion was identified as the five LP gas tanks, weighing 100 pounds (45 kg) each, that had been recovered and moved to the Fire Headquarters. This was confirmed in a technical report issued by engineers from Purdue University on December 4, 1963, that said that LP gas that had leaked from the tanks was the most probable cause of the explosion. These tanks had been stored in an unventilated concessions area storeroom, which was located directly beneath the southeastern section of bleachers. The culprit tank had rusted, and it had a faulty valve from which LP gas had leaked. At some point while it was leaking, this tank had fallen over. The gas collected inside the unventilated storeroom, and it eventually roused the suspicion of a manager who opened the door to the room to discover a thick mist of gas in the air. The manager notified several employees in the area and began evacuating them, though one employee entered the room to attempt to stop the leak. Ultimately, this gas came into contact with a heating element on an electric popcorn warming machine and ignited, causing the initial blast. The second explosion that happened a few minutes later was caused by the remaining propane tanks that had not erupted in the first blast. ### Investigation and legal issues Following the explosion, a grand jury was convened by Marion County Prosecutor Noble R. Pearcy, and they took five weeks to announce their findings. In total, eight state and local agencies were involved in the investigation, during which time the jurors heard testimony from 32 people involved in the incident. Overall, jurors noted a constant blame shifting from those interviewed, with many trying to clear themselves or their organizations of responsibility for the incident. Over the course of the inquiry, the sports promoter who operated the coliseum stated that, while he did not have permits to legally store the LP gas tanks inside the building, they had been in use for about ten years, during which time he was never made aware of the need for a permit. Additionally, while it was customary to have firefighters inspect venues before large public gatherings (as they had done prior to the 1961 Holiday on Ice show at the coliseum), the promoter had not reached out to the fire department prior to the 1963 show. It was revealed that, despite hosting several large gatherings throughout the year, the coliseum was only inspected by firefighters once per year, during the annual state fair. News reports showed that the fire department was aware of the LP gas tanks being used at the coliseum during this time, as they had been called to the venue several times in 1959 to investigate reports of a gas leak but had taken no precautions to stop the venue operator's practices. The state fire marshal and city fire chief argued that they had been hindered in their inspection and fire safety abilities due to a shortage of manpower, issues with legislation concerning fire safety and prevention, and a reduction in their budgets. On December 9, 1963, the grand jury released its findings. They determined that the tanks, which lacked recommended safety caps, should not have been used indoors and should not have been stored in the arena. They also concluded that the explosion might have been prevented if an investigation by authorities had been conducted prior to the show. In total, the grand jury indicted seven people. Involuntary manslaughter charges were pressed against three individuals from the company that had supplied the LP gas tanks, the Discount Gas Corporation, and two employees of the arena's operators, the Indiana Coliseum Corporation (the general manager and the concessions manager), while misdemeanor charges were pressed against Fire Marshal Anderson and Fire Chief Phillips, the latter of whom was indicted for failure to inspect the coliseum. The grand jury placed much of the fault for the explosion on the LP gas supplier, stating that, instead of warning their customers of the dangers of an improperly installed LP gas tank, the company was "impelled by the profit from the sale ... without any regard for the safety of persons". The grand jury also criticized the Indiana Coliseum Corporation for its "steady build-up of indifference and carelessness in the unlawful handling and use" of the gas. Despite the indictments, no one served any jail time for the disaster. Phillips's charges were overturned when it was determined that he could not be held liable for state-owned property. Additionally, despite evidence that showed that the coliseum operators had been warned about gas problems in the past, the others that had been indicted had their charges dropped because they were found not to have had a direct role in the explosion. In the end, only one person, Discount Gas Corporation's President Edward J. Franger, was found guilty by a jury, in this case of the lesser charge of assault and battery. However, this conviction was later overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court. Survivors of the explosion and the families of those killed were awarded approximately \$4.6 million in settlements. Of this, approximately \$1.1 million had been paid out by the LP gas provider's insurance firm to 379 of the victims, while the company paid an additional \$3.5 million in an out of court settlement. In total, more than 413 lawsuits had been filed against insurance companies and the state of Indiana for damages from the explosion, with the cumulative amounts totaling \$70 million. The explosion was analyzed in-depth by the Disaster Research Center (DRC), a group formed in 1963 at the Ohio State University to investigate and study large-scale disasters. In total, the DRC conducted three visits to the location, including one the day after the explosion had occurred. The explosion was one of the first studied by the group, and in 1968, the group published its first ever case study on the disaster. ### The coliseum Following the explosion, the coliseum remained closed for 41 days while inspections were made that showed that the building was structurally sound. While there had been some concerns regarding the reopening of the coliseum, and while permanent repairs would not be completed until several months later, the Indiana State Fair Board wanted to have the venue hosting public events as soon as possible, so in early December they gave the contracted operator of the venue a vote of confidence to operate until May 1, 1964. On December 12, about six weeks after the accident, the coliseum hosted its first post-accident event, a two-day Polled Hereford cattle show. In September 1964, the coliseum served as a venue for The Beatles during their 1964 North American tour. This show was the first time since the accident that the coliseum was at full crowd capacity. On November 9, 1964, Holiday on Ice returned to the coliseum and performed before a crowd of about 5,000, exceeding the crowd that had been there the previous year. Following the explosion, the Indianapolis Capitals of the Central Professional Hockey League, which played their home games in the coliseum, terminated their lease and relocated to Cincinnati, where they became the Cincinnati Wings. The team had begun playing earlier in October and had only played eight games in the coliseum before the incident. In 1991, the naming rights for the arena were sold and it was renamed the Pepsi Coliseum. This sponsorship ended in 2012, and the arena is now known as the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. On November 14, 2002, a memorial plaque was installed at the coliseum that bears the names of those who died in the disaster. The dedication ceremony was attended by about 100 people. Another memorial was held at the coliseum in 2013 on the fiftieth anniversary of the disaster. In 2014, the arena underwent a \$63 million renovation. However, the arena looks much like it did prior to the accident. ## See also - Gas explosion#List of gas explosions - Indiana State Fair stage collapse - List of disasters in the United States by death toll - List of explosions

Church of Christ Pantocrator, Nesebar

Church building in Nesebar, Bulgaria

The Church of Christ Pantocrator (Bulgarian: църква „Христос Пантократор“, tsarkva „Hristos Pantokrator“ or църква „Христос Вседържател“, tsarkva „Hristos Vsedarzhatel“, Byzantine Greek: Ναός Χριστού Παντοκράτωρος) is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church in the eastern Bulgarian town of Nesebar (medieval Mesembria), on the Black Sea coast of Burgas Province. Part of the Ancient Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Church of Christ Pantocrator was constructed in the 13th–14th century and is best known for its lavish exterior decoration. The church, today an art gallery, survives largely intact and is among Bulgaria's best preserved churches of the Middle Ages. ## History The Church of Christ Pantocrator is usually dated to the late 13th or early 14th century. University of Pennsylvania scholar Robert G. Ousterhout places its construction in the mid-14th century. Rough Guides author Jonathan Bousfield attributes its building to the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria (r. 1331–1371), though during this time control of Nesebar changed many times between the Second Bulgarian Empire and Byzantium. The church is dedicated to Christ Pantocrator, a name of God which hails him as the "Ruler of All" in Greek. The church is located on Mesembria Street, near the entrance to Nesebar's old town. Nowadays, it houses an art gallery which exhibits works by Bulgarian artists. As it belongs to the old town of Nesebar, the Church of Christ Pantocrator forms part of the Ancient City of Nesebar UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria. Since 1927, it has been under state protection as a "national antiquity", and it was listed among Bulgaria's monuments of culture of national importance in 1964. ## Architecture The church is designed in late Byzantine cross-in-square style. It was constructed from stones and brickwork, a construction technique known as opus mixtum, and measures 16 by 6.90 metres (52.5 ft × 22.6 ft), 16 by 6.70 metres (52.5 ft × 22.0 ft), or 14.20 by 4.80 metres (46.6 ft × 15.7 ft), depending on the source. The walls of the church are 0.80 metres (2.6 ft) thick. The colour of the bricks gives the church a ruddy appearance. The church features a narthex and a cella (or "naos") with an essentially rectangular elongated plan. The narthex is small, but has a medieval tomb underneath it. There are four entrances to the church: two accessing the cella from the south and west, and another two for the narthex from the west and north. The apse of the church has three small parts which overlap each other to form a single, larger unit. The prothesis and diaconicon of the church are located by the apse. The dome, octagonal in shape, stands prominently on top of the centre of the cella. It was supported by four now-destroyed columns which were located directly beneath it. The integrated bell tower has been built on top of the narthex, as was customary in contemporary Byzantine church architecture, and extends from the rectangular main structure. The bell tower was originally rectangular, though it is now partially ruined. It was reached from the south by means of a stone staircase. ## Decoration The best-known feature of the Church of Christ Pantocrator is the rich and colourful decoration of its exterior walls. The most lavishly decorated part of the church is the east side with the apse, and as a whole all sides of the church exhibit different ornamentation. Interchanging strips of three or four rows of bricks and carved stones, which create an optical pattern, are the most basic type of decoration used. Rows of blind arches, four-leaved floral motifs, triangular ornaments, circular turquoise ceramics and brick swastika friezes run along the east wall. Ousterhout likens the appearance of the church's superimposed arcades to an aqueduct; an earlier example of that configuration can be observed in the Cappadocian church of Çanlı Kilise near Aksaray, Turkey. The inclusion of swastikas in the decoration is considered unusual and curious to tourists. It is explained by the medieval use of the swastika as a symbol of the Sun. The decoration of the elongated north and south walls includes brick blind arches in the bottom part and a large arch for each wall adjacent to the dome with a columned window in the middle. There are windows above the lower arches of the north and south facade. The dome, which also exhibits a large number of ornamental details and ceramics, features eight windows, one for each of its sides. The medieval frescoes which were painted on the interior walls of the church have been only fragmentarily preserved.

Spring Creek Park

Public park in New York City

Spring Creek Park is a public park along the Jamaica Bay shoreline between the neighborhoods of Howard Beach, Queens, and Spring Creek, Brooklyn, in New York City. Created on landfilled former marshland, the park is mostly an undeveloped nature preserve, with only small portions accessible to the public for recreation. Spring Creek Park consists of three major parts, which surround the park's eponymous creek and several smaller waterways. Spring Creek South comprises the section on the Queens side south of the Belt Parkway, which consists mostly of a marsh and forest on the shore of the Howard Beach peninsula, surrounding the neighborhood on its western and southern sides. Spring Creek North consists of a largely fenced-off section of land north of Belt Parkway; it straddles the Brooklyn–Queens border, which runs along Spring Creek. A third section of parkland was built around the Gateway Center shopping mall, which is located north of Belt Parkway on the Brooklyn side. The southern section is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, while the northern and Gateway Center portions are managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. A park along Spring Creek was first proposed in 1930 by the New York Park Association's Metropolitan Conference on Parks. It was ultimately decided that the park be built upon fill, since the site mostly consisted of marshland. Spring Creek Park was approved in 1942, and land-filling operations began in 1949. Temporary landfills for waste disposal were operated at the future park site until the South Shore Incinerator along Spring Creek was completed in 1954. The southern section of Spring Creek Park was integrated into the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1974. In the 1990s, the northern section of the park was expanded via land acquisition, and in 2003, The Related Companies built extra parkland as part of Gateway Center's construction. The New York state government opened the Shirley Chisholm State Park along the Brooklyn coastline, south of the Gateway Center section of the park, in 2019. ## Description Spring Creek Park is on the northern coastline of Jamaica Bay, extending west from Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach to the Fresh Creek Basin near Starrett City in the Spring Creek neighborhood. Most of the site lies adjacent or to the south of the Shore Parkway section of the Belt Parkway. A small portion of the park along the former Spring Creek Basin (concurrent with the Brooklyn-Queens border) extends north as far as Stanley Avenue. ### Spring Creek South The southernmost and easternmost section of the park is located entirely within Howard Beach, bound by the Belt Parkway to the north and Jamaica Bay to the south, with Cross Bay Boulevard to the east and the mouth of Spring Creek (or Old Mill Creek) to the west. The park is on a peninsula adjacent to the "New Howard Beach" or Rockwood Park community. This area is known as "Spring Creek South" or "Lower Spring Creek", and is managed by the federal National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Much of this area was formerly a municipal garbage landfill. Existing vegetation in Spring Creek South includes upland forest, grassland and shrubland, along with both freshwater and tidal marshes. Two pathways run through this section of the park. The area has been referred to as "the Weeds" or "the Baja" by local residents due to its vegetation and remoteness. It is also susceptible to brush fires during prolonged dry weather. Because it is part of the national park system, the area is accessible to the public. ### Spring Creek North The second section of the park is north of the Belt Parkway along the Brooklyn-Queens border, between Fountain Avenue to the west and 78th Street to the east, extending past Flatlands Avenue to Stanley Avenue at its north end. This portion contains the remnants of Spring Creek and a second small creek called Ralph's Creek, which feed into the mouth of Old Mill Creek. It is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. This area is known as "Spring Creek North" or "Upper Spring Creek", or as the "Spring Creek Park Preserve". The portion of Spring Creek North within Queens which contains Ralph's Creek is called the "Spring Creek Park Addition", added to the site in the 1990s. The area is designated by the Parks Department as a "Forever Wild" nature preserve site, and is inaccessible to the public. Because of this, the property is entirely lined with chain-link fencing. According to the Parks Department, this area is the "largest undeveloped salt marsh in northern Jamaica Bay", and serves as a habitat for numerous bird species as well as land animals. In spite of its status as "Forever Wild", Spring Creek North contains two major waste disposal facilities. A water treatment plant, the Spring Creek Auxiliary Water Pollution Control Plant, is in this section near the intersection of Fountain and Vandalia Avenues. Farther north along Forbell Street is the former South Shore Incinerator, now used as a cleaning garage and composting facility by the New York City Department of Sanitation. Like Spring Creek South, this area was also subjected to garbage landfilling. The site of the water treatment plant was initially the Crescent Street Landfill. This was later replaced by the South Shore Landfill, which extended north to Stanley Avenue and received ash from the incinerator. A narrow concrete berm bridge crosses the Spring Creek waterway along the right-of-way of 157th Avenue, separating the remnants of the creek. The bridge may have been used for landfilling operations, and contains within it a combined sewage overflow pipe leading to the water treatment plant. The presence of the two waste facilities has led to criticism by park advocates and local residents. ### Gateway Center parkland The third and westernmost section of the park is north of the Belt Parkway along the southern and western edges of the Gateway Center shopping mall. This portion of the park is managed by the Parks Department, and was constructed in 2003 by The Related Companies who developed Gateway Center. It contains a total of 47.1 acres (19.1 ha) of parkland, though only 31.25 acres (12.65 ha) between Erskine Street to the east and Flatlands Avenue to the north is accessible. This section features man-made or constructed wetlands which line the Belt Parkway. The parkland acts as a natural filter for stormwater runoff from the mall parking lot, after which the water flows into Hendrix Creek on the west side of the mall and park, or into the wetlands along the parkway. Numerous sewer pipes run through this portion of the park from the Gateway Center parking lot towards either Hendrix Creek or the Belt Parkway. This section also contains a cricket pitch called the Roy Sweeney Cricket Oval, at the southwest corner of the Gateway site, with several small bleachers surrounding the field. It is the first New York City park field to be designated specifically for cricket. It was named in 2016 for Roy Sweeney, who founded the United States Cricket Promoters Association in 1986. A bikeway and running path runs through the park, including a roundabout circumscribing the cricket oval. A comfort station is at the cricket oval, completed in July 2013. It is prefabricated, consisting of concrete designed to mimic wood. It also uses storage tanks due to the park's distance from major sewer lines. ### Former parkland The 1954 plans for the park had two additional tracts included in the park, which are now the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue Landfills. The Fountain Avenue Landfill is across to the south of the Gateway section of Spring Creek Park, and across to the west from Spring Creek South. The Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill is farther west, south of Starrett City. These former landfills were designated in 2018 as Shirley Chisholm State Park, which opened to the public on July 2, 2019. ### Transportation The bus routes serve the portions of the park within Brooklyn. All four routes serve the Gateway Center, while the B13, B84, and Q8 all operate on Fountain Avenue near the Park Preserve. The Howard Beach portions of the park can be reached via the and local routes and the Q52 and Q53 Select Bus Service routes which operate on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach. The closest New York City Subway stations to the area are New Lots Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn served by the (connected by the B84 bus), and the Howard Beach–JFK Airport station served by the and AirTrain JFK. ## History During at least three glacial periods, including the Wisconsin glaciation around 20,000 years ago, ice sheets advanced south across North America carving moraines, valleys, and hills. A terminal moraine was formed across the center of Long Island creating a drainage divide, with streams such as Spring Creek flowing south from the moraine (in what is now Highland Park at modern Jamaica Avenue) towards Jamaica Bay. The creek would later form the border between Brooklyn and Queens. What is now Spring Creek, Brooklyn, was characterized by marshland and streams such as Spring Creek and Hendrix Creek into the 20th century. Similarly, the section of Howard Beach, Queens, west of Cross Bay Boulevard (now New Howard Beach) consisted of undeveloped wetlands, while the peninsula was triangular and much smaller than its current extents. ### Initial construction and landfill In February 1930, the New York Park Association's Metropolitan Conference on Parks released a large report on potential parks and highways to be built in the city. The conference was chaired by the Long Island State Park commissioner at the time, Robert Moses, who would later become the New York City Parks commissioner. The report included a 100-acre (40 ha) Spring Creek Park as well the Shore Parkway portion of the Belt Parkway, both in Brooklyn. The Metropolitan Park Conference called the Spring Creek site '"the last opportunity in Brooklyn for a new park of substantial size which can be acquired at reasonable cost.'" By October of that year, it was determined that the swampy land would have to be filled in order to turn it into a proper park. At this time, the 150-acre (61 ha) tract was bound by Fountain Avenue to the west, Cozine Avenue (then Fairfield Avenue) to the north, and Sheridan Avenue to the east, on the western banks of Spring Creek where the water treatment plant now sits. Moses planned to create several parks on wetlands by filling the land with municipal waste before developing the land into parkland. These included the future Spring Creek Park and sites in Marine Park, Brooklyn; Ferry Point, Bronx; Fresh Kills, Staten Island; and Edgemere, Queens. In August 1942, the New York City Planning Commission and Board of Estimate approved the Spring Creek Park project as part of the city's post-World War II program. By 1948, portions of the park in Brooklyn were landfilled. On August 20, 1948, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the creation of a "Super Dump" at Spring Creek Park, to the west of what was then Howard Beach (now Old Howard Beach). The new dump would replace smaller landfills in other areas of Queens and reduce the load on the Edgemere Landfill. The landfill would operate until the completion of the nearby South Shore Incinerator in Spring Creek. Afterwards, the landfill would become part of the park. Bids for preparation of the site were opened on September 17, 1948. This work involved grading the site and installing a dyke around the landfill to prevent the runoff of garbage into Jamaica Bay. Landfilling began in Howard Beach on January 17, 1949. The dump was located on a 125-acre (51 ha) site along Jamaica Bay stretching west from Cross Bay Boulevard to the Brooklyn-Queens border at Old Mill Creek. It extended north 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to 165th Avenue. Prior to filling, it was a tidal marsh, with the nearest homes said to be located as far as 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away. The fill would raise the grade of the future park by 16 feet (4.9 m). The "Super Dump" was anticipated to operate for three years, after which it would be replaced by incinerators. In addition to sand, chemicals would be applied to the garbage in order to eliminated odors. By August 1949 the filling of the marshland, which was described as having "its own odors, its unsightly heaps of rubbish and its rotted pilings", received positive feedback from local communities including the absence of foul odors. The newly-reclaimed land along the coast drew comparisons to Jones Beach in Nassau County, which had also been developed by Robert Moses. At both Spring Creek and Marine Park, sewage sludge from wastewater plants was mixed with sand to create "synthetic topsoil" in order to provide a base for future vegetation. The projects were referred to as "Operation Sludge". The South Shore Incinerator was opened on June 30, 1954. At this time, Robert Moses' plans called for Spring Creek Park to extend east to Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach and include a new beach and boat basin. The Queens Spring Creek landfill, the first portion of the park, was completed between 1956 and 1958, after which additional land reclamation projects began. A 75-acre (30 ha) area was reclaimed in the Queens section of the park. Filling at the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill began in 1956, while the Fountain Avenue Landfill began operations in 1961 or 1963. The landfill and incinerator operations significantly changed the topography and vegetation of the area. The western Howard Beach peninsula was significantly filled and extended west towards Old Mill Creek, allowing residential development to occur. ### Expansion In 1969, the Regional Plan Association proposed the creation of what would become the Gateway National Recreation Area. A federal study from December of that year would also recommend the establishment of such a national park. The area would include numerous sites in the New York Harbor, Atlantic Ocean coast, and along Jamaica Bay. By 1971, there were calls to include Spring Creek Park in the proposed area, including those from Ozone Park Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo. Addabbo wished for Spring Creek to be included in part to prevent the further expansion of John F. Kennedy International Airport into the area. Alternate plans by the New York City Planning Commission suggested that the parkland be "developed into a residential, industrial and recreational complex". At this time, much of the park had yet to be developed. The bill establishing the Gateway National Recreational Area was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on October 28, 1972. On November 12, 1973, the City Planning Commission approved the cession of 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) of city-owned land to the Gateway Area, but excluding Spring Creek Park. On November 15, the Board of Estimate unanimously voted against extending the landfill in the Howard Beach portion of the park. The Gateway plans were later amended by the City Planning Commission to include part of Spring Creek Park. The Howard Beach section of Spring Creek Park was ceded to the Gateway Area on March 1, 1974. The Spring Creek water treatment plant was opened in 1974 in Spring Creek Park North. In 1979, the National Park Service released plans to develop their portion of the park, which would have included beaches and sports facilities. In summer 1992 the New York City Department of City Planning released the New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, which sought to improve and expand the waterfront parkland within the city including the area around Jamaica Bay. The plan proposed to add the tidal wetlands surrounding Spring Creek and Old Mill Creek south of Flatlands Avenue to Spring Creek Park. Private property would be acquired to add to the park, and mapped but unbuilt streets running through the park boundaries would be demapped. In 1992 and again between 1994 and 1995, parkland north of the Belt Parkway within Queens was added to Spring Creek Park North as part of the Spring Creek Park Addition. Three blocks of additional land north of Flatlands Avenue, including the former South Shore Incinerator, were added to this section of park on August 21, 2001. The Spring Creek Yard Waste Composting Facility was opened at the former incinerator site in September 2001. Following the opening of Gateway Center mall in 2002, The Related Companies constructed an addition to Spring Creek Park circumscribing the mall, opening on May 2, 2003. In March 2007, designs began on a comfort station for the park cricket field. Construction began in March 2012, and the facility was completed in July 2013. Following Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, the state and federal governments began designing restoration projects for both Spring Creek South and Spring Creek North, in order for the wetlands to act as a natural storm surge barrier for Howard Beach and other neighborhoods along Jamaica Bay. In January 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to build the Shirley Chisholm State Park, a 407-acre (165 ha) state park along 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the Jamaica Bay coastline, adjoining the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills south of Spring Creek Park's Gateway Mall section. It would be located near Spring Creek and be open in 2019. The first section opened on July 2, 2019, and the second section is expected to open in 2021. Around February 2018, traces of radium were discovered in the Howard Beach section of Spring Creek Park by the National Park Service and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation during initial work on the restoration project. The radium was believed to be introduced when the area was used as a landfill. ## Incidents On February 25, 2006, the body of 24-year-old Imette St. Guillen was discovered on Fountain Avenue in a marshy area of Spring Creek Park. A memorial was set up within the park to commemorate St. Guillen. On August 2, 2016, Karina Vetrano, a 30-year-old resident of Howard Beach, was attacked and murdered by 20-year old Chanel Lewis while jogging in Spring Creek Park South. By the end of the month, eight NYPD security cameras were installed along the perimeter of the park.

Arwen

Fictional half-elf in Tolkien's Middle-Earth

Arwen Undómiel is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She appears in the novel The Lord of the Rings. Arwen is one of the half-elven who lived during the Third Age; her father was Elrond half-elven, lord of the Elvish sanctuary of Rivendell, while her mother was the Elf Celebrian, daughter of the Elf-queen Galadriel, ruler of Lothlórien. She marries the Man Aragorn, who becomes King of Arnor and Gondor. In Peter Jackson's film adaptation, Arwen is played by Liv Tyler. She plays a more active role in the film than in the book, personally rescuing the Hobbit Frodo from the Black Riders at the Fords of Bruinen (a role played by Glorfindel in the book). ## Narrative Arwen was the youngest child of Elrond, lord of the Elvish sanctuary of Rivendell and leader of the High Elves remaining in Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, and Celebrían, daughter of Galadriel, ruler of the Elvish forest realm of Lothlórien. Her elder brothers were the twins Elladan and Elrohir. Her name "Ar-wen" means 'noble maiden' in Sindarin. She was given the name "Evenstar" as the most beautiful of the last generation of High Elves in Middle-earth. As told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", in his twentieth year Aragorn met Arwen for the first time in Rivendell, where he lived under Elrond's protection. Arwen, then over 2,700 years old, had recently returned to her father's home after living with her grandmother, Galadriel, in Lothlórien. Aragorn fell in love with Arwen at first sight. Thirty years later, the two were reunited in Lothlórien. Arwen reciprocated Aragorn's love, and on the mound of Cerin Amroth they committed themselves to marrying each other. In making that choice, Arwen gave up the Elvish immortality available to her as a daughter of Elrond, and agreed to remain in Middle-earth instead of travelling to the Undying Lands. Arwen first appears in the text of The Lord of the Rings in Rivendell, shortly after Frodo Baggins wakes in the House of Elrond: she sits beside her father at the celebratory feast. When the Fellowship of the Ring comes to Lothlórien, Aragorn remembers his earlier meeting with Arwen and pauses in reverence. Shortly before Aragorn takes the Paths of the Dead, he is joined by a contingent of his people accompanied by Arwen's brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, who bring him a gift from Arwen: a banner of black cloth. The banner is unfurled at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to reveal the emblem of Elendil figured in mithril, gems, and gold; this becomes the first triumphant public announcement of the king's return. After the ring is destroyed, Aragorn becomes king of Arnor and Gondor. Arwen arrives at Minas Tirith, and they are married. She gives Frodo the Evenstar: her necklace with a white stone, to aid him when his injuries trouble him. Arwen serves as inspiration and motivation for Aragorn, who must become King of both Arnor and Gondor before Elrond will allow her to marry him. The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, an appendix to the main story, relates that Aragorn and Arwen had a son, Eldarion, and at least two unnamed daughters. One year after Aragorn's death, Arwen dies at the age of 2,901. ### Background Through her father, Elrond, Arwen was the granddaughter of Eärendil the Mariner (the second of the Half-elven), great-granddaughter of Tuor of Gondolin, and therefore a direct descendant of the ancient House of Hador. Through her great-grandmother, Idril, Arwen was also a descendant of King Turgon of the Noldor. Through her mother, she was the granddaughter of the Elf-queen Galadriel of Lothlórien, and the great-granddaughter of Finarfin. Through both of her parents, Arwen was a direct descendant of the ancient Elven House of Finwë. Furthermore, Arwen was a descendant of Beren and Lúthien, whose story resembled hers. Indeed, Arwen was held to be the reappearance in likeness of her ancestor Lúthien, fairest of all the Elves, who was called Nightingale (Tinúviel). Arwen was a distant relative of her husband Aragorn. Aragorn's ancestor, Elros Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor, was her father Elrond's brother, who chose to live as a Man rather than as one of the Eldar. Arwen eventually became Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor when she married Aragorn, who was of the line of the Kings of Arnor. By Arwen and Aragorn's marriage, the long-separated lines of the Half-elven were joined. Their union served to unite and preserve the bloodlines of the three kings of the high Elves (Ingwë, Finwë, and the brothers Olwë and Elwë) as well as the only line with Maiarin blood through Arwen's great-great-great grandmother, Melian, Queen of Doriath, and also on Aragorn's side, through the line of kings of Arnor and Númenor to Elros, Elrond's brother, whose great-great-grandmother was also Melian. ## Analysis As related in The History of Middle-earth, Tolkien conceived the character of "Elrond's daughter" late in the writing. Prior to this, he considered having Aragorn marry Éowyn of the royal family of Rohan. Arwen is depicted as extremely beautiful; she is in Melissa Hatcher's view in Mythlore "a symbol of the unattainable, a perfect match for the unattainable Aragorn in Éowyn's eyes." Carol Leibiger wrote in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Arwen's lack of involvement follows the general Elvish pattern of retreating to safe havens already established in The Silmarillion and continued in The Lord of the Rings. The scholar of English literature Nancy Enright wrote that Arwen, like Christ, is an immortal who voluntarily chooses mortality out of love, in her case for Aragorn. She granted that Arwen is not a conspicuous character, and unlike Éowyn does not ride into battle, but stated that her inner power is "subtly conveyed" and present throughout the novel. ## Adaptations ### Peter Jackson's film series In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Arwen is played by Liv Tyler. The films give her a more prominent role than her literary counterpart. In the first film, Arwen searches for Aragorn and single-handedly rescues Frodo Baggins from the Black Riders at Bruinen, thwarting them with a sudden flood, summoned by an incantation. (In the novel, Elrond summons the flood, and Glorfindel lends Frodo his horse.) During this flight Arwen wields the sword Hadhafang, which according to film merchandise was once wielded by her father and had belonged to his grandmother Idril Celebrindal. In the film adaptation of The Two Towers, the injured Aragorn is revived by a dream or vision of Arwen, who kisses him and asks the Valar to protect him. In the film, Arwen does not send Aragorn the banner she has made; instead, Elrond takes the sword Narsil, reforged as Andúril, to Aragorn at Dunharrow, and tells him that Arwen's fate has become bound to the One Ring, and that she is dying. The Tolkien scholar Janet Brennan Croft comments that Jackson makes Arwen passive, denying her independence of mind; from being a constant support, she is a distraction, even a temptation, to the American Superhero, and their marriage, in the book a sign of his rightful kingship, is in the film something he accepts as if he was condemned to it. In the extended version, Elrond asks Arwen, in Elvish with English subtitles, to accompany him to safety in Valinor, away from Middle-earth. The Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi comments that the procession of Elves in the scene "Arwen's vision" in the extended version borrows visually from the "Celtic" imagery of John Duncan's 1911 Pre-Raphaelite painting Riders of the Sidhe. Sauron uses the Palantír to show Aragorn a dying Arwen (a scene from the future) in the hope of weakening his resolve. The films portray Arwen as becoming human through her love for Aragorn; as in the novel, she follows the choice of her ancestor Lúthien to become a mortal woman for the love of a mortal man. The films introduce a jewelled pendant called the Evenstar which Arwen gives to Aragorn as a token of their love. A similar pendant appears in Marion Zimmer Bradley's short story The Jewel of Arwen, although in that story Arwen gives it to "the Ring-Bearer" rather than to Aragorn. In Tolkien's novel, Arwen gives Frodo "a white gem like a star...hanging upon a silver chain" before he leaves Minas Tirith, saying, "When the memory of the fear and the darkness troubles you...this will bring you aid". In earlier versions of the script, Arwen fought in the Battle of Helm's Deep and brought the sword Andúril to Aragorn. Some scenes of Arwen fighting in Helm's Deep were filmed before both the film's writers (with Liv Tyler's approval) reconsidered the change and deleted her from the sequence. The critic John D. Rateliff wrote approvingly of the deletion of what he calls "Arwen, Warrior Princess", even though it came "at the cost of reducing her to a sort of Lady of Shallott languishing for most of the final two films". In the Mythopoeic Society's Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, Cathy Akers-Jordan, Victoria Gaydosik, Jane Chance, and Maureen Thum all contend that the portrayal of Arwen and other women in the Jackson films is thematically faithful to or compatible with Tolkien's writings, despite the differences. ### Other In the 1981 BBC radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings, Arwen is voiced by Sonia Fraser. In the musical theatre adaptation of Lord of the Rings, Arwen, played in London in 2007 by Rosalie Craig, sings the Prologue, and three musical numbers: "The Song of Hope", "Star of Eärendil" (with the Elven chorus) and "The Song of Hope Duet" (with Aragorn). In the 2009 fan film The Hunt for Gollum, Arwen is played by Rita Ramnani. The Lord of the Rings board game made use of a rendition of Arwen by Jackson's conceptual designer, the illustrator John Howe; the work was inspired by the French actress Isabelle Adjani.

Cory Booker

American politician and lawyer (born 1969)

Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002. Booker was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey. He attended Stanford University, receiving a BA in 1991 and a master's degree a year later. He attended Queen's College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship before attending Yale Law School. He won an upset victory for a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark in 1998, staging a 10-day hunger strike and briefly living in a tent to draw attention to urban development issues in the city. He ran for mayor in 2002 but lost to incumbent Sharpe James. He ran again in 2006 and defeated Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice. Booker's first term saw the doubling of affordable housing under development and the reduction of the city budget deficit from \$180 million to \$73 million. He was reelected in 2010. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2013 special election and reelected in 2014 and in 2020. Throughout his Senate tenure, Booker has written, sponsored, and passed legislation advancing women's rights, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and single-payer healthcare. He has pushed for economic reforms to address wealth inequality in the U.S., particularly the racial wealth gap. Booker has pursued measures to reform the criminal justice system, combat climate change, and restructure national immigration policy. In foreign policy, he has voted successfully for tougher sanctions against Iran, voiced support for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and lobbied for increased diplomacy in the Middle East. He was the first senator to ever testify against another senator during attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions's 2017 confirmation hearing. Booker was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, suspending his campaign on January 13, 2020. ## Early life and education Booker was born in Washington, D.C.; he grew up in Harrington Park, New Jersey, 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Newark. His parents, Carolyn Rose (née Jordan) and Cary Alfred Booker, were among the first black IBM executives. Booker has said that he was raised in a religious household and that he and his family attended a small African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Jersey. Booker has Sierra Leonean ancestry, which he learned when featured on the PBS television program Finding Your Roots. Booker graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, where he played varsity football and was named to the 1986 USA Today All-USA high school football team. He graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991 and a Master of Arts in sociology in 1992. He played football for Stanford at tight end and was teammates with Brad Muster and Ed McCaffrey, making the All-Pacific-10 Academic team. He was elected senior class president. In addition, Booker ran The Bridge Peer Counseling Center, a student-run crisis hotline, and organized help from Stanford students for youth in East Palo Alto, California. Booker was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at The Queen's College, Oxford, earning a degree in United States history in 1994. At Oxford, Booker served as president of the Oxford University L'Chaim Society. He obtained his Juris Doctor in 1997 from Yale Law School and operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven, Connecticut. At Yale, Booker was a founding member of the Chai Society (now Shabtai). He also was a Big Brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and active in the National Black Law Students Association. ## Municipal Council of Newark Contemplating advocacy work and a run for city council in Newark after graduating from law school, Booker lived in the city during his final year at Yale. After graduation, he served as staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and program coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. In 1998, Booker won an upset victory for a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark, defeating four-term incumbent George Branch. To draw attention to the problems of open-air drug dealing and associated violence, he went on a 10-day hunger strike, living in a tent and later in a motor home near drug-dealing areas of the city. Booker also proposed council initiatives that affected housing, young people, law and order, and the efficiency and transparency of City Hall, but was regularly outvoted. ## Mayor of Newark ### Mayoral campaigns #### 2002 election On January 9, 2002, Booker announced his campaign for mayor of Newark rather than running for reelection as councilman. That pitted him against longtime incumbent Sharpe James. James, who had easily won election four consecutive times, saw Booker as a real threat and responded with mudslinging. At one campaign event James called him "a Republican who took money from the KKK [and] Taliban ... [who's] collaborating with the Jews to take over Newark." In the campaign James's supporters questioned Booker's suburban background, calling him a carpetbagger who was "not black enough" to understand the city. Booker lost the election, garnering 47% of the vote to James's 53%. The Oscar-nominated documentary Street Fight chronicles the election. During the campaign, Booker founded the nonprofit organization Newark Now. #### 2006 election On February 11, 2006, Booker announced that he would run for mayor again. Although James filed paperwork to run for reelection, he announced shortly thereafter that he would instead cancel his bid to focus on his work as a state senator, a position to which he was elected in 1999. At James's urging, Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice decided to run for mayor. Booker's campaign, raising over \$6 million, outspent Rice's 25 to 1, for which Rice attacked him. Booker, in turn, attacked Rice as a "political crony" of James. Booker won the May 9 election with 72% of the vote. His slate of city council candidates, known as the "Booker Team", swept the council elections, giving Booker firm leadership of the city government. #### 2010 election On April 3, 2010, Booker announced his candidacy for reelection. At his announcement event, he remarked that a "united government" was crucial to progress, knowing his supporters in the city council faced tough reelections. Heavily favored to win, Booker faced former judge and Essex County prosecutor Clifford J. Minor and two minor candidates. Booker was reelected with 59% of the vote. ### Tenure Before taking office as mayor, Booker sued the James administration, seeking to terminate cut-rate land deals favoring two redevelopment agencies that had contributed to James's campaigns and listed James as a member of their advisory boards. Booker argued that the state's "pay-to-play" laws had been violated and that the land deals would cost the city more than \$15 million in lost revenue. Specifically, Booker referenced a parcel at Broad and South Streets that would generate only \$87,000 under the proposed land deals yet was valued at \$3.7 million under then-current market rates. On June 20, 2006, Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello ruled in Booker's favor. In late June 2006, before Booker took office, New Jersey investigators foiled a plot to assassinate him led by Bloods gang leaders inside four New Jersey state prisons. The motive for the plot was unclear, but was described variously as a response to the acrimonious campaign and to Booker's campaign promises to take a harder line on crime. #### First term Booker took office as mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006. After his first week in office, he announced a 100-day plan to implement reforms. The proposed changes included increasing police forces, ending background checks for many city jobs to help former offenders find employment in the city, refurbishing police stations, improving city services, and expanding summer youth programs. One of Booker's first priorities was to reduce the city's crime rate. In furtherance of this, he appointed former deputy commissioner of operations of the New York City Police Department Garry McCarthy director of the Newark Police Department. Crime reduction was such a central concern of Booker's administration that he and his security team were known to personally patrol the Newark's streets until as late as 4 a.m. Booker was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bipartisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets". In October 2009, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave him the Sarah Brady Visionary Award for his work in reducing gun violence. During his mayoralty, crime dropped significantly in Newark, which led the nation in violent crime reduction from 2006 to 2008. March 2010 marked Newark's first murder-free month in over 44 years, although murder and overall crime rates began to rise again after 2008. In addition to his crime-lowering initiatives, Booker doubled the amount of affordable housing under development and quadrupled the amount under pre-development, and reduced the city budget deficit from \$180 million to \$73 million. After taking office, Booker voluntarily reduced his own salary twice, first by 8% early in his first year as mayor. He also raised the salaries of many city workers. But his administration imposed one-day-a-month furloughs for all non-uniformed employees from July through December 2010, as well as 2% pay cuts for managers and directors earning more than \$100,000 a year. In 2008 and 2009, the City of Newark received the Government Finance Officers Association's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. In an effort to make government more accessible, Booker held regular open office hours during which city residents could meet with him to discuss their concerns. In 2010, Booker was among the finalists for the World Mayor prize, ultimately placing seventh; he was also an unsuccessful candidate for the 2012 award. In March 2010, Booker won a Shorty Award in the government category for having the best microblog. In July 2010, Booker attended a dinner at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he was seated with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, who had no known ties to Newark, announced in September 2010 that he was donating \$100 million to the Newark school system. According to The New York Times, Booker and Zuckerberg continued their conversation about Booker's plans for Newark. The initial gift was made to start a foundation for education. The gift was formally announced when Booker, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Zuckerberg appeared together on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Some considered the timing of Zuckerberg's donation a move for damage control to his image, as it was announced on the opening day of the movie The Social Network, a film that painted an unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg. But on her show, Winfrey told the audience that Zuckerberg and Booker had been in talks for months, had planned the announcement for the month before, and that she and Booker had to force Zuckerberg to put his name on the donation, which he had wanted to make anonymously. On October 10, 2010, Booker established Let's Move! Newark as part of First Lady Michelle Obama's national Let's Move! initiative against childhood obesity. Booker gained national attention on December 28, 2010, when a constituent asked him on Twitter to send someone to her elderly father's house to shovel his driveway because he was about to attempt to do it himself. Booker responded by tweeting, "I will do it myself; where does he live?" Other people volunteered, including one person who offered his help on Twitter, and 20 minutes later Booker and some volunteers showed up and shoveled the man's driveway. #### Second term In October 2011, Booker expanded the Let's Move! Newark program to include Let's Move! Newark: Our Power, a four-month fitness challenge for Newark public school students run by public health advocate Jeff Halevy. On April 12, 2012, Booker saved a woman from a house fire, suffering smoke inhalation and second-degree burns on his hands in the process. Newark Fire Chief John Centanni said that Booker's actions possibly saved the woman's life. After Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of New Jersey's and New York's shoreline areas in late October 2012, Booker invited Newarkers without electricity and similar services to eat and sleep in his home. In February 2013, responding to a Twitter post, Booker helped a nervous constituent propose to his girlfriend. Booker rescued a dog from freezing temperatures in January 2013 and another dog that had been abandoned in a cage in July 2013. On November 20, 2012, a melee occurred at a Newark City Council meeting Booker attended. The nine-seat council was to vote on the successor to the seat vacated by newly elected U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne, Jr. Booker's opponents on the council, including Ras Baraka, sought to appoint John Sharpe James, son of former mayor Sharpe James, while Booker and his supporters favored Shanique Speight. Booker attended the meeting to deal with the eventuality of the lack of a quorum or a tie vote, in which state law would allow him to cast a deciding vote. After acting Council President Anibal Ramos Jr. refused Baraka an opportunity to address the council, Baraka and two other council members walked away in protest. Booker cast the deciding vote for Speight. Supporters of James stormed the stage and were held back by riot police, who eventually used pepper spray on some members of the crowd. Baraka later blamed Booker for inciting the disturbance. Booker refused to comment to the media after the vote. In December 2012, after discussions with a constituent about New Jersey's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Booker began a weeklong challenge attempting to live on a food budget of \$30 per week—the amount he said that New Jersey paid SNAP recipients. When critics noted that the very name of the SNAP program shows that it is intended to "supplement" an individual's food budget, not be its sole source, Booker replied that his aim was to spark a discussion about the reality that many Americans rely solely on food stamps to survive. ### Public opinion polling Throughout Booker's mayoralty, Fairleigh Dickinson University's public opinion poll PublicMind asked New Jersey residents whether they had heard of Booker and whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him. The results were: September 2008 - Name recognition: 56% - Favorable opinion: 32% - Unfavorable opinion: 8% April 2009 - Name recognition: 62% - Favorable opinion: 39% - Unfavorable opinion: 10% May 2010 - Name recognition: 66% - Favorable opinion: 42% - Unfavorable opinion: 6% May 2012 - Name recognition: 67% - Favorable opinion: 47% - Unfavorable opinion: 6% January 2013 - Name recognition: 75% - Favorable opinion: 66% - Unfavorable opinion: 13% March 2014 - Name recognition: 88% - Favorable opinion: 47% - Unfavorable opinion: 23% ### Legacy Booker's mayoralty and celebrity drew substantial media attention to Newark. While he had high ratings from Newarkers, his legacy has received mixed reviews. During his tenure, millions of dollars were invested in downtown development, but underemployment and high murder rates continue to characterize many of the city's neighborhoods. Despite legal challenges initiated during his term, Newark Public Schools remained under state control for nearly 20 years. Newark received \$32 million in emergency state aid in 2011 and 2012, requiring a memorandum of understanding between Newark and the state that obligated the city to request and the state to approve appointments to City Hall administrative positions. While mayor, Booker claimed in an interview that Newark's unemployment rate had fallen by two percentage points. PolitiFact rated the claim "false" because he used data that had not been seasonally adjusted; the adjusted rate was 0.7 percentage points. ## U.S. Senate ### Elections #### 2013 On December 20, 2012, Booker announced that he would explore running for the U.S. Senate seat then occupied by Frank Lautenberg in the 2014 election, ending speculation that he would challenge Governor Chris Christie in the 2013 gubernatorial election. On January 11, 2013, Booker filed papers to form a campaign committee without announcing whether he would run. About a month later, Lautenberg—then 89 years old—announced that he would not seek reelection in 2014. On June 3, Lautenberg died of viral pneumonia; five days later, Booker announced his intention to run for Lautenberg's seat in a 2013 special election. Booker announced his candidacy at two events, one in Newark and the other in Willingboro. On August 13, 2013, Booker was declared the winner of the Democratic primary, with approximately 59% of the vote. On October 16, he defeated Republican Steve Lonegan in the general election, 54.9% to 44.0%. Booker was the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. The night before his victory, he visited the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, offering prayers and lighting a vigil candle in memory of his father. Booker resigned as mayor of Newark on October 30, and on October 31 was sworn in as the junior U.S. senator from New Jersey. He is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. #### 2014 On January 9, 2014, Brian D. Goldberg, a West Orange resident and New Jersey businessman, announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. On January 27, 2014, Freehold Township businessman Richard J. "Rich" Pezzullo announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Pezzullo had run for the US Senate in 1996 as the Conservative Party candidate. On February 4, 2014, conservative political consultant Jeff Bell announced his bid for the nomination. Bell was the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 1978. Ramapo College professor Murray Sabrin, who ran for the Senate in 2000 and 2008, announced his candidacy on February 13. Bell won the Republican primary and received support from the conservative American Principles Fund, which ran a direct-mail operation costing over \$80,000, and the National Organization for Marriage, an organization opposing same-sex marriage, which paid for \$6,000 of automated calling. Booker defeated Bell in the general election with 55.8% of the vote to Bell's 42.4%. #### 2020 In his reelection campaign, Booker faced Republican nominee Rik Mehta, a pharmaceutical executive and attorney. The election was primarily conducted by mail-in ballots, as mandated by Governor Phil Murphy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Booker and Mehta participated in a virtual debate sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, in which they sparred over issues including the Trump presidency, COVID-19 lockdowns, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and systemic racism. In the November 3 general election, Booker defeated Mehta, 57%–41%. ### Tenure In November 2013, Booker co-sponsored and voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In December 2013, he was one of the original cosponsors of Bob Menéndez's Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013, which would toughen sanctions against Iran. He also voted for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. In January 2014, he cosponsored the Respect for Marriage Act. In February 2014, Booker voted against the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. In March, Booker pledged to meet with each of his Republican colleagues in the Senate in order to find common ground, and was spotted having dinner with Senator Ted Cruz in Washington. Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Booker endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He was considered a potential vice-presidential candidate during the primary and as the general election began, though he said on June 16 that he was not being vetted. After the election, in which Donald Trump defeated Clinton, Booker testified on January 11, 2017, against Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, the first instance of a sitting senator testifying against another during a cabinet position confirmation hearing. Booker supported fellow New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez when Menendez faced trial on federal corruption and bribery charges. During the trial, Booker was a character witness for Menendez, giving him effusive praise. After the judge declared a mistrial, Booker argued that prosecutors ought not to take Menendez to trial again. When Menendez ran for reelection, Booker praised Menendez, saying he was "so grateful for Bob Menendez and that I get to work with him and stand beside him." Booker downplayed the corruption allegations, saying "to try to continue to try to throw this kind of mud at him, it's not going to stick. It didn't stick when the government tried to do it and it should not stick now." In 2018, Politico named Booker part of the "Hell-No Caucus", along with Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, after he voted "overwhelmingly to thwart his [Trump's] nominees for administration jobs", including Rex Tillerson, Betsy De Vos, and Mike Pompeo; all the senators on the list were considered potential 2020 presidential contenders. In April 2018, after the FBI raided the hotel room and offices of Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, Booker, Chris Coons, Lindsey Graham, and Thom Tillis introduced new legislation to "limit President Trump's ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller." Termed the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, the legislation would allow any special counsel, in this case Mueller, to receive an "expedited judicial review" in the 10 days following being dismissed to determine if said dismissal was suitable. If not, the special counsel would be reinstated. At the same time, according to The Hill, the bill would "codify regulations" that a special counsel could be fired by only a senior Justice Department official, while having to provide reasons in writing. On September 5, 2018, during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh (nominated by Trump to replace retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court), Booker questioned Kavanaugh on a series of emails marked "committee confidential" dating to Kavanaugh's time in the office of the White House Counsel during George W. Bush's presidency. The emails, which Booker's office released to the public the next day, show Kavanaugh and others in the Counsel's office discussing racial profiling as a means to combat terrorism, particularly after 9/11. Booker said that he was violating Senate rules in releasing the documents, with the penalty including possible expulsion from the Senate; he nonetheless defended his decision, referring to the process of producing documents for the hearing as a "sham" and challenging those who warned him about the consequences to "bring it on". Booker also described the release as "probably the closest I'll ever have in my life to an 'I am Spartacus' moment", referring to a line in the 1960 film Spartacus. Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said the documents had already been cleared for public release the night before, and that Booker was not violating any rules, leading some Republicans to accuse Booker of engaging in "theatrics" and "histrionics". Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas mocked Booker in comments the following week, saying, "Honorable—if we could use that word about more people who are in public life, people who actually ask the questions at confirmation hearings, instead of 'Spartacus.'" Booker was also one of several Democratic lawmakers and critics of President Trump who was targeted with a mailed pipe bomb. Booker played a leading role in the push to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill. He has introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize cannabis in the United States on the federal level, defund some law enforcement in jurisdictions that have shown racial bias in marijuana arrests, and increase funding to communities affected by the war on drugs. Booker announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election on February 1, 2019. Booker was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Minutes after rioters breached the Capitol, Booker and his fellow senators were evacuated from the chambers. Booker blamed Trump for inciting the attack. After the attack, Booker called for the invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and/or impeachment to remove Trump. ### Committee assignments #### Current - Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry - Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade - Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research - Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Local Food Systems, and Food Safety and Security - Committee on Foreign Relations - Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy (chair) - Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism - Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development - Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship - Committee on the Judiciary - Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights - Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism - Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights - Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety - Subcommittee on the Constitution #### Previous - Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (2013–2018) - Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2015–2017) - Committee on Environment and Public Works (2013–2021) ### Caucus memberships - Congressional Black Caucus - Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus ## 2020 presidential campaign On February 1, 2019, Booker announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 presidential election. Before his announcement, it was widely speculated that he would run for president but he expressed uncertainty about it. Within a month after Booker announced his candidacy, Governor Phil Murphy, Bob Menendez, and every Democratic member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey endorsed him. Booker held a campaign kickoff rally in Newark on April 13. After qualifying for the first five Democratic Party presidential debates, he failed to meet the polling thresholds to participate in the sixth debate in December 2019. On January 13, 2020, Booker announced that he was suspending his campaign. In March 2020, Booker endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president. ## Political positions Booker has been called a liberal and progressive Democrat. As a senator, he has a liberal voting record. In a July 2013 Salon interview, Booker said, "there's nothing in that realm of progressive politics where you won't find me." In a September 2013 interview with The Grio, when asked whether he considered himself a progressive, he said he was a Democrat and an American. According to the Humane Society, Booker has had the most pro-animal welfare voting record in the Senate year after year. Booker supports long-term deficit reduction efforts to ensure economic prosperity, cap and trade taxation to combat climate change, and increased funding for education. He has spoken in favor of creating a federal job guarantee and baby bonds (low-risk savings accounts that minors get access to at age 18). In the Senate, he has emphasized issues of racial and social justice. He played a leading role in the push to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill. He supports ending the War on Drugs. Booker supports abortion rights and affirmative action. He also supports a single-payer health care plan: in September 2017, he joined Bernie Sanders and 14 other co-sponsors in submitting a single-payer health care plan to Congress called the "Medicare for All" bill. On foreign policy, Booker supports scaling down U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and opposes intervention in Syria. After the US strike on Syria in April 2017, he criticized military action "without a clear plan" or authorization from Congress. He supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Booker has stated that Iran poses a direct threat to American and Israeli security and feels all options should be on the table for dealing with the conflict, but his decision to back the Iran nuclear deal framework damaged his long-term relationship with some Jewish voters and supporters. In an attempt to reduce the damage, he initiated an emergency summit for Jewish leaders, which some of his longstanding supporters did not attend. Despite his reputation as a progressive, progressives have criticized Booker on occasion. In 2017, he voted against a proposal to lower prescription drug prices, which led to criticism that he was too dependent on corporate support. In 2021, The American Prospect criticized Booker and Bob Menendez for recommending Christine O'Hearne to a federal judgeship after she had spent much of her career defending employers against discrimination and sexual harassment claims, and had defended a school against allegations that its swim coach had sexually abused a girl from ages 13 to 19. ## Other activities ### Obama association In 2009, after Barack Obama became President of the United States, Booker was offered the leadership of the new White House Office of Urban Affairs. He turned the offer down, citing a commitment to Newark. Booker generated controversy on May 12, 2012, when he appeared on Meet The Press as a surrogate for Obama's reelection campaign and made remarks critical of that campaign. Booker said that the attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital were "nauseating to me on both sides. It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright." The Romney campaign used the comments against Obama. Booker made follow-up comments clarifying that he believed Obama's attacks on Romney's record at Bain were legitimate but did not retract his point about attacking private equity in general. Two weeks later, Booker's communications director Anne Torres tendered her resignation, although she maintained it was unrelated to Meet the Press. ### Affiliations and honors Booker sits on the board of advisers of the political action committee Democrats for Education Reform. He is a member of the board of trustees at Teachers College, Columbia University and was formerly a member of the executive committee at Yale Law School and the board of trustees at Stanford University. In 2010, Booker received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by the Jefferson Awards. In May 2009, Booker received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the Newark-based New Jersey Institute of Technology for "his outstanding career in public service as the Mayor of Newark." In May 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University and was a commencement speaker that year. Booker received another honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in December 2010 from Yeshiva University for "his bold vision for Newark and setting a national standard for urban transformation." In June 2011, Booker received an honorary doctor of laws degree for the urban transformation of Newark and served as that year's commencement speaker at Williams College. In May 2012, Booker received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Bard College and gave the commencement speech. In 2010, he delivered the commencement addresses at Pitzer College on May 15; at Columbia University's Teachers College on May 17; and at Suffolk University Law School on May 23. Booker gave the commencement address to New York Law School graduates on May 13, 2011, at Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Center. He gave the commencement address at the University of Rhode Island in May 2011; he also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He delivered a commencement address to Stanford University graduates on June 17, 2012, at Stanford Stadium. He also received an honorary degree at Fairleigh Dickinson's 69th commencement ceremony in May 2012. In May 2013, Booker gave the commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis and received an honorary doctorate of law. On May 16, 2014, Booker gave the commencement speech at Ramapo College of New Jersey at the IZOD Center. During the 2016 presidential election, when Clinton had an illness described as pneumonia, Donna Brazile, the then-DNC interim chair considered that her ideal replacement ticket would consist of Biden and Booker. But the possibility of a divisive reaction and the possibility of "allowing Trump to capture votes in confusion" caused her to "not entertain any more thoughts of replacing Hillary." ### Films Filmmaker Marshall Curry chronicled Booker's 2002 mayoral campaign in the documentary Street Fight. The film was nominated in 2005 for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Since 2009, Booker has starred in the documentary series Brick City. The series focuses on Booker's efforts to improve Newark by reducing crime and bring about economic renewal. Brick City won a Peabody Award in 2009 and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2010. Booker contributed to the 2011 documentary Miss Representation and commented on the representations of women in politics in mass media. Booker appeared in a scene in the 2015 Parks and Recreation episode "Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington" alongside Orrin Hatch. ### Conan O'Brien "feud" In the fall of 2009, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien engaged in a satirical on-air and YouTube feud with Booker, with O'Brien jokingly insulting Newark and Booker responding that he would ban O'Brien from the Newark airport. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the feud to end during a prepared comedy skit, telling Booker to chalk it up to a head injury O'Brien suffered less than two weeks earlier. Booker then appeared on O'Brien's show and assured viewers that the feud was over and that he was actually a big fan of O'Brien, who agreed that every time he made a joke about Newark, he would donate \$500 to the City of Newark, and also made a \$50,000 donation to the Newark Now charity, which NBC Universal matched. ### Waywire In 2012, Booker and tech executives Sarah Ross and Nathan Richardson formed Waywire, a company focused on video sharing technology. Early investors included Oprah Winfrey, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Weiner, and Troy Carter. After Booker's relationship to Waywire was discussed in a front-page New York Times story, board member Andrew Zucker stepped down from his position. Shortly thereafter, Waywire CEO Richardson departed the business as the company shifted its focus from content creation to content curation. In August 2013, Booker told NBC News he intended to resign from the Waywire board and put his holdings in a trust if elected to the Senate; by September, he had resigned from the board and donated his share of the company to charity. Waywire was sold to another video curation business the next month. ### Book In 2016, Booker wrote an autobiography, United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. In an article in HuffPost, Shmuly Yanklowitz said of the book: > If there is anything that Booker repeatedly returns to in United, it is that the myopia of contemporary politics leads citizens astray, and leaves them vulnerable to ignoring issues of tangible importance. "I believe that this broken system, which afflicts us all, will be repaired" writes Booker near the end of the book. To repeat an earlier point, what sets Senator Booker's work apart from that of similar political books is that it seeks to elevate discourse rather than bring down opponents of the opposite partisan persuasion. ## Personal life Booker regularly exercises and has been a vegetarian since 1992, when he was a student at Oxford University. He abstains from alcohol and "has no known vices or addictions" other than coffee. In 2014, Booker began practicing a vegan diet and has expressed his vegan ethical philosophy and advocacy for animals. As of June 2016, Booker worshiped at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark. In 1992, Booker recounted in his column for The Stanford Daily that as a 15-year-old kissing a friend on New Year's Eve, he reached for her breast, had his hand pushed away once and then "reached [his] 'mark.'" The column described Booker's changed attitudes towards sexual relations and how "skewed attitudes" lead to rape. The Daily Caller and Fox News brought up the column during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in September 2018. From 1998 to 2006, Booker lived in Brick Towers, a troubled housing complex in Newark's Central Ward. In November 2006, as one of the last remaining tenants in Brick Towers, Booker left his apartment for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark's South Ward, an area described as "a drug- and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots." Brick Towers has since been demolished, and a new mixed-income development was built there in 2010. Since 2013, Booker has lived in a townhouse he owns in the Lincoln Park section of Newark's Central Ward, also known as "the Coast" for its arts, jazz, and nightlife history. Booker speaks Spanish; he attended a Spanish immersion program in Ecuador. In 2020, Booker learned that he and entertainer RuPaul are cousins, after both appeared on the TV show Finding Your Roots. In November 2022, Booker wrote a letter of support and leniency for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to the federal judge before her sentencing hearing. In the letter, Booker said that Holmes "holds onto the hope that she can make contributions to the lives of others and that she can, despite mistakes, make the world a better place." ### Relationships Booker has never been married, and in 2013 he was named one of Town & Country's "Top 40 Bachelors". Although he has generally tried to keep his personal life private, Booker has in the past referred to himself as a "straight male" and said that he is trying to date more in hopes of finding someone to settle down with. He has been romantically linked to poet Cleo Wade. In March 2019, actress Rosario Dawson confirmed to TMZ that she was in a relationship with Booker. Their relationship ended in February 2022. In a 1992 column in The Stanford Daily, Booker admitted that as a teenager he had "hated gays." He has himself been the target of rumors about being gay and has generally refused to address these on principle, as he explained in 2013: > Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, "So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight." ## Electoral history ## See also - Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates - List of African-American United States senators

1130 papal election

1130 election of the Catholic pope

The 1130 papal election (held February 14) was convoked after the death of Pope Honorius II and resulted in a double election. Part of the cardinals, led by Cardinal-Chancellor Aymeric de la Chatre, elected Gregorio Papareschi as Pope Innocent II, but the rest of them refused to recognize him and elected Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni, who took the name of Anacletus II. Although Anacletus had the support of the majority of the cardinals, the Catholic Church considers Innocent II as the legitimate Pope, and Anacletus II as Antipope. The double election was a result of the growing tensions inside the College of Cardinals concerning the policy of the Holy See towards the Holy Roman Empire, initiated by the Concordat of Worms (1122), which ended the investiture controversy. Several, particularly older, cardinals considered the compromise achieved in Worms as desertion of the principles of the Gregorian Reform, and inclined to accept it only as a tactical move. They supported the traditional alliance of the Papacy with the Normans in southern Italy. Some of them were connected to old monastic centers in Southern Italy such as Montecassino. One of their leaders was Cardinal Pierleoni, representative of one of the most powerful families of Rome. The opposite faction was headed by Aymeric de la Chatre, who was named cardinal and chancellor of the Holy See shortly after signing the Concordat of Worms and was one of the main architects of the new policy. He and his adherents looked at the compromise as a good solution both for the Church and the Emperor, and did not trust the Norman vassals of the Holy See, who expressed some expansionist tendencies. It seems that at least some major representatives of this faction had strong connections to the "new spirituality", meaning the new religious orders such as regular canons. Besides, they were allied with the Roman family of Frangipani, opponents of the Pierleoni family. In the last weeks of the lifetime of Pope Honorius II the cardinals, fearing the possible schism, made an agreement that the new pope would be elected by the commission of eight of them, including two cardinal-bishops, three cardinal-priests and three cardinal-deacons. ## Cardinals The College of Cardinals had probably 43 (or 42) members in February 1130. It seems that no more than 37 (36) were present at Rome on the death of Honorius II: Probably six cardinals were absent from Rome: ## Preparations for the election The parties of the College of Cardinals were of different sizes. The party of Aymeric was smaller, with 19 members, while that of his opponents 24, but the party of the Chancellor was certainly better organized. One of the undeniable aspects of that division is that the Anacletans were mainly senior cardinals, veterans of the investiture controversy, created either by Paschalis II or early in the pontificate of Callixtus II, while Innocentine cardinals with few exceptions were created after Concordat of Worms (1122), which established peace with the Emperor. Out of nineteen cardinals created before 1122, only five supported the Chancellor, while out of twenty four appointed from that time onwards as many as fourteen. The other possible reasons for such radical tensions in the College (e.g. national divisions, connections to different spiritual centres) are widely discussed by historians without final conclusion. In the elected committee the party of Aymeric had 5 members out 8. This was due to the way of their election – each of the three cardinalatial orders had to elect their own representatives. Although adherents of Aymeric were in the minority in the whole College, they had a majority among cardinal-bishops and cardinal-deacons, while their opponents were mainly cardinal-priests. Therefore, the faction of the Chancellor acquired a majority in the electoral body The following cardinals were elected to the committee (the opponents of Aymeric are denoted with †): - Cardinal-Bishops (two adherents of Aymeric) - Guillaume, Bishop of Palestrina - Corrado della Suburra, Bishop of Sabina - Cardinal-Priests (two opponents and one adherent of Aymeric) - Pietro Pierleoni, O.S.B.Cluny, Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere † - Pietro Pisano, Priest of S. Susanna † - Pietro Ruffino, Priest of SS. Silvestro e Martino - Cardinal-Deacons (two adherents and one opponent of Aymeric) - Gregorio Papareschi, C.R.L., Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria - Aymeric de la Chatre, C.R.S.M.R., Deacon of S. Maria Nuova and Chancellor of the Holy See - Gionata, Deacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano † ## Death of Honorius II and the election of Innocent II Honorius II died in the night 13/14 February 1130 in the Roman monastery of S. Gregorio, after a long illness. Cardinal Aymeric arranged a hasty burial there and immediately called the members of the committee to the monastery to proceed for the election of a new pope. But Cardinals Pierleoni and Gionata, realising that the commission certainly would elect a supporter of the Chancellor, withdrew from it hoping that a lack of quorum would prevent it from functioning. But Aymeric ignored this fact and the commission assembled with six members only. Despite the protests of Cardinal Pietro Pisano, who was a distinguished canonist, the committee elected one of its members, Cardinal Gregorio Papareschi of S. Angelo, who accepted the election and took the name Innocent II. He was enthroned in the Lateran Basilica early in the morning on February 14. His election was almost immediately recognized by six other cardinals: two bishops (Giovanni of Ostia and Mathieu of Albano) and four priests (Joselmo of S. Cecilia, Petrus of S. Anastasia and Giovanni of S. Crisogono; the identity of the fourth one is uncertain, but most probably it was Gerardo of S. Croce). In a short time they were joined also by the next eight cardinals. ## The election of Anacletus II The majority of the cardinals, however, did not recognize Innocent II under the influence of Pietro Pisano, who, as a distinguished canonist, declared that his election was invalid. On February 14 in the morning the opponents of Aymeric and his candidate assembled under the leadership of Pietro Pierleoni in the church of S. Marco to elect the new Pope. Initially, Cardinal Pierleoni proposed the election of the Dean of the College Pietro Senex of Porto, but he refused to accept the papal dignity. Then the cardinals unanimously elected Pierleoni himself, who took the name of Anacletus II. It is not known how many cardinals elected Anacletus II. The decree proclaiming his election issued on the same day was subscribed by 14 cardinals: - Bishop Pietro Senex of Porto, - Priests Gregorio de Ceccano of SS. Apostoli, Saxo of S. Stefano, Pietro of S. Marcello, Comes of S. Sabina, Gregorio of S. Balbina, Crescenzio of SS. Marcellino e Pietro, Lectifredo of S. Vitale, Pietro Pisano of S. Susanna, Matteo of S. Pietro in Vincoli and Enrico of S. Prisca, - Deacons Gregorio of S. Eustachio, Gionata of SS. Cosma e Damiano and Angelo of S. Maria in Domnica. It is not known whether the remaining five adherents of Pierleoni, who are believed to have been present at Rome, participated in the electoral proceedings. There is no doubt, however, that the lesser clergy of Rome was represented in the election. The electoral decree of Anacletus II bears the subscriptions of some of them, including Subdeacon Gregorio, primicerius scholae cantorum, who was appointed Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Aquiro the following February 21, and Rainiero, Archpriest of the Patriarchal Liberian Basilica. ## Division of the College of Cardinals The double election resulted with the open split of the College of Cardinals into two parties. Their compositions can be established in the following way: - Liber Pontificalis mentions the names of 16 cardinals who supported Innocent II from the very beginning. To them should be added two other cardinals (Guido of Tivoli and Rustico of S. Ciriaco), whose attitude is attested by the fact that they subscribed the bulls of Innocent II. - The obedience of Anacletus II may be reconstructed basing on the letter addressed to king Lothair III of Germany by his cardinals soon after his coronation. This letter bears the subscriptions of 27 cardinals, including five created by Anacletus II on February 21, a Friday of the ember week. To them should be added also cardinal Oderisio of S. Agata, who later subscribed the bulls issued by Anacletus II. Therefore, at the beginning of the schism 18 cardinals belonged to the College of Innocent II, and 28 to the College of Anacletus II. The Innocentine cardinals, who are not mentioned by Liber Pontificalis, and the Anacletan, who did not subscribe the letter to king Lothair, are denoted with †. Stefano Stornato joined the obedience of Innocent II no later than 1132; Lectifredo of S. Vitale and Giovanni Dauferio did the same in 1133, Pietro Pisano in 1137, and Desiderio of S. Prassede shortly before the end of the schism in 1138. It seems that ca. 1135 Comes of S. Sabina also abandoned Anacletus II. ## The schism Both popes were consecrated and crowned on the same day, February 23. Innocent II received episcopal consecration from Cardinal Giovanni of Ostia in the church S. Maria Nuova, the titular deaconry of Chancellor Aymeric. Anacletus II was consecrated by Cardinal Pietro of Porto in the Vatican Basilica, which means that Anacletus took the advantage in the city from the very beginning. Almost all Roman aristocracy (with the significant exception of the Frangipani family), the majority of the lesser clergy and the people of Rome recognized Anacletus II and at the end of May Innocent II had to flee to France. After his defection to France even the Frangipani submitted to Anacletus. In France, however, Innocent II found a strong ally in the person of Bernard of Clairvaux. Under Bernard’s influence, almost all European monarchs and episcopates recognized the exiled Innocent II. Anacletus II, although he controlled Rome and the Patrimony of St. Peter, received the support only of the Normans of southern Italy, Scotland, Aquitaine, some cities in northern Italy (incl. Milan), and perhaps Outremer and probably also Poland. Both elections were irregular, because they contradicted the rules established by the decree In Nomine Domini in 1059, but both sides defended the legality of the respective pontificates. The adherents of Anacletus argued that he was elected by the majority of the cardinals, lower clergy and the people of Rome. The partisans of Innocent II answered that Innocent II was elected by majority of the cardinal-bishops, who according to the decree In Nomine Domini had to play the preeminent role in the election. Their opponents answered with another version of the decree (false, but very popular at the time), which stated that the pope was elected by "cardinals" (meaning cardinal-priests and deacons), while cardinal-bishops could only express their approval or disapproval. Both parties used, by analogy, the Benedictine rule, which stated that in the case of a double election for abbot, the valid election was the one made by "the sounder part" (sanior pars) of the electors – but there was no consensus which part of the College was "sounder" in this case. Decisive for the verdict about the legality of both pontificates were not the legal arguments, but the attitude of the Catholic world, which had almost universally recognized Innocent II. His main supporters were Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, Archbishop of Magdeburg Norbert of Xanten and King Lothair III of Germany. The few secular lords who had initially supported Anacletus gradually abandoned his cause as lost; only King Roger II of Sicily, who had received the crown from Anacletus in exchange for support, stood at his side to the very end. Although Anacletus II was able to retain the control of the city of Rome and the Patrimony of St. Peter until his death in January 1138, his successor quickly made his submission to Innocent II, who is now regarded as true Pope.

Spook Country

2007 Book by William Gibson

Spook Country is a 2007 novel by speculative fiction author William Gibson. A political thriller set in contemporary North America, it followed on from the author's previous novel, Pattern Recognition (2003), and was succeeded in 2010 by Zero History, which featured much of the same core cast of characters. The plot comprises the intersecting tales of three protagonists: Hollis Henry, a musician-turned-journalist researching a story on locative art; Tito, a young Cuban-Chinese operative whose family is on occasion in the employ of a renegade ex-CIA agent; and Milgrim, a drug-addled translator held captive by Brown, a strangely authoritarian and secretive man. Themes explored include the ubiquity of locative technology, the eversion of cyberspace and the political climate of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Spook Country quickly reached mainstream North American bestseller lists and was nominated for British Science Fiction Association and Locus Awards. ## Plot summary The first strand of the novel follows Hollis Henry, a former member of the early 1990s cult band The Curfew and a freelance journalist. She is hired by advertising mogul Hubertus Bigend to write a story for his nascent magazine Node (described as a European Wired) about the use of locative technology in the art world. Helped by curator Odile Richard she investigates Los Angeles artist Alberto Corrales, who recreates virtually the deaths of celebrities such as River Phoenix. Corrales leads her to Bobby Chombo, an expert in geospatial technologies who handles Corrales' technical requirements. Chombo's background is troubleshooting navigation systems for the United States military. He is reclusive and paranoid, refusing to sleep in the same GPS grid square on consecutive nights, and only consents to talk to Hollis due to his admiration for The Curfew. Tito is part of a Chinese Cuban family of freelance "illegal facilitators", as Brown describes them – forgers, smugglers, and associated support personnel based in New York City – and is assigned by his uncles to hand over a series of iPods to a mysterious old man. Tito is adept in a form of systema that encompasses tradecraft, a variant of free running, and the Santería religion. It is alluded that the old man may have connections to American intelligence circles and Tito hopes he can explain the mysterious death of his father. When the old man calls in a favour, his family dispatches Tito on a dangerous new assignment. The identity of the old man remains unclear, though context implies that he may be Pattern Recognition'''s protagonist Cayce Pollard's father, having removed himself from the channels of normal life to focus on disrupting what he sees as criminal elements operating in the United States Government. Tracking Tito's family is a man known as Brown, a brusque and obstinate lead covert operative for a shadowy organization of unclear connection to the U.S. government. Of neoconservative orientation, Brown appears to have a background in law enforcement, but little training in tradecraft. Brown and his team attempt to track the activities of the old man and Tito with the help of Brown's captive Milgrim, whom he has translate the volapuk-encoded Russian used by Tito's family to communicate. Milgrim is addicted to anti-anxiety drugs and is kept docile and compliant by Brown, who controls his supply of Rize. Brown believes that Tito and the old man are in possession of information that would, if revealed, undermine public confidence in the U.S.'s participation in the Iraq War. In his attempts to capture them and their data, however, Brown is instead fed disinformation through the old man's intricate schemes. The three strands of the novel converge on a shipping container of unspecified cargo that is being transported via a circuitous route to an unknown destination. In Vancouver, the old man's team, with Hollis in tow, irradiate the shipping container, which is revealed to contain millions of U.S. dollars diverted from Iraq reconstruction funds. ## Background and composition ### Initial conception and development The writing process for Spook Country began for Gibson with a desire to write a novel, but without any ideas or themes that he wished to explore. The impetus for the story grew out of the author's visual impressions of Lower Manhattan in winter, from which the character of Tito emerged. Little of the material in his original pitch of the novel (posted online as part of an early promotional campaign by the book's publishers) survived in the final draft. The original proposal focused on "Warchalker", an obscure Iraqi warblog which chronicles the story of a disappeared consignment of millions of Iraqi reconstruction money. The readers of the blog included a female networks theorist interested in locative technology, and a Manhattanite of mixed heritage who freelanced with his family for organized crime. The plot would have followed those readers' attempt to track a shipping container through Warchalker on behalf of an unnamed villain. The characters from the proposal did appear in the final version, albeit in much-altered form. An early draft featuring the musician-turned-journalist Hollis and half-Cuban spy Tito as the two protagonists did not satisfy Gibson, and so he introduced the character of Milgrim, the drug-addled translator. The story of Tito's family of Chinese exiles in Cuba turning to crime was not based on historical events, though their role as "illegal facilitators" was inspired by real crime families specializing in smuggling, a phenomenon Gibson encountered in the course of his work with the futurist consulting entity Global Business Network. Although he had intended his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition to be a standalone work, elements of it manifested in the script of its eventual successor, including the character of amoral marketing guru Hubertus Bigend. As Gibson developed the plot, "it became apparent that Node, the shadowy magazine startup, was way Bigendian", and thus Spook Country came to inhabit the same fictional universe as its predecessor. In a January 2007 interview, the author revealed that the later novel was set in the spring of 2006, and described the shared world of the novels as "more or less the one we live in now". Gibson was first introduced to locative media websites through links from a friend, and initially found the phenomenon to be "excessively nerdy and very conceptual". Despite his finding compelling the idea of a digital grid mapping the surface of the earth, Gibson saw little storytelling traction in geocaching and geohacking, and instead reworked the material into the locative art of the novel. "When I started, I thought that the 'locative art' stuff would work the way immersion technology did in my earlier fiction", he commented in a subsequent interview. "Then I started liking that it wasn’t going to do that." The conception of the artworks in the novel was derived from the lowbrow art movement, and was inspired by the movement's talismanic Juxtapoz, the only art magazine Gibson was reading regularly at the time. The novel exhibits Gibson's characteristic brand awareness (a key plot element of Pattern Recognition), which he honed while poring over catalogues of products as part of his writing process. The author found the writing process unnerving, as the solution to the mystery of the container – the novel's MacGuffin – did not come to him until after he had written several hundred pages of manuscript. ### Pre-release Gibson announced the novel on October 6, 2006, on his blog, where fragments of the work were posted non-sequentially for some time, leading to much reader speculation on the content and plot of the novel. The following day, the blog featured an exploration of the mooted title by close friend and collaborator Jack Womack. In August 2007, Gibson made an appearance in the virtual world Second Life to give a reading of the novel; later reflecting on the experience, he remarked that the Second Life construct was "a lot more corporate" than he had imagined. A report in The Times described the event as "heavily freighted with meaning" in light of Gibson's role in shaping conceptions of cyberspace and virtual worlds. In an interview to promote the release of the novel, Gibson revealed that one of the issues that had most affected his writing process since Pattern Recognition was the sense that everything in the text was potentially searchable online. "It's as though there is a sort of invisible hyperlink theoretical text that extends out of the narrative of my novel in every direction", he commented. A recipient of an advanced reading copy initiated Node Magazine, a literary project in the guise of the novel's fictional magazine, with the intent of annotating the novel. The author, under the nom de plume patternBoy, mobilised a cadre of volunteers to track the references and collate the cloud of data surrounding the work – those elements of the story with footprints on internet resources such as Google and Wikipedia. The project had precedent in Joe Clark's PR-Otaku, an attempt at logging and annotating Pattern Recognition, but whereas that took several years to develop, Node was complete before the novel was even published. ## Themes > In 2006, if you invite the zeitgeist in for tea, that's what you're going to get. Spook Country explores themes relating to espionage, war profiteering and esoteric martial artistry, as well as familiar themes from the author's previous novels such as the unintended uses for which technology is employed (e.g. locative art) and the nature of celebrity. The author's preoccupation with semiotics and apophenia in Pattern Recognition is carried over in the sequel. In a review for The Guardian, Steven Poole observed that "This is a novel about, and also full of, ghost-signs, or signs that may not be signs, and about the difficulty of telling the difference. Gibson delights in saturating the pages with data that may or may not encode clues for the reader." ### Eversion of cyberspace Through its treatment of locative technology, the novel revisits notions of virtual reality and cyberspace prominent in Gibson's early cyberpunk fiction. One character proposes that cyberspace is everting; becoming an integral and indistinguishable element of the physical world rather than a domain to be visited. During the book tour for the novel, Gibson elaborated on this theme, proposing that the ubiquity of connectivity meant that what had been called "cyberspace" is no longer a discrete sphere of activity separate from and secondary to normal human activity, but that those increasingly less common parts of normal life free from connectivity were the exception. "If the book has a point to make where we are now with cyberspace", he commented, it was that cyberspace "has colonized our everyday life and continues to colonize everyday life." ### Class divide One of the elements of the novel that the author found most poignant was that of class division and how there is a subset of people who have access to a world of power and wealth that the vast majority will never experience, of which Gibson cited Brown and his evidently routine use of a private jet as an example. The author felt that at the time of writing, such social chasms were widening, and drew parallels to the Victorian era as well as to the world of his breakthrough novel Neuromancer (1984) in which there is no middle class, only the super-rich and a predominantly criminal underclass. > It's a very Victorian world, and when I was writing Spook Country I kept running up against that feeling that the world I'm actually trying to predict is becoming more Victorian, not less. Less middle class, more like Mexico, more like Mexico City. And I think that's probably not a good direction. In an interview with The Telegraph promoting the novel, Gibson conjectured that the world was moving to a situation wherein social status is determined by "connectivity" – access to communications technology – rather than material wealth. ### Political climate of the post-9/11 world > In some ways September 11 was the true beginning of the 21st century [and] at this point it is still perhaps only our narrative. But the way we have responded to it is changing things for other people in the world, too. So it is now becoming part of their narratives and their narratives will have different versions of the cause and its effects of the event. So it is like this seismic shock, one whose waves are still moving up the time line. At its epicentre is 9/11. Sociocultural changes in post-September 11 America, including a resurgent tribalism and the "infantilization of society", first appeared as a prominent motif in Gibson's thought with Pattern Recognition. Gibson interpreted the attacks as a nodal point, "an experience out of culture" which irrevocably changed the course of history and marked "the true beginning of the 21st century." After crafting 100 pages of that novel, he was compelled to re-write the main character's backstory, which the attacks had suddenly rendered implausible; this he called "the strangest experience I've ever had with a piece of fiction." The result saw Gibson noted as one of the first novelists to use the attacks to inform their writing. Nathan Lee in The Village Voice advanced the notion that while Pattern Recognition focused to an extent on "specifying the ambient sense of invasiveness in all aspects of life after the collapse of the towers", Spook Country accepted that anxiety as a premise, and was thus "the more reflective, less unnerving of the two novels". Politics is present as an underlying theme in Spook Country to a greater extent than in any of the author's previous novels. The novel can be read as an exploration of the fear, uncertainty and pervasive paranoia of an America riven by the unending and divisive Iraq War. Although he had avoided overtly political themes in his previous work out of a distaste for didacticism, Gibson found that in the Bush era, politics had "jacked itself up to my level of weirdness". Of the climate in Washington, D.C. during that period, he disclosed in a 2007 interview that "I like the sheer sort of neo-Stalinist denial of reality. That's what makes it work. It's interesting." Mike Duffy in Scotland on Sunday characterized the novel as a "startling, effective guidebook to post-9/11 America"; Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times elaborated, proposing that it was "arguably the first example of the post-post-9/11 novel, whose characters are tired of being pushed around by forces larger than they are – bureaucracy, history and, always, technology – and are at long last ready to start pushing back". ## Interpretation and reception Spook Country appeared on bestseller charts by August 7, 2007 – five days after release. The novel entered The Washington Post's hardcover fiction bestseller list for the Washington D.C. area in late August at \#4, and by September had reached \#2 in San Francisco and Canada. It was listed at \#6 on Publishers Weekly's hardcover fiction bestseller list for the U.S, as well as on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction (where it lasted three weeks). It earned a nomination for the BSFA Awards for best novel of 2007, and finished second to Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union in the standings for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel the following year. In August 2008, Rebecca Armstrong of The Independent named Spook Country as one of the "Ten Best Thrillers". Mike Duffy felt that although the novel was less overtly science fiction than Gibson's earlier novels, it retained their "wit, virtuosity and insights", and had "the same giddy mix of techno-fetishism, nuanced edge and phraseological finesse which enlivened his previous work". "Spook Country, in essence," pronounced The Telegraph's Tim Martin, "is a classic paranoid quest narrative, but one that refashions the morbid surveillance tropes of the Cold War for a post-Iraq era". Ken Barnes of USA Today found that "[l]andscapes, events and points of view shift constantly, so that the reader never truly feels on solid ground", but judged the novel to be a "vivid, suspenseful and ultimately coherent tale". In a review for The Washington Post, Bill Sheahan hailed the novel's capture of the zeitgeist, and compared it to the acclaimed literary fiction of Don DeLillo: > Despite a full complement of thieves, pushers and pirates, Spook Country is less a conventional thriller than a devastatingly precise reflection of the American zeitgeist, and it bears comparison to the best work of Don DeLillo. Although he is a very different sort of writer, Gibson, like DeLillo, writes fiction that is powerfully attuned to the currents of dread, dismay and baffled fury that permeate our culture. Spook Country – which is a beautifully multi-leveled title – takes an unflinching look at that culture. With a clear eye and a minimum of editorial comment, Gibson shows us a country that has drifted dangerously from its governing principles, evoking a kind of ironic nostalgia for a time when, as one character puts it, "grown-ups still ran things." In Spook Country, Gibson takes another large step forward and reaffirms his position as one of the most astute and entertaining commentators on our astonishing, chaotic present. ### Plot, prose, and character Ed Park of the Los Angeles Times hailed the novel as a "puzzle palace of bewitching proportions and stubborn echoes", noting the fact that antihero Hubertus Bigend was the most prominent link to Pattern Recognition as "deliciously sinister". Tim Martin thought that the plot lacked direction at times. Although he conceded that the novel's main Henry/Bigend storyline felt lightweight, Matt Thorne writing in The Independent conjectured that it was part of Gibson's conscious design that that thread "plays out against a backdrop of hidden machinations that have a much darker, wider resonance". Thorne declared Spook Country a more substantial novel than its predecessor on this basis. John Casimir of The Sydney Morning Herald concurred, writing that despite the similarity in the plots of the novels, the narrative foundation of the later novel was firmer, its structure "more sophisticated" and its "seams less visible". Ed Park singled out the author's prose for praise, proclaiming that "[s]entence for sentence, few authors equal Gibson's gift for the terse yet poetic description, the quotable simile – people and products are nailed down with a beautiful precision approximating the platonic ideal of the catalog". Matt Thorne noted that while he found Gibson's tendency towards hyper-specificity initially irritating, "there's hypnotic quality to the relentless cataloguing". The author's prose was also extolled by Clay Evans of the Daily Camera, and by Benjamin Lytal in The New York Sun, who declared that "the real news, in Spook Country, is that much of the flair that Mr. Gibson once brought to descriptions of cyberspace seems to fit perfectly, now, on all kinds of things." In The Seattle Times, Nisi Shawl gushed that "[e]ven without the high cool quotient of the novel's contents, the pleasure of Gibson's prose would be enough inducement for most of us to immerse ourselves in this book...." Simon Cooper of The Book Show agreed with the commendations of Gibson's prose, but felt the plot and characterization let the book down: > There are some great lines and observations in Spook Country, but for me the parts were greater than the whole. Gibson is a master at rendering the all pervasive but subliminal paranoia of our high-tech market society. But whereas in Pattern Recognition he was able to combine this with a sustained focus, this time it didn't quite work. Partly this is because the three-way narrative seems to dissipate rather than successfully hold the disparate parts together. Partly I think it's because the main characters seem just too passive or detached to generate sufficient narrative tension. Still, Gibson is better than most writers with his take on the science-fictionalised present, and there is no denying that the book has moments of aphoristic brilliance. In a review for The Providence Journal, Andy Smith remarked that the author was "a master of atmosphere, if not character" – a sentiment echoed by The Post and Courier's Dan Conover, who, although praising the novel's intelligence and contemporary relevance, felt that Gibson's underlying political pre-occupation and detached narration came at the expense of character development. Neil Drumming, of Entertainment Weekly, in awarding the novel a "B" rating concurred, complaining that the protagonists "often just feel like higher-tech automatons with useful features" whose actions are the product of manipulation by "external forces and cagey operatives" rather than conscious decisions. In The Daily Telegraph, Roger Perkins was more blunt, remarking that the "relentless pace and breathless dislocation" of the plot hid "character development that's as deep as dental veneer but equally shiny". Matt Thorne summed up the issue in opining that "The problem with a thriller which begins with a technology journalist talking to an experimental artist is that, no matter how exciting the events later become, it's hard to care." ### Conclusion Reviewers were divided as to the merits of the novel's ending. Andy Smith lamented that the finale of the "mostly intriguing" novel was "distinctly anticlimactic". Tim Martin wrote that it seemed "somehow less than the sum of its parts". Clay Evans dismissed it as "not especially meaningful, but fun", whereas Matt Thorne found it lacking "a traditional thriller's excitement". San Francisco Chronicle'' reviewer Michael Berry called it "an ingenious reversal" which proved that despite its apparent cynicism, the novel was "oddly optimistic for a ghost story". Overall, Thorne judged the novel ultimately unsatisfactory on account of the underwhelming ending and because Gibson "hides the full complications of the plot so successfully that it feels as if everything important is happening offstage". Roger Perkins judged the novel to be "a triumph of style over substance – which is exactly the way you suspect that Gibson wants it." His colleague Martin mused that along with the regular Gibsonian tropes, there was "something new ... a dark and very contemporary surge of suspicion and bad faith" in the novel which suggested that the author might be approaching the apex of his writing. Dan Conover concluded that while the "darkly comic satire" was "a worthy addition to the Gibson canon and a significant cultural artifact", it would not rank among the author's best works.

Svalbard Airport

Main airport serving Svalbard, Norway

Svalbard Airport (Norwegian: Svalbard lufthavn; ) is the main airport serving Svalbard in Norway. It is 5 km (3.1 mi) northwest of Longyearbyen on the west coast, and is the northernmost airport in the world with scheduled public flights. The first airport near Longyearbyen was constructed during World War II. In 1959, it was first used for occasional flights, but could only be used a few months a year. Construction of the new airport at Hotellneset started in 1973, and the airport was opened on 2 September 1975. It is owned and operated by state-owned Avinor. In 2014, the airport handled 154,261 passengers. Scandinavian Airlines operates daily flights to Tromsø and Oslo in mainland Norway. Lufttransport provides services to the two other airports on Svalbard: Ny-Ålesund and Svea, using Dornier 228 turboprop aircraft. There are also regular charter flights. ## History ### Adventdalen The first airstrip on Svalbard was constructed in Adventdalen, near Longyearbyen, by the Luftwaffe during World War II. It was not used immediately after the war; during the summer the archipelago was served by ships but was completely isolated from November to May. In the early 1950s, the Norwegian Air Force started postal flights using a Catalina aircraft that departed from Tromsø and dropped postal parcels at Bear Island and at Longyearbyen. However, these aircraft never landed until 9 February 1959, when a resident had become seriously ill and needed to be flown to mainland Norway for treatment. The mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani cleared the runway at Adventsdalen and the 14-hour flight and landing were successful. A second landing, this time for delivery of post, was made on 11 March. While the Catalina was suitable for postal flights, it was not suitable as a permanent solution for transporting passengers and freight, mainly due to its small size. Store Norske contacted the domestic airline Braathens SAFE for a regular service. A Douglas DC-4 flew the first trial flight on 2 April 1959, with 54 passengers from Bardufoss Airport. Store Norske had cleared a 1,800 by 40 metres (5,910 by 130 ft) runway for the aircraft. The next flight occurred in 1962, followed by another in 1963 and two in 1964. Due to lack of runway lights, flights were only permitted during daylight. This hindered flights during parts of December and January when the sun never rises. By April, the runway ice would begin melting as the sun would appear allowing flights during the summer. Navigation was conducted using radio signals from Bear Island and Isfjord. The first night landing was made on 8 December 1965. A DC-4 took off from the new Tromsø Airport and delivered the mail at Bear Island before continuing to Longyearbyen. The runway was lit up using paraffin lamps and lights from cars parked along the runway. A radio transmitter was also installed at Hotellneset. During the 1965–66 season, Braathens SAFE made 16 flights to Svalbard. The following two seasons, a contract was awarded to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), but after that, the contract reverted to Braathens SAFE. Fred. Olsen Airtransport made its first flight to Svalbard in 1966. By 1969, a total of 50 flights had been made to Svalbard, and by 1972, the 100th was made. By then, Braathens SAFE had started using Douglas DC-6B aircraft. During these years, Store Norske also installed permanent lights. The first jet plane to land in Adventdalen was a Fred Olsen Flyselskap Dassault Falcon 20, LN-FOI. The landing was in 1971, and the aircraft brought in 1700 lbs of mail and passengers, picking up a geological survey party. A Fokker F-28 landed on 29 April 1972. From 1974, Boeing 737-200C aircraft were taken into use. They had a side cargo door, allowing easy loading of cargo into the main cabin. Braathens SAFE built a small depot with spare parts and up to 90,000 litres (20,000 imp gal; 24,000 US gal) of fuel. Aeroflot started flights to Adventdalen in 1973 to serve the neighboring Russian community of Barentsburg. ### Hotellneset The Svalbard Treaty specifies that no military installations are permitted on the archipelago. The Soviet authorities were concerned that a permanent civilian airport could also be used by Norwegian and NATO forces. But the Soviets also needed an airport to serve their settlements at Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and by the early 1970s, an understanding was reached between the two countries. Construction started in 1973. The airport needed to be built on permafrost. The runway is insulated against the ground, so it will not melt during the summer. The hangar is frozen into the ground, with the pillars being melted into place and then being frozen stuck. The runway was plagued with frost heaves due to an incorrect construction method, forcing the airport to regularly re-asphalt the runway. In 1989, parts of the runway were re-insulated, repairing those areas that previously had been the worst of an acceptable solution. In 2006, this solution was administered to the remaining parts of the runway. An upgrade to the terminal building to allow larger capacity was completed in 2007. ### Services Both Braathens SAFE and SAS applied for the concession to fly from the mainland to Norway. This was granted to SAS, who would have one weekly service. Braathens SAFE continued to fly charter flights for the Norwegian coal mining company, Store Norske. In this way, the airport was useful until the official opening. The first landing at the new airport was made on 14 September 1974 with a Fokker F-28, and Braathens SAFE continued to fly until 1 September 1975. Russian authorities granted a concession for a semi-weekly service by Aeroflot from Murmansk Airport. The first attempt to officially open the airport was made with an SAS Douglas DC-9 on 14 August 1975. Among the guests on board was King Olav V, but thick fog at Longyearbyen forced the airplane to return. On 1 September, a Fokker F-27 from Braathens SAFE was used to calibrate the runways; on board were pilots from SAS and Aeroflot to learn about the landing conditions. The following day, the second attempt to open the airport was successful. In addition to the scheduled services, Store Norske chartered cargo flights from Fred Olsen Air Transport. Lufttransport has been at the airport since 1976. In 1984, two Bell 212 helicopters were stationed at the airport on contract with the Governor of Svalbard. The company signed an agreement with the Norwegian Coast Guard to have a Partenavia Spartacus planes stationed at Longyearbyen for fishery surveillance. Since 1994, the company has had a Dornier 228 stationed at the airport, and two since 2001. On 14 August 1987, Braathens SAFE re-entered the market, flying in parallel with SAS to Tromsø and Oslo. For the first time, the scheduled flights to Oslo were offered as day flights instead of the night flights offered by SAS. In 2002, after SAS bought Braathens, the subsidiary took over all flights to Longyearbyen for the group. From May 2004, they merged to SAS Braathens, that again became SAS from 1 June 2007. From 1 April to 1 November 2004, Norwegian Air Shuttle introduced three weekly services from Longyearbyen to Tromsø and Oslo, using Boeing 737-300 aircraft, but the service was terminated due to low loads. A new service was started on 27 March 2008, with two direct services to Oslo, using larger Boeing 737-800 aircraft. but again the route was terminated later the same year. , Norwegian is again flying to Svalbard from Oslo. Finnair announced plans to begin flights from Helsinki in summer 2016, but Norwegian authorities did not allow this route as it was not in bilateral agreement on air traffic between Finland and Norway. Norway has decided that from October 2017, Svalbard Airport shall not have international status, meaning that aircraft from other countries than Norway are not permitted anymore. As an exception, Russian aircraft are still allowed due to a treaty with Russia. The reason is that the airport is not in line with guidelines for international airports, because this is considered too costly for Norway. ## Facilities The airport is located 1.6 nautical miles (3.0 km; 1.8 mi) northwest of Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on Svalbard. The airport also serves the nearby Russian settlement of Barentsburg. Mainland Norway is part of the Schengen Area, but Svalbard is excluded. At the airport, no passport control is carried out, although exit checks are performed in Oslo or Tromsø. A passport, a national ID card from an EU/EFTA country, Monaco or San Marino, or a Norwegian driving licence/photo bank card/military ID card is needed. There are 200 free outdoor parking spaces at the airport. Taxis, rental cars and airport coaches are also available (a shuttle bus operates to hotels and guesthouses in Longyearbyen and Nybyen). Scandinavian Airlines provides handling services through SAS Ground Services. The runway is 2,483 metres (8,146 ft) long and aligned 10/28 (roughly east–west), equipped with an instrument landing system, but there are no taxiways. The 45 metres (148 ft) wide runway has two culverts that allow water from the mountain Platåberget to drain under it. About one-third of the runway is dug into the terrain, while about two-thirds is built on an embankment. A layer of frost-stable fill, varying from 1 to 4 metres (3 ft 3 in to 13 ft 1 in) is under the runway to hinder the soil from unfreezing during summer. ## Airlines and destinations Lufttransport has a base at Svalbard Airport with two 19-seat Dornier 228-202K aircraft and 15 employees. The airline flies daily trips to Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben on behalf of Kings Bay with research personnel and about thirty trips per week to Svea Airport on behalf of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani with mining personnel. These routes involve transport of 21,000 passengers and 500 tonnes of cargo per year. On behalf of the Norwegian Coast Guard, Lufttransport flies about 400 hours annual of aerial surveillance. Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle flies six times a week to Tromsø Airport and onwards to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The Barentsburg mine has a Mi-8 helicopter used for travel to and from the Longyearbyen airport and more. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located a few miles south of the airport. ## Statistics ## Accidents and incidents - On 10 October 1986, a Cessna 185 from Antarctax crashed immediately after leaving Svalbard Airport en route to Ny-Ålesund, killing all six on board. - On 29 August 1996, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 from Vnukovo Airport, Moscow, crashed into a mountain about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from the airport. All 141 people on board the Tupolev Tu-154M died. It is the worst air crash in Norwegian history.

Eyeshield 21

Japanese manga series

Eyeshield 21 (Japanese: アイシールド21, Hepburn: Aishīrudo Nijūichi) is a Japanese manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. The series tells the story of Sena Kobayakawa, an introverted boy who joins an American football club as a secretary, but after being coerced by quarterback Yoichi Hiruma, becomes the team's running back, wearing jersey number 21 and an eyeshield to conceal his identity. Inagaki chose American football as a central subject of Eyeshield 21 after realizing that it fit perfectly with his idea for the series. The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 2002 to June 2009. The series consists of 333 chapters collected in 37 tankōbon volumes. An anime adaptation consisting of 145 television episodes was co-produced by TV Tokyo, NAS, and Gallop. The television series first aired on Japan's TV Tokyo network from April 2005 to March 2008. The Eyeshield 21 franchise has spawned two original video animations (OVAs), audio albums, video games, and other merchandise. In North America, the manga was released by Viz Media from April 2005 to October 2011. The anime series was later licensed in North America by Toonami Jetstream as a joint effort with Viz Media and aired in December 2007, on its site, but before its completion, the streaming service was shut down. The whole series was streamed in English by Crunchyroll, while Sentai Filmworks licensed the series, with distribution from Section23 Films on DVDs. In Japan, the Eyeshield 21 manga has sold over 20 million volumes. The manga and anime have been featured at various times in weekly top ten lists of best-selling in their respective media. The anime has been watched by a large number of television viewers in Japan, helping to raise American football's popularity in the country. Publications for manga, anime, and others have commented on Eyeshield 21, which received positive comments for its artwork and characters, and negative responses to its non-football scenes. ## Plot In Tokyo, a weak, unassertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa enters the Deimon Private Senior High School. Sena's only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and agility, which are noted by the school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma. Hiruma forces Sena to join the Deimon Devil Bats as its running back. To protect his identity from other teams who want to recruit him, Sena is forced to publicly assume the role of the team secretary and enter the field under the pseudonym of "Eyeshield 21" wearing a helmet with an eyeshield to hide his features. The makeshift team initially takes part in the spring football tournament hoping to win through the strength of their new "secret weapon". However, the extremely weak team is eliminated early by the Ojo White Knights, one of the best football teams in Japan. After Deimon's defeat, the spring tournament is revealed as secondary in importance to the fall tournament, where the teams compete for the chance to play in the Christmas Bowl—the high school football league championship. Hiruma, Sena, and Ryokan Kurita regroup and slowly build a real team from misfits and students looking to define themselves, such as Tarō "Monta" Raimon—a baseball player who can only catch—and the bullies collectivelly known as Ha-Ha Brothers. Other characters slowly join the team, and the series follows the building and growth of the Deimon Devil Bats and its members, and rival teams as they all strive to achieve their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl. Some time after the Deimon Devil Bats win the Christmas Bowl and they become the best team in the country, Japan begins to gather the best football players to form a team to represent it at the American Football Youth World Championship, where a Most Valuable Player (MVP) will be awarded an NFL contract and \$3 million. Team Japan reaches the final against Team America, in which the game ends as a tie, and both teams are declared winners. Both teams are unsatisfied with this and return to the field for their own, improvised "overtime", causing chaos with officials. It is unclear which team wins the unofficial extra period, but Panther of Team America holds the MVP trophy aloft, winning the professional contract with the San Antonio Armadillos. The series concludes with Sena becoming the captain of the Devil Bats after Hiruma and Kurita leave school to attend college. In his final year of high school, Sena is invited to Notre Dame High School. In the final chapter, the main characters are in college or playing amateur-league football while employed. ## Production Before the series was published regularly, Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata published two one-shots called and on March 5 and 12, 2002 in Weekly Shōnen Jump. When it would become a serial, the editorial department asked if Inagaki wanted to both write and draw the series, but Inagaki felt he was "so rookie", so he asked Murata to be the illustrator. Before being asked to work on Eyeshield 21, Murata had read some of Inagaki's manga and noted that they "had many cool design concepts of uniforms and equipment". He said, "it could be turned into a great manga story" and he would "be happy to take the challenge"; eventually he was chosen. During Eyeshield 21's original run in the magazine, Inagaki went to the United States to see college football matches, and National Football League games. Despite having never played American football, Inagaki chose this theme after deciding that he wanted to create "a protagonist that was wimpy at the beginning, yet could perform outstandingly in a sports game", and with this premise in mind he decided that American football would be "a very suitable material." When originally creating Eyeshield 21, Inagaki said he was wary because he did not want his manga becoming "a simulator of football". The fact that football is not a popular sport in Japan also worried Inagaki. As last resort, he thought to turn the series into a "Kamen Rider-style masked hero story" if it could not met the popularity required for the magazine. However, it was such a popular series that online commentators said that, considering the series' final length, the editors may have insisted that Eyeshield be kept going due to business reasons. However, Inagaki declared that the manga was "exactly how [he] wanted to tell the story" and that Murata also seconded it. ## Media ### Manga The Eyeshield 21 manga series was written by Riichiro Inagaki, illustrated by Yusuke Murata, and originally serialized by Shueisha in the shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 23, 2002, to June 15, 2009. The manga consists of 333 chapters spanning 37 tankōbon (collected volumes), released from December 20, 2002, to October 2, 2010. Eyeshield 21 has also been published as part of the Shueisha Jump Remix series of magazine-style books. Fourteen volumes were released between June 28, 2010, and February 14, 2011. An English translation of the manga was published in North America by Viz Media under the Shonen Jump Advanced label between April 5, 2005, and October 4, 2011. The manga has also been licensed in some countries such as in France by Glénat, in Hong Kong by Culturecom, in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo, in Italy by Panini Comics, in South Korea by Daewon Media, and in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing. ### Original video animations Two original video animations (OVA) based on the Eyeshield 21 manga series were developed. The first one, named , was developed by Production I.G and shown as part of the Jump Festa Anime Tour in September 2003 and in Jump Festa 2004. The second OVA, titled , was shown at Jump Festa 2005. The two OVAs were later released on DVD; the first was released with the second OVA of Naruto in a compilation called Jump Festa 2004 Super DVD. The other was released by Bandai Visual as an extra track on the sixth DVD of the Eyeshield 21 anime series. ### Television series The Eyeshield 21 anime adaptation was co-produced by TV Tokyo, NAS, and Gallop, and was directed by Masayoshi Nishida until episode 103, and by Shin Katagai from 104 to 145. The series of 145 television episodes aired in Japan from April 6, 2005, to March 19, 2008, on TV Tokyo. In Japan, Bandai Visual distributed the anime in DVD format; thirty-six volumes were released between July 26, 2006, and June 26, 2007. Some changes were done in comparison to the manga; for example, swearings and guns or gambling references were reduced. Initially, Viz Media and Cartoon Network planned to air a dubbed version of Eyeshield 21 on the internet video streaming service Toonami Jetstream, and on NFL Rush site as a joint effort with National Football League (NFL). The anime was eventually posted only on Toonami Jetstream, with the first episode, which condensed three episodes, being available on December 17, 2007. However, it was not completed due to Toonami Jetstream's cancellation and shutdown. In December 2008, the video streaming service Crunchyroll announced that it would begin to stream Eyeshield 21 subtitled on its site on January 2, 2009. The last episode was available on November 1, 2009, for premium users, and on March 7, 2010, for free users. On February 26, 2010, Section23 Films announced that Sentai Filmworks received the license to the anime. The first fifty-two episodes were released on four subtitled-only DVDs between May 18, 2010, and February 8, 2011. #### Audio The music for the Eyeshield 21 anime adaptation was composed by Kō Ōtani. The series use twelve pieces of theme music, five opening and seven ending themes. The opening themes are "Breakthrough" and "Innocence" by V6, "Dang Dang" by ZZ, "Blaze Line" by Back-On, and by Short Leg Summer. The ending themes are "Be Free" by Ricken's, "Blaze Away" by The Trax, "Goal" by Beni Arashiro, "Run to Win" by Aya Hirano, Miyu Irino, Koichi Nagano and Kappei Yamaguchi, "A day dreaming..." by Back-On, "Flower" by Back-On, and "Song of Power" by Short Leg Summer. A number of audio CDs linked to the anime series have been released in Japan. The original soundtrack was released on two discs by Avex Mode on March 5, 2008, under the title Eyeshield 21 Complete Best Album. Three compilation albums, Eyeshield 21 Original Soundtrack Sound Field 1, Eyeshield 21 Sound Field Especial, and Eyeshield 21 Song Best, featuring opening and ending themes, insertion songs, and character and team songs were released on August 31, 2005, December 21, 2005, and March 23, 2006, respectively. Six maxi singles containing character songs have also been published. The first three, for Sena Kobayakawa, Mamori Anezaki, and Monta, were released on October 26, 2005. The other three, with the songs of Haruto Sakuraba, Seijurou Shin, and Suzuna Taki, were released on January 25, 2006. In addition to the musical CDs, Eyeshield 21 Drama Field 1, an audio drama CD, was released by Avex on September 21, 2005. ### Video games Konami produced Eyeshield 21 games for Sony video game systems; it released for the PlayStation 2 on December 22, 2005, and for the PlayStation Portable on March 2, 2006. Nintendo secured the rights to the Eyeshield 21 video game license for its systems in December 2004, releasing Eyeshield 21: Max Devil Power for the Nintendo DS on February 2, 2006, and Eyeshield 21: Devilbats Devildays for the Game Boy Advance on April 6, 2006. Another game was scheduled for release on the GameCube, but it was later canceled. Nintendo published an Eyeshield 21 game for the Wii, entitled , which was released in Japan on March 8, 2007. Two non-football games, Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars, released for the Nintendo DS, have featured characters from the series. Various Devil Bats, Shin and Sakuraba from the White Knights appear in support cameos. ### Print media Two art books based on Eyeshield 21 were released. The first, , was published on November 2, 2006. The second, entitled Paint Jump: Art of Eyeshield 21, was released on December 19, 2008. , a databook, was published on October 4, 2005. A pair of light novels were launched; the first, written by Katsumi Hasegawa, based on and named for the first OVA, was published on March 24, 2004. The second, , written by Eijima Jun, was published on May 26, 2006. The only original creator of the series who worked on these light novels was Murata, who illustrated them. ### Other In Japan, jigsaw puzzles, action figures, plush dolls, calendars, key chains, and a medal game machine were sold as merchandise for the series. Konami also released a collectible card game series. ## Reception ### Popularity The manga has sold more than 20 million copies in Japan; individual volumes frequently appeared on top ten lists of best-selling manga there (see table). Individual volumes have appeared in Diamond Comic Distributors's lists of 300 best-selling graphic novels in North America several times. In 2011, the Japanese website Ameba conducted a "Top 10" online web poll of the "Best Shōnen Jump Manga of the 21st Century" and Eyeshield 21 was placed seventh, although in another poll of the best Shōnen Jump titles that the readers nonetheless did not want to continue reading, Eyeshield 21 ranked twentieth. The anime adaptation was also featured several times in Japanese television rankings, with the first episode having a 7.5 percent television viewership rating. In 2006, Japanese television network TV Asahi conducted a poll for the top hundred anime, and Eyeshield 21 was placed 47th. Moreover, Eyeshield 21's series is credited with increasing the number of Japanese teenagers playing American football. However, commenting on its genre's lack of popularity in the United States, Jason Thompson wrote in Anime News Network that "Even Eyeshield 21, a sports manga which is practically made for Americans, wasn't a big hit here." ### Reviews Critics have generally given the Eyeshield 21 manga positive reviews. Deb Aoki from About.com wrote that tying with Bleach, Eyeshield 21 was the best continuing shōnen manga of 2007, because it "has well-written characters, dynamic artwork, nail-biting cliffhangers, plus a winning mix of comedy, action and drama". On the 2008 list, Aoki listed Eyeshield 21 as the best continuing shōnen, as it was able to "[come] into its own" from other shōnen series. In that same year, Pop Culture Shock's Sam Kusek elected it the best continuing manga series. Chris Zimmerman of Comic Book Bin was positive on his review of the volumes 30–33; he affirmed it is "one of the best shonen titles out there" and described it as "a superb series, with well developed characters, intense action, and touching humor." Scott Campbell of Active Anime commented it is an "action-filled" series with great artwork and humor, and that it "has managed to continually get more and more dynamic with each volume". Jarred Pine from Mania.com praised the humor and how the creators "bring out the energy and excitement of the game for the readers". June Shimonishi, reviewing for School Library Journal, wrote that it "delivers a fresh and entertaining take on all the standard sports clichés". She also said that its art is "superb ... with every inch filled with details and no gag left unseen". Zac Bertschy from Anime News Network (ANN) declared Eyeshield 21 "defies convention" by turning what most might consider "a really ridiculously bad idea" into "something most everyone would be able to enjoy". Carlo Santos from ANN called it a "typical sports story", writing that what make it an above average series are its characters and artwork. He also wrote that people who think American football is boring "may change their minds after seeing the action sequences in Eyeshield 21." Later, Santos said, "[a] lot of familiar clichés show themselves" in Eyeshield 21, and that "[t]he storyline also does a sloppy job of keeping track of the game ... making it even less believable than it already is". However, overall, he considered the story has good art, action and pace, featuring "pure sports storytelling at its finest". The anime adaptation of Eyeshield 21 received positive and mixed responses. Bobby Cooper from DVD Talk praised how the rules of American football are "explained to a foreign audience that has no clue what it's all about", adding that instructions at the commercial breaks "were informative and similar to the Go lessons of Hikaru No Go." He also said the explanations were "hilarious", but that "Eyeshield 21 is an excellent introduction to football". The on-field action was also praised, with he saying the sports action is "where Eyeshield 21 truly shines", although he criticized the scenes away from the football field, "the pacing slows to a crawl and the storyline gets a little boring". In her review, Erin Finnegan from Anime News Network stated, "[t]he pace of Eyeshield 21 is its saving grace. It's way less boring than all the time outs and commercial breaks in a regular NFL game. Football is hard to understand, but Eyeshield 21 explains the Byzantine rules ... in an entertaining way. We're never left waiting for the ref's decision for long minutes like in real life. A lot of dramatic tension carries the action between plays." Finnegan also criticized the artwork, saying, "any episode [of the show] without a game is clearly farmed out to an inferior animation studio". Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment wrote that Eyeshield 21 "has a good solid story idea, showing a young man finding his way through sports by finding friends and realizing he has potential, but it is so sidelined so often that it's frustrating to see it deal with situations as it does."

The Host (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"The Host" is the 23rd episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 97th episode overall. It was originally released on May 11, 1991, in broadcast syndication. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) falls in love with Odan (Franc Luz), a Trill mediator. But after he is mortally injured, she discovers that "Odan" is actually a symbiotic creature that lives inside a humanoid host body. Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) volunteers to act as a temporary host, complicating the relationship between Crusher and Odan. The mediation proves successful, but after Odan is transferred to a new, female Trill host (Nicole Orth-Pallavicini), Crusher chooses not to continue the relationship. At the time of filming, McFadden was seven months pregnant, resulting in filming techniques used to conceal her abdomen. A two part makeup appliance was designed for the Trill host, as well as the symbiont itself, which was based on a caterpillar and an octopus. The Trill would subsequently return in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, although the makeup was redesigned. "The Host" received a Nielsen rating of 11.3 percent during the first week of release in syndication. The ending of the episode has received a mixed reception, with Zack Handlen for The A.V. Club saying that the reaction by Crusher made "perfect sense", while others suggested that the statement regarding Crusher's views on homosexuality should have been confined as a character trait rather than a general statement on the opinions of the species. It was the first episode to be directed by Marvin V. Rush, the director of photography, and was written by Michel Horvat. ## Plot Odan (Franc Luz), a mediator, boards the Enterprise to negotiate a peace treaty between two hostile races. Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is charmed by the man, and the two share a love affair during the trip. Odan refuses to use the transporter and requests that a shuttle and pilot be provided for him; Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) honors this request. During the mission, the shuttle is attacked by a dissident faction and Odan is mortally injured. While trying to save the alien in sickbay, Dr. Crusher comes to learn that Odan is a Trill, a species which symbiotically lives within its host's body. It is further revealed by Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) that the transporter would have harmed the symbiotic lifeform. Following the death of Odan's host body, Commander Riker volunteers to allow Odan to use him as a host to conduct the necessary negotiations until a new host arrives. Odan's presence becomes dominating over Riker, and Dr. Crusher finds herself initially confused when Odan continues to try to engage with her to continue their relationship. Dr. Crusher is puzzled and full of emotion as she later confides to Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and wonders about the true depth of her feelings for Odan. With some effort, Odan in Riker's body manages to convince the delegates from the warring planets to work with him. However, Riker's body begins to deteriorate due to the incompatibility of different biologies. The ship transporting the new host has encountered engine malfunctions. Dr. Crusher does everything she can to extend Riker's and Odan's chances while the Enterprise races to meet the Trill ship, and has a deeply emotional moment with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). The Enterprise successfully rendezvous in time to bring aboard the new host, a female (Nicole Orth-Pallavicini), much to Dr. Crusher's surprise. She helps with the other Trill to transplant Odan into the new host, and both Riker and Odan fully recover. When Odan attempts to continue their relationship, Dr. Crusher is uncomfortable, knowing both that the Trill appear to have no preferences on gender orientation, and that Odan will continue to live on in any number of hosts' bodies. Odan admits she still loves Dr. Crusher, but understands her confusion and discomfort, and promises to never forget her or their short time together. And Dr. Crusher replies that she loves Odan too; in Odan's new, female host body, Odan then kisses the inner wrist of her hand. ## Production ### Direction and writing "The Host" was written by Michael Horvat and directed by Marvin V. Rush. Rush had been the director of photography for the series since the start of the third season and was the first of three members of the series' staff to direct an episode. The filming of Gates McFadden's scenes was complicated by the fact that she was seven months pregnant at the time, requiring different camera angles than would normally be used. Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker, explained later that "they would not address the fact that the actress was pregnant", requiring the cast and crew to hide McFadden's stomach from the camera with furniture or by using camera angles which only showed her from her breasts upwards. Rush was not told which episode he was going to direct beforehand, other than that it was going to be a ship-based episode. He later directed two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and two of Star Trek: Enterprise. Story editor Brannon Braga was pleased with the episode, calling it "one of the most outstanding stories we've ever done" as it was originally suggested as a "squirmy worm" story, which was "unique" as it went on to become "the most touching love story". Ronald D. Moore stated that it had become a Star Trek story by focusing the episode on the relationship rather than on the negotiations. Rush suggested that some viewers were disappointed with the ending, due to Crusher not accepting her lover in his new female body. He said that it was a valid point of view, and that McFadden's lines in the final scene made it clear that it put forward a hope that homosexuality would be better accepted in the future. The subject matter was revisited in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Rejoined", which featured one of the earliest televised lesbian kisses. The character of Odan would return in non-canon Star Trek publications, including in the short story "First Steps" within The Lives of Dax anthology. It also made two appearances in licensed comics, first in DC Comics Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual issue four and then in Divided we Fall, a crossover between The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine published under the WildStorm imprint. ### Makeup and set design The makeup for the Trill host featured a separate nose and forehead pieces, as the intention was to retain the general look of a human. Air bladders were placed inside a fake abdomen to create the shot in which the symbiont appeared to move under the host's skin. A second fake abdomen was created for the surgery scene in which the symbiont is moved into Riker, which worked by having a crew member lie under the surgery table, pulling the symbiont into the opening using a concealed string. The design of the symbiont was based on a caterpillar with an octopus for a head, which featured a further air bladder in order to give the appearance that it was pulsating and painted in fluorescent paint to glow when a black light was shone on it during that scene. The Trill later recurred in Deep Space Nine, with multiple hosts of the Dax symbiont appearing on screen. The same makeup was initially used as in their originally appearance in The Next Generation, however after two days of filming with Terry Farrell in the prosthetics, she was sent back to the makeup department to change it. The shuttle set was the same one which had been used previously, with parts created for different episodes since work began in the first season episode "Coming of Age". In "The Host", it was named Hawking for the theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking. He would later guest star in the first part of the episode "Descent" at his request. ## Reception and home media release "The Host" aired in broadcast syndication during the week commencing May 12, 1991. It received Nielsen ratings of 11.3, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. This placed it as the highest viewed syndicated show of the week, despite the ratings being near the average for the season. James Van Hise, in his book The Unauthorized Trek: The Complete Next Generation, called the introduction of the Trill an "element crucial" to Deep Space Nine, but was critical of the decision to have Crusher not be interested in Odan once he had transferred to his new female host. This "apparent homophobia" was said to have resulted in the episode being "widely criticized" by David Greven in his book Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek. Keith DeCandido, in his article for Tor.com, said it was difficult to give a fair review of the episode due to the Trill being explored in greater depth in Deep Space Nine, and the subsequent alterations made for that series compared to "The Host". He said more generally of the episode that the romance felt rushed, and he would have liked to see the exploration of Riker's feelings about his body being used to have sex with a friend. A further criticism was levelled at the ending, as Crusher stated that it was humans who have a problem with homosexuality rather than limiting it to be her own problem. He gave it a rating of four out of ten. Nick Keppler, writing for Nerve.com, listed "The Host" as one of the "gayest" episodes of the franchise and described the twist at the end of the episode with the gender of Odan's new host as "sapphic". He criticised the reaction of Crusher at the end of the episode, saying that she would "get into bed with shifty aliens with weird ridged foreheads but for some reason draws the line at space ladies". Zack Handlen gave the episode a rating of B+ in his review for The A.V. Club, saying that the idea at the core of the episode was better than the execution. But he said that the ending made "perfect sense" as he said that love wasn't solely spiritual but that "we fall in love with features, with shapes, with bodies, as well as with minds." He added that Odan's reaction was also right, as "everyone has a line, and if you love them, you won't ask them to cross it." The first home media release of "The Host" was on VHS cassette, appearing on July 23, 1996, in the United States and Canada. The episode was later included on the Star Trek: The Next Generation season four DVD box set, released in the United States on September 3, 2002. The fourth season was subsequently released on blu-ray in the UK on July 29, 2013, and July 30 in the United States.

Resident Evil Zero

2002 video game

Resident Evil Zero (or Resident Evil 0) is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom for the GameCube in 2002. It is a prequel to Resident Evil (1996), covering the ordeals experienced in the Arklay Mountains by special police force unit, the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team. The story follows officer Rebecca Chambers and convict Billy Coen as they explore an abandoned training facility for employees of the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. The gameplay is similar to other Resident Evil games, but adds the ability to switch between characters to solve puzzles and use unique abilities. Development for Resident Evil Zero began for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. The partner system was created to take advantage of the short load times possible with the capabilities of the Nintendo 64 Game Pak. The cartridge format also provided limitations, as the storage capacity was significantly less than that of a CD-ROM. The team had to approach the design differently from previous series entries to conserve storage space. Resident Evil Zero was designed to be more difficult than previous Resident Evil games. Inspired by Sweet Home (1989), the team removed the item storage boxes present in earlier games and introduced a new item-dropping feature. Production was switched to the recently unveiled GameCube after development slowed due to memory storage issues. Only the concept and story remained from the original game, which had to be rebuilt. Resident Evil Zero received generally positive reviews. Critics praised the graphics and audio for building a haunting atmosphere. Opinions on the new partner and item systems were mixed. Some found the changes were an improvement and added new layers of strategy; others believed the changes were cumbersome or non-innovative. The controls were panned as outdated and Capcom was criticized for not evolving the series' tank controls. The game was ported to the Wii in 2008, and a high-definition remaster was released in January 2016; the rereleases received mixed reviews due to lack of improvements. Resident Evil Zero was commercially successful, having sold over 4 million copies across all platforms. ## Gameplay Resident Evil Zero is a third-person survival horror video game. The gameplay remains largely the same as previous entries in the series. However, unlike controlling one sole character like the previous games, the player controls two protagonists throughout the game. The player may switch between police officer and medic Rebecca Chambers and convicted former Force Reconnaissance Officer Billy Coen. If they travel together, either one of them can be controlled while the other character is handled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). The player may also control both simultaneously or split them up to explore areas separately. Each character has unique abilities. Rebecca has a mixing kit which allows her to combine herbs and other chemicals, but she is weak defensively. In contrast, Billy can move heavy objects, use a lighter, and has higher defense, but cannot mix herbs (a staple ability in Resident Evil games). The partner system is central to solving many of the game's puzzles. The characters can run as well as perform quick 180-degree turns to evade danger. The player may examine objects such as doors, other characters, and items in order to find clues to proceed through the game. Some objects can be pushed or climbed upon to investigate higher levels. Items held by the characters can be examined in the inventory screen. Some items such as weapons can be equipped, and other items can be combined to create more effective items or replenish ammunition. When Rebecca and Billy are close by, they can exchange items between one-another. Previous series installments had the player store items in boxes placed in fixed locations. Resident Evil Zero has no item boxes, and instead allows players to drop items on the floor, freeing space in the inventory momentarily until they are retrieved at a later point. The locations of dropped items are displayed on the game map. The number of items that can be discarded in a room is limited. A bonus game, Leech Hunter, has Billy and Rebecca each collect leech charms in the mansion. ## Plot On July 23, 1998, a train owned by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, the Ecliptic Express, comes under attack from a swarm of leeches. As the passengers and crew are attacked, a mysterious young man watches from a hillside. Two hours later, the Bravo Team of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), a tactical unit of Raccoon City Police Department's (R.P.D.), is sent to investigate a series of cannibalistic murders in the Arklay Mountains outside of Raccoon City. On the way to the scene, its helicopter has an engine failure and crash-lands in a forest. Searching the area, officer Rebecca Chambers of Bravo Team comes across the Express, now motionless. She begins to investigate the scene, only to find the passengers and crew transformed into zombies. She is unaware their transformation is a result of exposure to Umbrella's T-virus contained within the leeches. As she explores the train, she teams up with Billy Coen—a former Marine Force Reconnaissance officer, who was to be executed for killing 23 people until the military police van transporting him crashed in the region. The pair notices the mysterious young man, moments before the train suddenly begins moving again. Unbeknownst to the pair, two soldiers from Umbrella, on the orders of Albert Wesker and William Birkin, attempt to take control of the train and destroy it, but are killed by leeches before they can complete their mission. As the train speeds out of control, Rebecca and Billy apply the brakes and avert its course towards an abandoned training facility for future executives of Umbrella. They discover that the former director of the facility and the corporation's co-founder, Dr. James Marcus, was responsible for discovering the so-called Progenitor virus in the 1960s, and decided to examine its potential as a biological weapon. He combined it with leech DNA to develop the T-virus that causes rapid mutations in living organisms and thus transforms humans and animals into zombies and monsters. As the pair continue to explore the facility, Wesker decides to leave Umbrella and join its rival company, and makes plans for further research on the T-virus. William Birkin refuses his offer to join him, instead opting to complete his research on the G-virus. Later, Rebecca becomes separated from Billy. On her own, she encounters Captain Enrico Marini, who tells her that the rest of the Bravo team will meet up at an old mansion they found, but allows her to stay behind to find Billy. Just after Enrico leaves, Rebecca is attacked by the Tyrant. After temporarily defeating the Tyrant, Rebecca meets up with Billy again and, together, they defeat it and continue on towards a water plant. Eventually, Rebecca and Billy catch up with the leech-controlling man, who happens to be Marcus' final experiment, Queen Leech. In 1988, Marcus was assassinated on the orders of Umbrella's other co-founder, Oswell E. Spencer, who sought his research. After his corpse was dumped, Queen Leech entered his body and reanimated it, gaining his memories and the ability to shapeshift, thus believing itself to be the resurrected Marcus and orchestrated the T-virus outbreak in the facility and on the train as a means of revenge against Umbrella. After temporarily defeating it, Billy and Rebecca attempt to escape to the surface via a lift, just as William Birkin trips the facility's self-destruct mechanism. Pursued by Queen Leech, the pair eventually kill it and escape before the facility is destroyed. Following their escape, Rebecca notices the mansion that Marini mentioned and prepares to head for it. Before she does, she assures Billy that her police report will list him as another casualty of the incident. Thanking her for his freedom, Billy departs as Rebecca heads towards the mansion to seek out the whereabouts of her fellow Bravo Team members (seen in Resident Evil). ## Development While the original Resident Evil (1996) was still in development, the idea for a prequel came up shortly after the 64DD peripheral for the Nintendo 64 was announced in 1995. Following the 64DD's low sales four years later, Capcom developed Resident Evil Zero as a cartridge-based Nintendo 64 game. Capcom started development on the Nintendo 64 version in mid-1998, one of many Resident Evil games being developed at the time. One of these was Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) which was taking full advantage of the capacities of the GD-ROM format. The Nintendo 64 cartridge could only store 64MB of data, one tenth that of a traditional CD-ROM. For these reasons, the team approached Resident Evil Zero with different ideas for gameplay and visual design that would function better with less storage space. After the script had been completed in early 1999, the production of a Resident Evil game for Nintendo 64 was revealed to the public by Yoshiki Okamoto, the president of Capcom's screenplay company Flagship. Resident Evil Zero was designed to be more difficult than its predecessors, removing the item boxes to make the game more like Sweet Home (1989). The real-time "partner zapping" system was designed to take advantage of the console's unique features and strengths, namely the lack of load times, which are necessary for optical disc based gameplay as with the PlayStation. In an effort to make 1-on-1 zombie fights more intense, Capcom experimented with giving the zombies different reactions when they were shot and allowing the player to counter-attack when bitten. The team also toyed with faster zombies, a precursor to Resident Evil's crimson head enemies. The prototype also supported local co-operative play. Resident Evil Zero was officially announced at 20 percent completion in January 2000, after which it was presented with a playable demo at Tokyo Game Show. The game was expected to release in July 2000 and reportedly had an atmosphere close to the first Resident Evil, focusing more on suspense than the more action-oriented gameplay of Resident Evil 2 (1998). However, development began to slow down when it became apparent that the data for Resident Evil Zero would not fit on a single cartridge. Production shifted to the newly announced GameCube, with the concept and story carried over but all of the data recreated. The platform change was confirmed in September 2000. The game's final version was developed primarily by Capcom Production Studio 3 with additional support provided by Tose. As a result of the transition to the GameCube, it was delayed so that the environments could be upgraded visually. More CGI videos were created as a result of the increased memory capacities, and the voice acting was re-recorded. The iconic sounds of the leeches were actually from recordings of cooking hamburgers. For the gun models, the modelling team was provided realistic-looking airsoft guns to base their designs from. Their designs were so close to the source material that the models, at first, featured replica markings and gas refill inlets. No one on the team noticed until half-way through development. Scenario writer Noboru Sugimura was called back to make some changes to the story. In the prototype's story, either Rebecca or Billy could die with the other character surviving and completing the game. This idea was scrapped as Rebecca dying would ruin the canon of the Resident Evil timeline. Billy was also originally designed in the prototype as a more ambiguous character, possibly becoming friend or foe as the story progressed. This idea was scrapped. The character designs were also adjusted: Rebecca for example lost her beret and shoulder pads while Billy received a new hairstyle. The GameCube's use of optical discs reintroduced load times, so the programmers had to use sophisticated programming to make the "partner zapping" system work. Capcom announced its intention to release a game demo in Japan around August 2002. ## Release Resident Evil Zero was released for the Nintendo GameCube on November 12, 2002, in North America, on November 21, 2002, in Japan and March 7, 2003, in Europe. In December 2008, the game was ported to the Wii along with Resident Evil (2002). The port, Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Zero, is near-identical but features a control system that supports the Wii Remote and the GameCube controller. For many years, the fate of the original Nintendo 64 prototype remained unclear. All that remained was low-quality video captured from the Tokyo Game Show in 2000 and magazine scans. In 2015, Capcom showed off the prototype while marketing the remaster and demonstrated new high-quality footage of it. The prototype remains unreleased to the public. ### HD Remaster On May 26, 2015, Capcom announced that a high-definition remastered version of the game was in development, Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster. The success of the high-definition remaster of Resident Evil inspired producer Tsukasa Takenaka to provide the same treatment to that game's prequel. Takenaka recognized that many Resident Evil fans preferred the old style of gameplay pre-Resident Evil 4, and so he reasoned that the HD remasters were to provide that same gameplay experience on modern hardware. The remaster was produced by Tsukasa Takenaka and the team was made up of many members from the original team, including director Koji Oda. Takenaka was glad Oda was on board, as this ensured Oda's original vision of the game would not be tarnished. Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster was released on January 19, 2016. A retail compilation called Resident Evil Origins Collection that includes Resident Evil HD Remaster and Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster was released on January 22, 2016. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch on May 21, 2019, along with Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4. For the remaster, Capcom used the original 2002 models and textures from their archives. To Takenaka's surprise, the models and textures were actually designed in a very high quality and then downscaled for the original release. This meant that some assets had to be redone, as items that were intentionally blurry or illegible in the original were now much more clear and did not make sense in context, such as posters or signs in the environment. The models and textures were re-touched, and then the backgrounds were re-captured. Some backgrounds in the original also featured video effects such as fire. In the remaster, these videos were transitioned into 3D effects. Additional modes were added as well, including an easy mode and Wesker mode. In Wesker mode, the player controls Albert Wesker instead of Billy, and can move quickly and use special attacks. Other improvements include an upgrade to 5.1 surround sound, video options for both the original 4:3 ratio or a new 16:9 option, as well as more control styles including a modern non-tank-like control scheme. Overall, Takenaka felt that putting together the remaster for Resident Evil Zero was more difficult than that of Resident Evil, largely due to the companion function. ## Reception Resident Evil Zero received generally positive reviews after its initial GameCube release in 2002. The graphics and atmosphere were universally praised, being described as "wonderfully spooky" and "moody" with an "astonishing level of detail". Scott Steinberg of GameSpy noted how the animated backgrounds, such as flickering lights and dripping water, brought the environments to life. Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot shared these sentiments, and complimented Capcom on how they were able to blend the game's models with pre-rendered backgrounds to create highly detailed visuals. The sound design was also complimented, with Matt Casamassina of IGN noting that "Capcom uses silence at times, too, to scare, which is brilliant." Varanini described the soundtrack as one "that will keep you in constant fear." Louis Bedigian of GameZone praised the sound effect work, such as thunder, gunshots, and footsteps for building a scary environment. The controls were universally panned as archaic, and the series was criticized for not evolving the control scheme to something more similar to Devil May Cry (2001) or Eternal Darkness (2002). Critics had mixed reactions to the gameplay changes from previous series entries. Regarding the new item system, a critic from Game Revolution noted that it prevents the need to return to item boxes to empty inventory. However, he also noted a drawback, in that it introduces more backtracking to pick up an item that was dropped. Contrary to this, Mark MacDonald of 1UP.com praised it for eliminating the backtracking that slowed down previous series entries. Varanini from GameSpot gave credit to Capcom for attempting a new item system, but it is ultimately not too useful since it is easiest to drop all the items in a save location anyway. Casamassina of IGN called the system "perfect" and much better than the item boxes in previous games. Regarding the partner system, Varanini said that it works well, although he found the puzzles too simple and the companion's AI was lacking at times. Bedigian of GameZone praised the companion system for adding a new dimension to the Resident Evil series and it left him excited for future games. Steinberg of GameSpy liked the puzzles which required both characters working together, but he was not keen to fight alongside them, feeling like he was "babysitting" the other character due to weak AI. Re-releases of Resident Evil Zero have received considerably less praise than the original, receiving mixed or average reviews. The Wii release was criticized for being a near-identical port of the GameCube version and for not fully using the Wii Remote's motion control capabilities, instead relying largely on the Classic Controller and remote/nunchuk combo. For the high-definition remaster, critics were impressed by the improved visuals but ultimately felt the game inherited the problems of the original. Peter Brown of GameSpot highlighted Wesker Mode as a fun addition and noted the game still "bears the hallmarks that made the original Resident Evil enjoyable." Resident Evil Zero sold 1.25 million copies on the GameCube, and the high-definition remaster has sold 2.8 million units as of December 2020. The game was novelized into the book Resident Evil: Zero Hour by S. D. Perry and published by Pocket Books on October 24, 2004. ### Awards Resident Evil Zero was nominated for GameSpot's annual "Best Action Adventure Game", "Best Sound", "Best Story", "Best Graphics (Technical)", and "Best Graphics (Artistic)" awards among GameCube games.

Me & You Together Song

"Me & You Together Song" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was released on 16 January 2020 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the third single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Production of the song was handled by Daniel and Healy alongside Jonathan Gilmore. Inspired by Amy Watson, Chelsea Pollard and the idealism of a teenage romance, Healy conceived the song as part of the soundtrack to German, a film he planned on creating. Although the film did not come to fruition, the 1975 continued to work on the song, channeling the sound of their former band Drive Like I Do. "Me & You Together Song" is a melancholic and sonically nihilistic dream pop and pop rock power ballad produced in a retro style that emulates rock music in the 1990s and early 2000s. It has a nostalgic soft rock instrumentation, composed of echoing, jangly pop rock guitars, dreamy guitar riffs, rumbling bass, clanging keyboards and bouncy, thunderous drums. The song's lyrics detail Healy's unrequited love for a female friend, describing the stages and moments that led to his lifelong affection for her. Thematically, it explores unrequited affection, rejection and heartbreak. The song's composition and lyrics drew comparisons to the soundtracks of 1990s romantic comedy films, Blink-182, Hanson, the Goo Goo Dolls and the New Radicals. "Me & You Together Song" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Reviewers praised the song's nostalgic sound, lovelorn lyrics, and return to the more rock-oriented sound of their earlier work. It later appeared on several year-end lists. The song was a moderate commercial success, both internationally and in the 1975's native United Kingdom. It peaked at number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, number 17 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, number 21 in New Zealand, and number 46 in Ireland. Domestically, the song reached number 35 in Scotland and number 35 on the UK Singles Chart. A music video directed by Bedroom was released on 6 February 2020. An homage to 1990s-era videos, it depicts various couples kissing in interconnected bedrooms while the 1975 performs at a house party. A second music video, shot in a black and white panoramic style, was released on 6 May 2020. ## Background "Me & You Together Song" was originally conceived for the soundtrack of German, a film Healy planned on making. He wrote the song with Amy Watson and Chelsea Pollard in mind, attempting to capture the idealism of a teenage romance. He used humour in its lyrics to convey his sincerity, finding it difficult to be "soppy" and instead utilized gags to express his affection. Healy also sought to incorporate the dream-like, hazy and "quite broken and deconstructed" qualities of their early EPs into the song. Elaborating further, the singer said: "Our favourite music is music that's kind of inherently beautiful. It's not pretty but kind of fractured or a bit jangly or overly distorted". In October 2019, Healy previewed the song on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show and described it as "really lovely" but sad. He also revealed his apprehensiveness about releasing it as a single, worrying that fans would not understand the album's overall sound since it was not finished at the time. In an interview with Lowe's colleague Matt Wilkinson, Healy said the band sought to emanate the sound of their early music–performed under the monicker Drive Like I Do–specifically the "purity" of their early lyrical expressions. On 7 January 2020 the singer announced the song's release on Instagram for the following week. On the day of the song's official release, 16 January 2020, the 1975 performed "Me & You Together Song" on the BBC Radio 1 show Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World. ## Music and lyrics Composed in the styles of dream pop and pop rock, "Me & You Together Song" is a power ballad that runs for a length of three minutes and twenty-seven seconds (3:27). According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Me & You Together Song" is set in the time signature of common time with a tempo of 108 beats per minute. The track is composed in the key of A major, with Healy's vocals ranging between the notes of F#3 to E4. It follows a chord progression of D–Dsus2/F#–Bm7–Dsus2/A–D/G–Dsus2/F#–D/G–Dsus2/F#–Dsus2/E–D/E. It incorporates elements from a variety of different genres including shoegaze, post-Britpop, indie pop, indie rock, pop-punk and soft pop. The song features a nostalgic and retro soft rock production evocative of 1990s rock music, composed of echoing, jangly pop rock guitars, dreamy guitar riffs, rumbling bass, clanging keyboards and bouncy, thunderous drums. "Me & You Together Song" has a unique song structure, with Mitch Mosk of Atwood Magazine describing it as "a three and a half minute chorus" and Brendan Wetmore of Paper commenting that the song was "full-blast and full-volume". "Me & You Together Song" is a melancholic and sonically nihilistic love song that deals with unrequited affection, rejection and heartbreak. Lyrically, it describes falling in love with a friend who does not feel the same. Healy details their first interaction ("I can't remember when we met because she didn't have her top on / I improvised a little bit, she said my references were 'spot on'"), building up the courage to ask her on a date ("I said 'can I take you for a drink?' / She said 'oh god, I'll have to think'"), an outing at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland ("We went to Winter Wonderland / And it was shit but we were happy"), and dreaming of creating a domestic life together ("I had a dream where we had kids / You would cook and I'd do the nappies"). In the chorus, Healy sings: "I've been in love with her for ages / And I can't seem to get it right / I fell in love with her in stages, my whole life". The singer also addresses his sexuality in the lines "I'm sorry that I'm kinda queer, it's not as weird as it appears / It's 'cause my body doesn't stop me / Oh, it's okay, lots of people think I'm gay / But we're friends, so it's cool, why would it not be?". Ross Horton of musicOMH compared the track to Blink-182 and the Goo Goo Dolls. Ben Neisen of Atwood Magazine observed similarities to 1990s "supermarket rock" songs such as Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" (1993), Hanson's "MMMBop" (1997), the New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" (1998), and Tal Bachman's "She's So High" (1999). Gil Kaufman of Billboard described "Me & You Together Song" as "buoyant" and "dreamy", commenting that the song's lyrics describe "a series of scenes from a cinematic love story". Ryan Leas of Stereogum said "Me & You Together Song" contained a "shimmery, autumnal pop sound that feels like it could've soundtracked the credits of some '90s rom-com about twentysomethings in the city". Wetmore noted that despite the song's outwardly upbeat sound, it was filled with longing that "[makes] love and longing a point of contention rather than celebration". Similarly, Stephen Ackroyd of Dork said that "Me & You Together Song" was not a traditional love song. Instead, Ackroyd wrote that it dealt with the idea of a potential relationship told through intense, passionate moments and sad recollections of a lost lover. Jessica Goddard of Platform observed a dual meaning in the song, saying: "On the surface, the song resembles a love letter to an unknown person, however, the single is actually about frontman Matty Healy's inner conflict with his sexuality and how it is perceived by others". ## Reception Upon the release of "Me & You Together Song", Contemporary music critics reacted favourably to its nostalgic production, heartfelt lyrics, and return to a more rock-oriented sound. It later appeared on several year-end lists. Larry Fitzmaurice of Entertainment Weekly deemed "Me & You Together Song" an album highlight and said it is "one of the finest slices of jangly guitar since defunct Liverpool indie-pop heroes the La's were still an active concern". In an Atwood Magazine roundtable review of Notes on a Conditional Form, Erica Garcia deemed the song an album highlight, while Mosk praised the "simple, effective storytelling". Smith of NME deemed "Me & You Together Song" a "winner", complimenting the songwriting and further calling it "devastatingly sincere [...] a satisfying and well-rounded listen". Elly Watson of DIY declared "Me & You Together Song" one of the band's finest songs. In his review of the parent album, Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork called "Me & You Together Song" a "Britpop rom-com" and cited it as an example of Healy using "familiar, unglamorous intimacy" to portray relationships in his lyrics. The editorial staff at Wonderland included the song in their "Wonderlist"–a weekly highlights playlist–praising its summer vibes and commending the 1975 for "[heading] back to their roots with this simplified jangly ode to pure teen mates-turned-love". Salvatore Maicki of The Fader called it "a jangly return to form". Sowing Season of Sputnikmusic noted similarities between the song and the band's own "It's Not Living (If It's Not with You)" (2018), commenting that it "swells with warmth and optimism". Chelsea Holecek of Soundigest compared "Me & You Together Song" to the 1975's eponymous debut studio album (2013), specifically the singles "Girls" (2013) and "Chocolate" (2013). She wrote that the song is "full of soul and real feelings" and commended the band for "traveling back to their original roots" and "their willingness to try something new". Ben Boddez of the Vancouver Weekly said "Me & You Together Song" is evocative of the band's early work and allowed the group to "flex their stadium-sized muscles", calling it "delightfully jangly" and "starry-eyed". Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan commented that the song evokes the band's work as Drive Like I Do. Dana Tetenburg of Euphoria echoed Sacher's Drive Like I Do comparison, commenting that its bright and "bubbly" composition is reminiscent of a teenage mixtape in an early 2000s film. Colin Lodewick of Pitchfork praised the "sparkling" production, comparing the song to "a storybook dream set inside a snow-globe [...] where the idea of having kids doesn't require contemplation of the disaster-struck world they may inhabit in the future". Jacob Reyes of the Dallas Observer commented that "Me & You Together Song" revisits the sound of early 2000s rock music, commenting that the lyrics: "could easily be the set up of a quirky high school comedy where the cool kids wore cargo pants and applied an excessive amount of gel in their hair." In his review of the song, Trey Alston of MTV News said: "If this were the mid-2000s, Adam Sandler would be chasing a lover's taxi to tell the woman inside that he loves her with this playing in the background". Joe Rivers of No Ripcord called the song a "peppy pop-rock number that seems to have come directly from the 10 Things I Hate About You [(1999)] soundtrack". Dan Stubbs of NME called the song "cutesy-pie" and complimented the "Winter Wonderland" line, saying it would be "keenly felt by anyone who's entered Hyde Park's festive circle of hell". Ben Allen of GQ deemed the Winter Wonderland reference one of the best lines from Notes on a Conditional Form, saying: "Have you ever been to Winter Wonderland? [...] It is, and we can't emphasize this enough, the worst [...] So for him to have had fun at Winter Wonderland with this girl... boy, she must have been the one". Commercially, "Me & You Together Song" performed modestly on worldwide music charts. In the 1975's native United Kingdom, the song peaked at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart and number 30 in Scotland. Internationally, the song reached number five on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, ranking at number 97 for its year-end edition. Elsewhere, it peaked at number 21 in New Zealand and number 46 in Ireland. ### Year-end lists ## Music video A music video for "Me & You Together Song", directed by Bedroom, was released on 6 February 2020. Filmed in a retro style reminiscent of 1990s music videos, it includes homages to 1990s culture such as mix CDs, boomboxes, Converse, rooms covered in band posters, and retro T-shirts. The music video begins with a young woman inserting a CD mixtape into her boombox before dancing on her bed. The video pivots to a house party as the song progresses, while scenes of the band performing are interspersed. The bedrooms are shown to be interconnected, while at the same time the partygoers begin locking eyes with each other. As the couples in the bedrooms and the party begin making out, the 1975 are shown performing in the house and the partygoers gather around them. As the video concludes, the entire apartment in which the video takes place is shown to be built on a sound stage. Evan Minsker of Pitchfork called the video a "rom-com throwback". Koltan Greenwood of the Alternative Press praised the video for "perfectly" capturing the nostalgia of the 1990s, saying everyone remembers "spotting [their] crush from across the dance floor", crashing over coffee tables, and "the first kiss shared with the one you love while you're trying to stay quiet in a separate room". Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone complimented the "colourful" visuals, while Rhian Daly of NME called it nostalgic and said it "plays out like a '90s throwback". A second music video, filmed in black and white, was released on 6 May 2020. It features the 1975 performing in front of a stark white backdrop while a camera circles around the group, creating a panoramic effect. ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from Notes on a Conditional Form album liner notes. - Matthew Healy – composer, producer, guitar, vocals - George Daniel – composer, producer, programming, drums, keyboards - Adam Hann – composer, guitar - Ross MacDonald – composer, bass - Jonathan Gilmore – producer, recording engineer - Robin Schmidt – mastering engineer - Mike Crossey – mixer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## See also - The 1975 discography - List of songs by Matty Healy

1998–99 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season

Cyclone season in the Southwest Indian Ocean

The 1998–99 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was a quiet season that had the fourth-lowest number of days with tropical storm or tropical cyclone activity. Most of the storms formed either in the Mozambique Channel or in the far eastern portion of the basin, with five storms crossing from the adjacent Australian basin east of 90° E. As a result, few storms impacted Madagascar, and none made landfall on the African continent. Throughout most of the season, there was below-normal sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. In February, typically the peak in activity, Réunion island recorded its highest average monthly pressure since 1953. Due to generally unfavorable conditions, there were only six tropical storms tracked by the Météo-France office (MFR) on Réunion. There were only two tropical cyclones – a storm with winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). Activity began late, with the first tropical storm – Alda – forming on January 16, the third latest ever recorded at the time. Alda formed in the Mozambique Channel, which was one of few favorable areas for tropical cyclogenesis in the season. It brought rainfall to southwestern Madagascar that alleviated previously dry conditions. The next five tropical storms either originated or crossed into the adjacent Australian basin, where storms were monitored by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). Both Tropical Storm Chikita and Tropical Cyclone Davina brought beneficial rainfall to the Mascarene Islands. The latter storm caused two drowning deaths on Réunion and caused some crop damage. The strongest storm – Evrina – peaked as a strong cyclone in the Australian but weakened upon crossing 90°E, with 10-minute maximum sustained winds of 175 km/h (110 mph) in the basin. The final storm was unnamed, crossing from the Australian basin on April 21 as a minimal tropical storm before quickly dissipating. There were also several tropical disturbances or depressions, many short-lived. The first of these formed on September 3 in the northeastern portion of the basin, and there was a tropical depression in February in the Mozambique Channel that approached tropical storm status. ## Season summary The Météo-France office (MFR) on Réunion island issued warnings in tropical cyclones within the basin during the season. The agency estimated intensity through the Dvorak technique, and warned on tropical cyclones in the region from the coast of Africa to 90° E, south of the equator. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center – a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force – also issued tropical cyclone warnings for the region. Wind estimates from Météo-France and most other basins throughout the world are sustained over 10 minutes, while estimates from the United States-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center are sustained over 1 minute. 10 minute winds are about 1.14 times the amount of 1 minute winds. Most storms formed and dissipated within the tropics, with the exception of Severe Tropical Storm Alda. During the season, atmospheric conditions shifted from El Niño to La Niña, but despite the shift, the season was similarly inactive as its predecessor. In general, sea surface temperatures were below normal, and atmospheric pressures were above normal, both unfavorable for tropical cyclogenesis. In the month of February, on average the peak time for activity, there was a general lack of convection, or thunderstorms, east of Madagascar. The average monthly pressure on Réunion was the highest since reliable records began in 1953. The low number of storms occurred despite an otherwise active cyclone year in the southern hemisphere. In its summary of the season, the MFR described the lack of activity as "rare and remarkable", possibly related to a Walker circulation. The agency monitored 14 tropical disturbances, of which only eight were tropical depressions for at least 24 hours. Six of these intensified into tropical storms, three less than the average of nine, of which only two attained tropical cyclone status, or half the average. There were 28 days in which there was storm or tropical cyclone activity, less than the average of 42 and at the time the fourth lowest since reliable record-keeping began in 1967 with the advent of satellite imagery. The only seasons with a lower number of storm days were 1982–83, 1986–87, and 1997–98. ## Systems ### Severe Tropical Storm Alda After a subtropical depression exited the Mozambique Channel, another area of convection formed in the region on January 8, which fluctuated in intensity for several days. A passing cold front increased convection further on January 12, which split off a cutoff low-pressure area. Two days later, a subtropical disturbance formed offshore Beira, Mozambique, classified due to the extratropical origins and lack of centralized convection. The system remained nearly stationary, with the convection extending well to the east. On January 16, the MFR reclassified the system as a tropical depression after the thunderstorms increased near the center, the increasing organization due to moderate but decreasing wind shear. By that time, the depression had begun an eastward movement, but soon turned to the south in the weakness between two high-pressure areas. Late on January 16, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Alda after the convection organized into a central dense overcast. Also that day, the JTWC began tracking the system as Tropical Cyclone 12S. This marked an unusually late start for the first named storm, at the time the third-latest on record. Neither the MFR nor the JTWC anticipated much strengthening after Alda attained tropical storm status. Around the time of its upgrade, Alda passed about 20 km (12 mi) west of Europa Island in the Mozambique Channel, where sustained winds reached 72 km/h (45 mph) and gusts were as strong as 90 km/h (56 mph). A building ridge southeast of Madagascar turned the storm to the southwest. After an increase in wind shear diminished the convection, the JTWC discontinued advisories on January 17, although the thunderstorms redeveloped following an unexpected decrease in wind shear. Alda turned to the southeast ahead of an approaching trough, and developed a ragged eye feature on January 18. That day, the MFR estimated peak 10-minute winds of 95 km/h (60 mph), and the JTWC estimated one-minute winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), equivalent to a minimal hurricane. The latter agency also reissued one advisory when the storm was at its peak. Alda accelerated to the southeast and gradually lost tropical characteristics, becoming extratropical on January 19 before being absorbed by the approaching cold front. Following rainfall from an earlier subtropical depression, Alda dropped 198 mm (7.8 in) of rainfall in Morombe in southwestern Madagascar. The rainfall caused flooding that affected thousands of people. The rainfall was beneficial in alleviating previously dry conditions that had prevented crops to be planted. The passage of the storm also caused temperatures to decrease in Mozambique and Madagascar. ### Moderate Tropical Storm Damien–Birenda On January 21, a tropical disturbance formed in the Australian region about 500 km (310 mi) south of the Indonesian island of Java. Moving west-southwestward, the system intensified into Tropical Storm Damien on January 23, and attained tropical cyclone status two days later while passing 400 km (250 mi) south of the Cocos Islands. Subsequently, an increase in wind shear induced steady weakening, causing the circulation to be briefly exposed from the convection on January 26. Damien maintained an area of convection nearby the circulation, and exited into the south-west Indian Ocean on January 28 as a minimal tropical storm; at that time, the Mauritius Meteorological Services renamed the storm as Birenda. The storm turned more to the west and west-northwest due to a building ridge to the south. Increasing wind shear weakened Birenda to tropical depression status on January 29 and into a tropical disturbance the next day. Although convection was intermittent, the circulation dissipated on February 3. ### Moderate Tropical Storm Chikita Soon after Damien-Birenda exited the Australian region, another tropical disturbance formed north of the Cocos on January 29, which was initially weak but gradually organized. The disturbance tracked quickly west-westward due to a powerful ridge to the south, remaining in tandem with Tropical Storm Birenda about 1,300 km (810 mi) to the east. On January 31, the system crossed into the south-west Indian Ocean. The fast forward motion caused the effects of wind shear to diminish as well as increase the circulation's strength, and the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Chikita on January 31. At that time, the storm attained its peak intensity of 65 km/h (40 mph). Almost immediately thereafter, the convection began weakening due to lukewarm water temperatures, and Chikita weakened to tropical depression status on February 1. Continuing rapidly to the west, the circulation became exposed from the convection on February 3 due to increased wind shear. Around that time, Chikita passed about 75 km (47 mi) north of Rodrigues island, and shortly thereafter weakened into a tropical disturbance. On the next day, the circulation passed north of both Mauritius and Réunion, presenting an asymmetric structure with the strongest winds to the south. Chikita dissipated on February 5 off the southeast coast of Madagascar. On Rodrigues, Chikita produced wind gusts of 92 km/h (57 mph) and a rainfall total of 113 mm (4.4 in), the rainfall proving beneficial due to previously dry conditions. Despite only being a tropical disturbance, Chikita produced wind gusts of 89 km/h (55 mph) on Mauritius and 104 km/h (65 mph) in the mountainous peaks of Réunion. The rainfall rates in both islands varied greatly; the peak total on Mauritius was 160 mm (6.3 in) compared to the peak of 560 mm (22 in) in Bébourg in the heights of Réunion. Also on the latter island, there was a six-hour rainfall total of 132 mm (5.2 in) at Piton de la Fournaise. Wet weather persisted after Chikita dissipated, resulting in four-day totals of 953 mm (37.5 in) in Bébourg on Réunion, and easing drought conditions on Mauritius. ### Intense Tropical Cyclone Davina After an extended period with no activity across much of the Indian Ocean, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) rebuilt toward the end of February, and spawned an area of convection on March 1 in the extreme eastern portion of the basin. The next day, a circulation was noted on satellite imagery to the northeast of the convection, which indicated that a tropical disturbance had developed. The influence of the monsoon trough steered the disturbance to the southeast into the Australian basin, where moderate wind shear prevented quick development. A building ridge to the south turned the system to the southwest, bringing it back into the south-west Indian on March 3 as a tropical depression. With decreasing wind shear, the depression slowly intensified as convection increased, becoming Tropical Storm Davina on March 4. An eye developed the next day, signaling Davina had intensified into a tropical cyclone, or reaching 10-minute winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). On March 7, Davina became an intense tropical cyclone, with sustained 10-minute winds of 165 km/h (105 mph). At around the same time, the JTWC estimated peak 1-minute winds of 205 km/h (125 mph). Continuing quickly to the west-southwest, Davina moved over an area of cooler waters and began weakening. On March 8, the system passed about 140 km (87 mi) northwest of Rodrigues as a minimal tropical cyclone. The next day, Davina re-intensified slightly to winds of 130 km/h (80 mph), and while near that intensity its eyewall crossed over Mauritius. After passing the island, the eye increased to a diameter of 50 km (31 mi) before deteriorating. On March 10, Davina passed about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Réunion as a severe tropical storm. The next day, the storm slowed its forward motion and rapidly weakened due to increasing wind shear, becoming a tropical depression on March 12. The circulation turned to the northeast and later to the west in the trade winds. Davina looped off the east coast of Madagascar, eventually dissipating on March 19. Cyclone Davina affected Rodrigues as a weakening storm, which limited wind gusts to 137 km/h (85 mph) and rainfall to only 40 mm (1.6 in). After moving toward Mauritius for several days, the cyclone produced a peak wave height of 7.73 m (25.4 ft). On the island, the airport at Plaisance recorded a peak gust of 169 km/h (105 mph), strong enough to cause crop damage and injure 60 people. Rainfall peaked at 227 mm (8.9 in), which failed to break the island's worst drought since 1904. On Réunion, wind gusts also peaked at 169 km/h (105 mph) at Piton Sainte-Rose. Davina produced wave heights of 8.84 m (29.0 ft) at Saint-Pierre. Rainfall on Réunion was highest in the southern portion of the island, mainly through the process of orographic lift; over a three-hour period, 180 mm (7.1 in) of precipitation was recorded at Piton de la Fournaise, and the highest total was 1,200 mm (47 in) in the island's center. Due to the storm's slow movement, Davina produced scattered rainfall over Réunion for several days. Two people drowned in the Rivière des Galets, but otherwise the rainfall proved beneficial in alleviating dry conditions. The gusty winds damaged the sugar cane and banana crops, but overall damage was minor. ### Intense Tropical Cyclone Frederic–Evrina On March 25, an area of convection formed along the monsoon trough in the Australian basin, gradually organizing into a tropical storm while moving west-southwestward and given the name Frederic. On March 29, the storm attained tropical cyclone status, and continued to strengthen due to warm waters. At its peak on March 31, Frederic developed a well-defined 40 km (25 mi) eye within a circular central dense overcast. The MFR estimated peak 10-minute winds of 195 km/h (120 mph), and the JTWC estimated maximum 1-minute winds of 260 km/h (160 mph), equivalent to a Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Subsequently, Frederic encountered the combination of wind shear and cooler, dry air, which caused weakening. On April 1, the cyclone crossed into the south-west Indian Ocean with 10-minute winds of 175 km/h (110 mph), at which time it was renamed Evrina. Continuing to the west-southwest upon entering the basin, Evrina gradually weakened as the eye gradually dissipated. It soon encountered the same cooler waters of the southern Indian that affected previous storms Chikita and Davina. By April 2, Evrina had weakened below tropical cyclone status, just 30 hours after it was at peak intensity. Around that time, the circulation became exposed from the deepest convection, and the track shifted more to the west. On April 5, Evrina weakened to tropical depression status. Two days later, the system turned toward the south, moving in a circular track around the island of Rodrigues while remaining far enough away not to cause any effects. On April 8, the circulation turned to the east, dissipating two days later to the south of Rodrigues. ### Moderate Tropical Storm F1 (Hamish) On April 17, an area of convection persisted near the border of the south-west Indian and the Australian regions. The system moved eastward into the Australian basin, becoming a tropical disturbance on April 19. Turning to the southeast, the system gradually organized as the convection persisted. On April 20, the disturbance intensified into a tropical storm and was named Hamish. Shortly thereafter, the ridge to the south turned the storm to the southwest. After the BoM estimated peak winds of 100 km/h (60 mph), Hamish began quickly weakening due to increasing wind shear. On April 21, the storm crossed into the south-west Indian basin, still maintaining 10-minute winds of 65 km/h (40 mph). Although the Mauritius Meteorological Services should have classified the system as Tropical Storm Francine, the storm remained unnamed, referred as Tropical Storm F1. However, the system weakened to tropical depression status within six hours of entering the basin, and dissipating on April 24. ### Other storms in 1998 At the time, the MFR's cyclone season began on August 1, although the JTWC's cyclone season for the southern hemisphere began on July 1. The latter agency tracked a short-lived tropical storm toward the end of July, classifying it as Tropical Cyclone 01S. The MFR named it Tropical Depression H4, estimating peak 10-minute winds of 55 km/h (35 km/h). The first system of the season proper originated out of an area of convection in early September in the northeast portion of the basin. On September 3, the MFR initiated advisories on Tropical Disturbance A1 about 1435 km (890 mi) east of Diego Garcia. The system tracked westward, and the JTWC issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA) on September 4. Failing to intensify beyond winds of 45 km/h (30 mph), the disturbance dissipated on September 6. Later in the month, Tropical Disturbance A2 formed in a similar region within the monsoon trough, with the MFR initiating advisories on September 29. Also on that day, the JTWC began issuing advisories on Tropical Cyclone 02S. That day, the JTWC upgraded the system to tropical storm status, although strong wind shear prevented intensification. The MFR quickly discontinued advisories, but the JTWC continued tracking it, again upgrading the system to tropical storm status on October 1. After the shear again increased, the storm weakened, dissipating on October 2. In November, rapidly weakening Tropical Cyclone Alison moved from the Australian basin and dissipated immediately upon entering the south-west Indian Ocean on November 13. On December 4, short-lived Tropical Disturbance A3 was classified by MFR, subsequently drifting into the Australian region. Possibly related to the previous system, Tropical Cyclone Cathy moved from the Australian basin into the basin on December 28, quickly dissipating. ### Other storms in 1999 On January 1, an area of convection persisted in the Mozambique Channel, with an associated circulation located on land in Mozambique. The system drifted to the east and southeast over warmer waters, gradually organizing. On January 3, the MFR classified the system as Tropical Disturbance A4 near the Mozambique coastline. The disturbance accelerated to the southeast, passing southwest of Madagascar with an asymmetric structure; most of the convection was on the eastern periphery due to strong wind shear. Heavy rainfall occurred along the southwest Madagascar coast, peaking at 322 mm (12.7 in) over a 48‐hour period in Morombe. Wind gusts there reached 180 km/h (110 mph), although the disturbance's maximum sustained 10-minute winds were 55 km/h (35 mph). The disturbance transitioned into a subtropical depression on January 5, but soon after became extratropical while accelerating southeastward. During an extended period of quiet conditions across much of the basin, an area of low pressure persisted along the eastern coast of Mozambique. Convection fluctuated daily but became more persistent on February 11. That day, the thunderstorms organized into a circulation that had formed less than 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Beira, Mozambique, becoming Tropical Disturbance D1. After forming, the system moved southward, developing a central dense overcast with northeasterly outflow. Based on the organization, the disturbance intensified into a tropical depression on February 13. Although there were gale-force winds in the southwest periphery, the circulation was located on the northern edge of the convection. The depression neared tropical storm intensity, but an increase in wind shear from a nearby trough prevented further intensification. The JTWC estimated peak 1-minute winds of 85 km/h (55 mph), making the system a tropical storm by their assessment. A building ridge to the south turned the depression to the northeast, bringing the system near Europa Island. A station on the island recorded sustained winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) with gusts to 104 km/h (65 mph) about three hours before and after the closest approach; the observations suggested that the depression could have become a tropical storm. Soon thereafter, the associated convection dissipated and the circulation turned westward. After crossing over its former path, the depression dissipated on February 17 very close to where it developed. Similar to the previous depression and Tropical Storm Alda, Tropical Disturbance D2 developed in the Mozambique Channel, initially subtropical in nature. On February 20, a cold front exited the African coast off Mozambique, spawning an area of convection. A weak low-pressure area developed on February 23, which proceeded to move southeastward. Due to unfavorable wind shear, the system failed to organize much, although initially it produced strong wind gusts. On February 28, much of the convection was removed from the circulation, which looped over southwestern Madagascar to turn back to the west. On March 4, when Tropical Storm Davina was named, the disturbance was renamed E1. The next day, the circulation executed a small loop, dissipating on March 6 over eastern Mozambique. A long-lived system developed on February 28 in the Australian region south of February 28, and moved westward. On March 7, the JTWC initiated advisories on the system as Tropical Cyclone 26S, briefly estimating peak 1-minute winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) the next day. Soon after, the system weakened into a tropical depression, crossing into the south-west Indian Ocean late on March 8. At that time, it was designated Tropical Disturbance E2. Continuing westward along the northern edge of a strong ridge, the disturbance failed to intensify due to easterly wind shear. Although the MFR ceased issuing advisories, they noted that a distinct circulation persisted, reaching a location to the north of Mauritius by March 16. That day, it turned back to the east with a sporadic area of convection, influenced by the larger Tropical Depression E3. Two days later, the system organized enough for the MFR to reclassify it as a tropical disturbance. The system failed to reorganize much, and dissipated on March 20. Another tropical disturbance, named E3, formed on March 11 in the eastern portion of the basin. It initially failed to develop more, but after an increase in convection, the system intensified into a tropical depression on March 14 while moving generally west-northwestward. On the next day, the system began drifting to the southwest due to weak steering currents. On March 16, the JTWC initiated advisories on the system as Tropical Cyclone 28S, briefly upgrading it to tropical storm status on the next day. On March 18, the depression began weakening, dissipating three days later. ## Storm names A tropical disturbance is named when it reaches moderate tropical storm strength. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status west of 55°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Madagascar assigns the appropriate name to the storm. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status between 55°E and 90°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Mauritius assigns the appropriate name to the storm. A new annual list is used every year, and this list was provided by the country of Seychelles. ## Season effects \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Diego Garcia \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Diego Garcia \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\|Unknown \|\| bgcolor=#\|Unknown \|\| Unknown \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \|\| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- ## See also - List of Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone seasons - Atlantic hurricane seasons: 1998, 1999 - Pacific hurricane seasons: 1998, 1999 - Pacific typhoon seasons: 1998, 1999 - North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 1998, 1999

C (New York City Subway service)

New York City Subway service

The C Eighth Avenue Local is a 19-mile-long (31 km) rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is since it uses the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Midtown Manhattan. The C operates at all times except late nights between 168th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and Euclid Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, making all stops along its entire route. During late night hours, the train, which runs express along the entire C route during daytime hours, makes all stops. Historically, most C service ran only during rush hours, along the IND Concourse Line to Bedford Park Boulevard in the Bronx and later along the IND Rockaway Line to Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street in Queens. Prior to 1985, the local C service was referred to as the CC, with the C designation reserved for a complementary express service that was discontinued in 1949. The CC was once the only route to serve the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens in a single trip. Outside of rush hour, local service in Manhattan was usually provided by the AA, later relabeled K, which ran between 168th Street and Chambers Street/World Trade Center. In 1988, the K and C were consolidated into one service, and during the 1990s, the C's routing was altered to create the current service pattern. As of 2015, the C has a daily ridership of 250,000. ## History ### Original IND service The AA and CC services were the predecessors to the current C service. A and AA service began on September 10, 1932, with the opening of the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND), the Eighth Avenue Line. The IND used single letters to refer to express services and double letters for local services. The A ran express and the AA ran local from 168th Street to Chambers Street/World Trade Center, known at the time as Hudson Terminal. The AA ran at all times, and it was extended to 207th Street during nights and on Sundays when the A did not run. On February 1, 1933, the AA was extended to the newly-opened Jay Street–Borough Hall station when the A did not run, continuing to terminate at Chambers Street when the A did run. The C and CC services began operation on July 1, 1933, when the IND Concourse Line opened. The CC provided local service between Bedford Park Boulevard and Hudson Terminal during rush hours, and was extended to 205th Street during non-rush hours. It replaced the AA as Eighth Avenue Local. The C ran express, from 205th Street to Bergen Street in Brooklyn during rush hours, running express on the Concourse Line in the peak direction. C trains left Bergen Street between 3:30 p.m. and 6:50 p.m., and left 205th Street between 6:33 a.m. and 11:26 a.m. C trains ran every 4 minutes during rush hours in the peak direction, and every 5 minutes in the reverse-peak direction, and ran with 6- and 7-car trains. During morning rush hours, CC trains operated to 205th Street until 7:30 a.m., and to Tremont Avenue between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.. PM rush hour CC trains terminated at Bedford Park Boulevard, and several other trains terminated and originated at Bedford Park Boulevard. CC trains ran every 4 minutes during rush hours, 5 minutes during middays, every 5 and 6 trains during evenings, and every 12 minutes overnight. Trains ran with 5 cars during rush hours, and with 3 cars other times. On August 17, 1933, CC trains stopped terminating at Tremont Avenue. Beginning August 19, 1933, C service was cut back from Bergen Street, but started operating during non-rush hours. At the same time, CC service was cut back from 205th Street during non-rush hours. On January 1, 1936, C service was extended to Jay Street–Borough Hall. On April 9, 1936, C service was extended to Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets. After July 1, 1937, a few C trains continued to run to Bergen Street southbound in the morning rush hour and northbound in the evening rush hour. Also on the same date, weekend C service was discontinued, and CC service was extended to 205th Street to compensate. ### IND Sixth Avenue Line opens On December 15, 1940, the IND Sixth Avenue Line opened. Two new services, the BB (later ) and , began running. These lines ran on the Eighth Avenue Line in upper Manhattan, switching to the Sixth Avenue Line in Midtown. The BB ran local to 168th Street during rush hours. The D joined the C as the peak direction Concourse Express. CC trains now ran between Hudson Terminal and Bedford Park during rush hours and on Saturdays and during other times, the D made local stops in the Bronx, replacing CC service. On the same date, limited morning rush hour service began between 205th Street, Bronx and Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, making local stops on the IND Fulton Street Line. AA service was reinstated during this time, but only during off-peak hours (non-rush hours, late Saturday afternoons and Sundays) when the BB and CC did not operate. The CC would provide Eighth Avenue Line local service during rush hours, with the AA replacing it during off-peak hours, mostly unchanged until 1988. In the 1940s, C trains ran every 10 minutes during rush hour, CC trains ran every 4 minutes, and D trains ran every 5 minutes. On October 24, 1949, C express service was discontinued. Additional D service was added to offset this loss. The CC, which only ran during rush hours, began terminating at Broadway–Lafayette Street Mondays to Fridays, and on Saturdays CC service continued to operate to Hudson Terminal. On December 29, 1951, Saturday CC service was discontinued. Weekday CC service returned to its previous terminal at Hudson Terminal on October 30, 1954. On August 30, 1976, the CC train replaced the train as the rush-hour local along the IND Fulton Street Line and IND Rockaway Line, running from Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street in Queens through Brooklyn and Manhattan to Bedford Park Boulevard in the Bronx, making it the only service to run through all four boroughs served by the subway. The Rockaway Park Shuttle HH was renamed CC. This shuttle ran between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park during off-peak hours, except late nights. With this, all daytime service to and from Rockaway Park was named CC. Late nights, the shuttle ran between Euclid Avenue, Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue via Hammels Wye, and was labeled A. On August 28, 1977, late night AA service was eliminated. The A began making local stops in Manhattan during late nights, when the AA was not running. On May 6, 1985, the IND practice of using double letters to indicate local service was discontinued. The AA was renamed the K and rush hour CC service was renamed C. The off-peak Rockaway Park Shuttle was renamed . This change was not officially reflected in schedules until May 24, 1987. ### Modern service consolidations On December 10, 1988, the K designation was discontinued and merged into the C, which now ran at all times except late nights. The C ran from Bedford Park Boulevard to Rockaway Park during rush hours, 145th Street to Euclid Avenue during middays, and from 145th Street to World Trade Center during evenings and weekends. The A now ran express in Brooklyn during middays, and the B was extended to 168th Street during middays and early evenings. On October 23, 1992, rush hour C service was cut back from Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street to Euclid Avenue. The 1992 change introduced five A trips in each direction run from 59th Street–Columbus Circle to Rockaway Park during rush hours, with the Rockaway Park Shuttle (renamed from H to S) operating between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park at all times. On May 29, 1994, weekend service between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. was extended to Washington Heights–168th Street (effectively recreating the old AA) to allow A trains to run express. Beginning April 30, 1995, C service was extended to 168th Street during middays as construction on the Manhattan Bridge cut B service from Manhattan. On November 11, 1995, midday service was cut back to 145th Street after B service to 168th Street was restored. The B and the C, which both ran local along Central Park West, switched northern terminals on March 1, 1998, ending the connection between the C and the Bronx. Instead of alternating between three different terminals depending on the time of day, all C service now terminated at 168th Street. The change was made to reduce crowding on the C and to reduce passenger confusion about the C's route. Starting on May 2, 1999, C trains were extended to Euclid Avenue on evenings and weekends. The 1999 change had the C run local in Brooklyn and Manhattan and the A run express at all times except late nights. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, World Trade Center station was temporarily not usable as a terminal for the E. C service was suspended until September 24. Local service along Central Park West was replaced by the A and D, and the E was extended from Canal Street to Euclid Avenue replacing C service in Brooklyn. On January 23, 2005, a fire at the Chambers Street signal room crippled A and C service. C service was suspended until February 2 and was replaced by the A, B, D, E, and V along different parts of its route. Initial assessments suggested that it would take several years to restore normal service, but the damaged equipment was replaced with available spare parts, and normal service resumed on April 21. From midday on March 29, 2020 to April 29, 2020, C trains were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, and A trains to Lefferts Boulevard ran local in their place. ## Maintenance and rider issues ### Criticism In August 2012, the Straphangers Campaign rated the C train the worst of the city's subway services for the fourth straight year. No other service has ranked worst for more than three years in a row. The group found that the C performed worst in three of the six categories in its annual State of the Subways Report Card: amount of scheduled service, interior cleanliness, and breakdown rate. It also ranked next-to-worst in car announcement quality, after the 7, but performed above average in regularity of service and crowding. The New York Times called the C the "least loved of New York City subway lines", citing its fleet of R32s, which were almost 50 years old at the time the Times reported on the issue. The New York Times has also stated that the C train "rattled and clanked along the deteriorating maze of tracks beneath the city, tin-clad markers of years of neglect." In 2017, the Times referred to the R32s on the C as the world's oldest subway cars "in continuous daily operation". The R32s were initially retired in late April 2020, but were temporarily pressed back into service from July through October 2020 and finally retired in early January 2022. In January 2020, the R179 fleet that replaced the R32 was pulled from service due to two incidents involving R179 cars. This resulted in some service cutbacks that were later somewhat reverted when the R179s were investigated and placed back into service. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City and too few crews to run trains, the route was suspended entirely from March 29 to April 29, 2020, when C trains began running 75 percent of normal service. The cutbacks meant that wait times during rush hours increased from 8 to 12 minutes. In March 2021, TWU 100, the union for subway workers, sued the MTA in order to prevent the reduced frequencies from being permanent. That same month, the MTA decided to bring back full C service; full service was restored in mid-2021. ### Improvements In 2011, problems with the R32s were at a peak as the fleet's failure rate was rising steadily. In 2012, money was directed to replace the R32 with the R179. Bombardier Transportation won the \$600 million contract to build 300 new cars. The R179s were expected to replace the R32s with some being allocated to the C. However, delivery of the R179s was delayed until 2017 and the R32s momentarily remained in service after the order was completed, so stopgap measures were implemented. All trains on the C were only 480 feet (146 m) long, partially due to lower ridership levels on the route, according to NYC Transit's Rapid Transit Loading Guideline. This contrasted to those on the rest of the mainline B Division (except for the Eastern Division and the train), which are 600 feet (183 m) long. In the summer of 2010, some 600-foot-long R44 trains ran on the C, displacing some R32s, whose air conditioning units were repaired. In the summers of 2011 and 2012, some 600-foot-long R46 trains were used on the C, while the R32s were used on the A, which had significant outdoor sections where the air conditioning units did not have to be used. In the summers of 2013 and 2014 as well as from May 2015 to February 2019, some 480-foot-long R160As ran on the C, covering half of its fleet, because of the R32s' continuously aging air compressors caused by the entirely underground C route. Concurrently, some R32s in exchange were transferred to East New York Yard, where they were used on the mostly outdoor . On December 16, 2017, after several failed proposals to permanently lengthen C trains as ridership increased, some 600-foot-long R46 trains were reassigned to the C, displacing some more R32s, which were reassigned to the A. On November 6, 2018, some 480-foot-long R179 trains started running on the C, gradually displacing the R160As back to East New York Yard by February 6, 2019. Since delivery of the R179s, they periodically experienced major mechanical and technical issues, forcing the MTA to remove them from service system-wide for brief periods of time to allow these issues to be corrected. The R211 fleet, which is being delivered as of 2023, is also expected to run on the C. Service frequencies on the C were increased after the New York state government provided funding for the changes in mid-2023. On August 7 of that year, midday service was increased to run every eight minutes instead of every ten minutes. There will be a commensurate increase during the evening starting in December 2023. ## Route ### Service pattern The following table shows the lines used by the C: ### Stations For a more detailed station listing, see the articles on the lines listed above.

Kate Beckinsale

British actress (born 1973)

Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress. Beckinsale has gained acclaim for her roles in both action films, romance films, and period dramas. She made her film debut in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She gained prominence taking leading roles in numerous British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), and The Golden Bowl (2000). She challenged herself taking roles in films such as The Last Days of Disco (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), Serendipity (2001), Tiptoes (2003), The Aviator (2004) and Click (2006). Since playing the role of Selene in the Underworld film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known for her work in action films, including Van Helsing (2004), Whiteout (2009), Contraband (2012), Total Recall (2012), and Jolt (2021). She earned acclaim for her roles in Snow Angels (2007), Nothing but the Truth (2008), Everybody's Fine (2009), Love & Friendship (2016), and The Only Living Boy in New York (2017). She then took roles in the itv series The Widow (2019) and the Paramount+ series Guilty Party (2021), the later of which she also served as an executive producer. ## Early life and education Kathrin Romany Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in the Chiswick district of London, the only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe. She has a half-sister from her father's earlier marriage, actress Samantha Beckinsale. Her father was partly of Burmese descent. Her parents did not marry until 1977, prior to Beckinsale starting nursery school, when she made her first television appearance at age four, in an episode of This Is Your Life dedicated to her father. When she was five, her father died suddenly of a heart attack aged 31; she was deeply traumatised by the loss and "started expecting bad things to happen." Her widowed mother moved in with director Roy Battersby when Beckinsale was nine, and she was brought up alongside his four sons and daughter. She has a close relationship with her stepfather, who was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party during her youth. She helped to sell The News Line, a Trotskyist newspaper, as a little girl and has said the household phone was tapped following Battersby's blacklisting by the BBC. Family friends included Ken Loach and Vanessa Redgrave. Beckinsale was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent school for girls in Hammersmith, West London, and was involved with the Orange Tree Youth Theatre. She was twice a winner of the WH Smith Young Writers Award for both fiction and poetry. She has described herself as a "late bloomer": "All of my friends were kissing boys and drinking cider way before me. I found it really depressing that we weren't making camp fires and everyone was doing stuff like that." She had a nervous breakdown and developed anorexia at age fifteen, and underwent Freudian psychoanalysis for four years. Beckinsale read French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford, and was later described by her contemporary Victoria Coren Mitchell, as "whip-clever, slightly nuts, and very charming". She became friends with Roy Kinnear's daughter Kirsty. She was involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, most notably being directed by fellow student Tom Hooper in a production of A View from the Bridge at the Oxford Playhouse. As a Modern Languages student, she was required to spend her third year abroad, and studied in Paris. She then quit university to focus on her burgeoning acting career: "It was getting to the point where I wasn't enjoying either thing enough because both were very high pressure." Beckinsale has stated she would like to complete her studies at Oxford University. ## Career ### 1991–1997: Early acting roles Beckinsale decided at a young age she wanted to be an actress: "I grew up immersed in film. My family were in the business. I quickly realised that my parents seemed to have much more fun in their work than any of my friends' parents." She was inspired by the performances of Jeanne Moreau. She made her television debut in 1991 with a small part in an ITV adaptation of P. D. James' Devices and Desires. In 1992, she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston in Rachel's Dream, a 30‐minute Channel 4 short, and in 1993, she appeared in the pilot of the ITV detective series, Anna Lee, starring Imogen Stubbs. In 1993, Beckinsale landed the role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. It was filmed in Tuscany, Italy, during a summer holiday from Oxford University. She attended the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere and remembered it as an overwhelming experience. "Nobody even told me I could bring a friend!" "I had Doc Martens boots on, and I think I put the flower from the breakfast tray in my hair." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was won over by her "lovely" performance while Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that she and Robert Sean Leonard "look right and behave with a certain naive sincerity, although they often seem numb with surprise at hearing the complex locutions they speak." The film grossed over \$22 million at the box office. She made three other films while at university. In 1994, she appeared as Christian Bale's love interest in Prince of Jutland, a film based on the Danish legend which inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet, and starred in the murder mystery Uncovered. In 1995, while studying in Paris, she filmed the French language Marie-Louise ou la Permission. Shortly after leaving Oxford University in 1995, Beckinsale starred in Cold Comfort Farm, as Flora Poste, a newly orphaned 1930s socialite sent to live with distant family members in rural England. The John Schlesinger-directed film was an adaptation of Stella Gibbons's novel and also featured Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Rufus Sewell and Stephen Fry. Beckinsale was initially considered too young, but was cast after she wrote a pleading letter to the director. Emanuel Levy of Variety was reminded of "the strength of a young Glenda Jackson and the charm of a young Julie Christie." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times classed the actress as "yet another of those effortlessly skilled British beauties who light up the screen." Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt she played the role "with the perfect snippy aplomb." The film grossed over \$5 million at the US box office. Also in 1995, she appeared in Haunted, a ghost story in which Derek Elley of Variety felt she "holds the screen, with both physical looks and verbal poise." 1995 also saw Beckinsale's first professional stage appearance as Nina in The Seagull at Theatre Royal, Bath. She became romantically involved with co-star Michael Sheen after meeting during play rehearsals. She later said: "I was all revved up to feel very intimidated. It was my first-ever play and my mother had cut out reviews of him in previous productions. And then he walked in ... It was almost like, 'God, well, I'm finished now. That's it, then.'... He's the most outrageously talented person I've ever met." Irving Wardle of The Independent felt that "the casting, including Michael Sheen's volcanic Kostya and Kate Beckinsale's steadily freezing Nina, is mainly spot-on." In early 1996, she starred in two further plays; Sweetheart at the Royal Court Theatre and Clocks and Whistles at the Bush Theatre. Beckinsale next starred in an ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, playing Emma to Mark Strong's Mr Knightley and Samantha Morton's Harriet Smith. "You shouldn't necessarily like Emma," Beckinsale has said of her character. "You do love her, but in the way the family of a young girl could be exasperated by her outrageous behaviour and still love her." The programme was aired in autumn 1996, just months after Gwyneth Paltrow had starred in a film adaptation of the same story. Caryn James of The New York Times felt that while "Ms. Beckinsale's Emma is plainer looking than Ms. Paltrow's," she is "altogether more believable and funnier." Jonathan Brown of The Independent has described Beckinsale's interpretation as "the most enduring modern performance" as Emma. In 1997, Beckinsale appeared opposite Stuart Townsend in the comedy Shooting Fish, one of the most commercially successful British films of that year. "I'd just had my wisdom teeth out," Beckinsale later recalled of the initial audition. "I was also on very strong painkillers, so it was not the most conventional of meetings." Elley wrote of "an incredibly laid-back performance" while Thomas felt she "just glows as an aristocrat facing disaster with considerable aplomb." She narrated Austen's Emma for Hodder & Stoughton AudioBooks and Diana Hendry's The Proposal for BBC Radio 4. Also in 1997, she played Juliet to Michael Sheen's Romeo in an AudioBook production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Sheen. In Beckinsale's last film before her move to the US, she starred as Alice in Channel 4's Alice through the Looking-Glass, released in July 1998. ### 1998–2002: Move to Hollywood At this point in her career, Beckinsale began to seek work in the United States, something she has said wasn't "a conscious decision... My boyfriend was in a play on Broadway so that's why we ended up in New York, and my auditions happened to be for American films." She starred opposite Chloë Sevigny in 1998's The Last Days of Disco. The Whit Stillman film focused on a group of mostly Ivy League and Hampshire College graduates socialising in the Manhattan disco scene of the early 1980s. Beckinsale's attempt at an American accent was widely praised. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt her role as the bossy Charlotte was "beautifully played." Todd McCarthy of Variety was unimpressed by the film but noted that "compensations include Beckinsale, looking incredible in a succession of black dresses, whose character can get on your nerves even if the actress doesn't." Her performance earned her a London Critics' Circle Film Award. The film grossed \$3 million worldwide. In 1999, Beckinsale appeared opposite Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace, a drama about two young Americans forced to deal with the Thai justice system on a post-graduation trip abroad. A then 26-year-old Beckinsale played a young girl. Danes had hoped to become friends with Beckinsale during the shoot but found her "complicated" and "prickly." McCarthy said the leads "confirm their status as two of the young actresses on the scene today most worth watching," finding Beckinsale "very effective at getting across layered character traits and emotions." "Danes and Beckinsale are exceptionally talented young actresses," said Thomas, but "unfortunately, the script's seriously underdeveloped context defeats their considerable efforts at every turn." Stephen Holden of The New York Times felt that Beckinsale's character "never comes into focus." The film was a box office failure. 2000's The Golden Bowl marked Beckinsale's first role following the birth of her daughter. The Merchant/Ivory production was based on the novel by Henry James and also starred Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam. Beckinsale's partner, Michael Sheen, hit Northam on the film set after he followed Beckinsale to her trailer to scold her for forgetting a line. Holden noted "the most satisfying of the four-lead performances belong to the British cast members, Ms. Beckinsale and Mr. Northam, who are better than their American counterparts at layers of emotional concealment," adding each beat of Beckinsale's performance "registers precisely." Thomas felt her performance would take her to "a new career level." Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer asserted that she "comes close to capturing the sublimity of Maggie, despite the obvious fact that no movie can capture the elegant copiousness of James' prose." The film grossed over \$5 million worldwide. Beckinsale rose to fame in 2001 with a leading role in the war film Pearl Harbor, as a nurse torn between two pilots (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett). She was drawn to the project by the script: "It's so unusual these days to read a script that has those old-fashioned values to it. Not morals, but movie values. It's a big, sweeping epic....You just never get the chance to do that." Director Michael Bay initially had doubts about casting the actress: "I wasn't sure about her at first...she wore black leather trousers in her screen test and I thought she was a little nasty...it was easy to think of this woman as a slut." He eventually decided to hire her because she wasn't "too beautiful. Women feel disturbed when they see someone's too pretty." He asked her to lose weight during filming. In a 2004 interview, the actress noted that his comments were "upsetting" and said she wore leather trousers because "it was snowing out. It wasn't exactly like I had my nipple rings in." She felt grateful that she had not had to deal with such criticism at a younger age: "If I had come on to a movie set at [a younger] age and someone had said, 'You're a bit funny-looking, can you go on a diet?' – I might have jumped off a building. I just didn't have the confidence to put that into perspective at the time." However, speaking in 2011, she said she was "very fond" of Bay. Pearl Harbor received negative reviews. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised "the avid eyed, ruby lipped Kate Beckinsale, the rare actress whose intelligence gives her a sensual bloom; she's like Parker Posey without irony." A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted that "Mr. Affleck and Ms. Beckinsale do what they can with their lines, and glow with the satiny shine of real movie stars." However, Mike Clark of USA Today felt that the "usually appealing Kate Beckinsale" is "inexplicably submerged – like her hospital colleagues – under heaps of tarty makeup that even actresses of the era didn't wear." The film was a commercial success, grossing \$449 million worldwide. Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2001 was in the romantic comedy Serendipity, as the love interest of John Cusack. It was filmed directly after Pearl Harbor and Beckinsale found it "a real relief to return to something slightly more familiar." Turan praised the "appealing and believable" leads, adding that Beckinsale "reinforces the strong impression she made in Cold Comfort Farm, The Golden Bowl, and The Last Days of Disco" after "recovering nicely" from her appearance in the much-maligned Pearl Harbor. Claudia Puig of USA Today felt that "Beckinsale's talents haven't been mined as effectively in any other film since Cold Comfort Farm." McCarthy found her "energetic and appealing" while Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described her as "luminous but determined." In an uncomplimentary review of the film, Roger Ebert described her as "a good actress, but not good enough to play this dumb." The film has grossed over \$77 million at the worldwide box office. In 2002, Beckinsale starred in Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon, as a strait-laced academic who finds herself increasingly attracted to her free-spirited future mother-in-law. The independent film was another opportunity for Beckinsale to work with Christian Bale, her Prince of Jutland co‐star. She found their sex scene awkward because she knew Bale well: "If it was a stranger, it would have been easier." While Frances McDormand's performance as Bale's mother was widely praised, Beckinsale received negative reviews. Holden found the film "superbly acted, with the exception of Ms. Beckinsale, whose tense, colourless Alex conveys no inner life." Critic Lisa Schwarzbaum was unimpressed by the "tedious" characters and criticised "the fussy performances of Bale and Beckinsale" in particular. The film has grossed over \$4 million worldwide. ### 2003–2006: Action roles Beckinsale became known as an action star after playing a vampire in 2003's Underworld. The film was markedly different from her previous work, and Beckinsale has said she was grateful for the change of pace after appearing in "a bunch of period stuff and then a bunch of romantic comedies," adding that "It was quite a challenge for me to play an action heroine and pull off all that training when [in real life] I can't catch a ball if it's coming my way." The film received negative to mixed reviews but was a surprise box-office hit and has gained a cult following. Also that year, she starred in the little seen Tiptoes with Gary Oldman and Matthew McConaughey. In 2004, Beckinsale starred in the action horror film Van Helsing. She was "so surprised" to be appearing in her second action film in two years. "It just seemed like a very good role." Beckinsale had just separated from her long-term boyfriend Michael Sheen at the time of filming and appreciated the warm atmosphere created on set by director Stephen Sommers and co‐star Hugh Jackman: "I really did find that working with people like Stephen and Hugh made it possible to get through what I was going through." The film grossed over \$120 million at the US box office and over \$300 million worldwide, but it was not well-reviewed. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle described her as "a pretty actress doing her best to maintain dignity, vainly trying to craft a feminist statement from a filmmaker's whimsy" while Rex Reed of The New York Observer felt she was "desperately in need of a new agent." Also in 2004, Beckinsale portrayed Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Scorsese decided to cast Beckinsale because, "I've always liked her. I've seen all her work, and I was glad that she agreed to audition." Beckinsale's performance received mixed reviews. Ken Tucker of New York Magazine said she played the part "in full va-va-voom blossom" while LaSalle felt that she manages "to convince us that Ava was one of the great broads of all time." However, Clark described it as "the one performance that doesn't come off (though Beckinsale has the requisite beauty)" while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated that "Gardner's rich, voluptuous sexiness is completely absent as Beckinsale sleepwalks through the role as if she was advertising perfume." The film grossed over \$213 million worldwide. In 2006, Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel Underworld: Evolution, directed by her husband, Len Wiseman. It was the first time she had "been involved with a movie from the moment it's a germ of an idea right through the whole editing process." Her daughter had a small role as the younger Selene. The film was a box office success, grossing \$111 million worldwide. Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2006 was opposite Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in Click, a comedy about an overworked family man who discovers a magical remote control that allows him to control time. The opportunity to play a mother "was one of the things that was attractive to me" about the part. It was highly profitable, grossing \$237 million worldwide against a production budget of \$82.5 million. ### 2007–2008: Focus on small-scale drama Beckinsale then made a return to smaller-scale projects: "My experience is that I sort of stepped away from the independent movies and did a couple of big movies. But that's not necessarily how it's perceived by everybody else, which I do understand." "I enjoy an action movie as much as the next person [but] it's not something that I would like to do solely." She explained that she had originally decided to appear in Underworld because she felt typecast in classical roles – it was "assumed that I use a chamber pot and wear bloomers" – but that her action career "kind of took off a little too much." In 2007, Beckinsale starred opposite Sam Rockwell in the independent drama Snow Angels, based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan. The harrowing film, in which she played an overwhelmed single mother, put Beckinsale "in kind of a tough place." "I did have my kid, my husband and, in fact, my ex was around a lot, so it was very nice to come home to my people whom I love." Puig felt "Beckinsale gives her best performance in years" while Richard Corliss of Time described it as "her sharpest work yet." However, Scott felt that "her skill and discipline cannot overcome the sense that she is an exotic species transplanted into this grim ecosystem. Hard as she works to convince us otherwise, it's a stretch to believe that a woman with the kind of poised confidence in her own beauty she manifests would wind up with an underachieving mouth breather like Glenn." The film grossed solely \$414,404 worldwide. Also in 2007, Beckinsale appeared alongside Luke Wilson in Vacancy, a thriller set in an isolated motel. Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast in the part, but she dropped out before filming began. Bradshaw felt "Wilson and Beckinsale have the chops for scary movies" while Gleiberman noted "Luke Wilson, with his hangdog defensive mopiness, and Kate Beckinsale, all sexy severity, are ideally matched as a couple who hate each other." However, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times was unimpressed, referring to Beckinsale as "the reigning queen of the bland B's." The film was profitable, grossing \$35 million worldwide against a production budget of \$19 million. In 2008, Beckinsale appeared in Winged Creatures, a film about how six different witnesses cope with the aftermath of a shooting. Beckinsale played a waitressing single mother in an ensemble cast which included Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, and Forest Whitaker. "It was a really, really nice experience but it was quick," said Beckinsale of the filming process. "I just felt a bit like I was shot through a cannon." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times felt she played the role "with a white trash verve" and found her character's "raw ache for that someone with money and respectability is palpable." However, Dargis felt that Beckinsale and her cast mates have a "tough time filling out characters that are at best abstractions of grief and often just clichés." The film received a very limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles; it was released simultaneously on DVD. Also in 2008, Beckinsale starred in Nothing but the Truth, as a journalist who refuses to reveal her source. The film, co‐starring Vera Farmiga and Matt Dillon, was inspired by the case of Judith Miller. As part of her research for the role, "I spent some time at The L.A. Times with some female reporters, and I spoke to Judith Miller about her experience....I really researched the hell out of that one and it was an amazingly fulfilling, brilliant experience." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post asserted that Beckinsale and Farmiga played "two of the most fascinating female movie characters to hit screens in a long while, and they've been brought to life by two gifted actresses, each working at the top of her game." Beckinsale received a Critic's Choice Award nomination for her performance. The film never received a full theatrical release after the distributor filed for bankruptcy and the film has grossed solely \$186,702 worldwide. "I have prayed – prayed – for film companies to go bankrupt on films I've made, and then this happens on the one I love," said Beckinsale. "Usually it's the ones you're most embarrassed about that are on the side of every bus." ### 2009–2015: Return to action films In 2009, Beckinsale starred in the comic-book adaption Whiteout, as a US Marshal tasked with investigating a murder in Antarctica. It was filmed in Manitoba, Canada. She found the action scenes less physically demanding than those in Underworld because "three pairs of trousers and a parka gives you a bit more protection than the latex suit." The film was critically panned and a box office failure, failing to recoup its budget. With critics consensus: Beckinsale is the lovely as ever, and does her best with the material, but moribund pacing and an uninspired plot leave Whiteout in the cold. She also made a brief cameo in the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans; she appeared in flashforwards composed of footage from 2003's Underworld. Also in 2009, Beckinsale starred in the family drama Everybody's Fine alongside Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, and Rockwell, her Snow Angels co-star. Beckinsale was excited by the opportunity to work with De Niro, whom she had first encountered "years and years ago when I just had Lily and he was putting together a reading of The Good Shepherd.". Everybody's Fine was a box office flop, failing to recoup its production budget. In May 2010, Beckinsale sat on the nine-member 2010 Cannes Film Festival jury, chaired by director Tim Burton. Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter. Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films. Beckinsale first appeared in the action thriller Contraband. She had a supporting role as the wife of Mark Wahlberg's character, a former criminal who gets forced back into a life of crime after his family members are threatened. The film was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who also starred in the Icelandic language version of the film, Reykjavík-Rotterdam. The San Francisco Chronicle felt Beckinsale was "stuck in a bit of a thankless role as the victimised wife, but she does try to infuse a harder edge to the character." The Hollywood Reporter stated that "Beckinsale, her innate classiness calibrated down a few notches, has little to do but be supportive, worried and, eventually, besieged." Entertainment Weekly felt that the "woman-in-peril stuff is second-rate, giving off a whiff of exploitation" while Variety found the repeated violence towards Beckinsale's character disturbing. The film had a production budget of \$25 million and has grossed over \$96 million worldwide. Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth instalment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening. The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script. The Hollywood Reporter noted that "when she's not actually fighting, her performance consists of little more than striding purposefully toward or away from the camera." The Los Angeles Times remarked that she "finally manages to perfect the monotone delivery she'd been honing for the series' first two entries." The film had a production budget of \$70 million and has grossed over \$160 million worldwide. Also in 2012, Beckinsale appeared as the wife of a factory worker in the sci-fi action remake Total Recall, directed by her husband Len Wiseman. She has said Wiseman joined the project because he was unable to receive studio financing for an original sci-fi idea: "You're constantly finding yourself having to defend doing a remake when you didn't really want to make one in the first place." The film received mainly negative reviews. Variety found her performance "one-note" while The Hollywood Reporter described her as "one-dimensional." USA Today remarked that she "spends much of the movie strutting down hallways and looking relentlessly, though blandly, nasty." The film has grossed \$198 million against a production budget of over \$125 million. In 2012, she appeared alongside Judy Greer and Andrea Savage in the Funny or Die video "Republicans, Get in My Vagina", a satire of the Republican Party's policies concerning abortion and prenatal care. In 2013, Beckinsale starred in the legal thriller The Trials of Cate McCall opposite Nick Nolte and James Cromwell. The film received negative reviews and was released as a Lifetime movie. She next appeared in the little-seen psychological thriller Stonehearst Asylum, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether". A lukewarm critical reception greeted the film upon its DVD release; Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times said Beckinsale was "emoting as if an Oscar nomination depended on it" while Dennis Harvey of Variety found her performance "overwrought." In 2014, she provided the voice for Queen Ayrenn, a character in The Elder Scrolls Online video game. Also in 2014, Beckinsale starred in the psychological thriller The Face of an Angel alongside Daniel Brühl. The film, directed by Michael Winterbottom, was inspired by the case of Meredith Kercher. Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club felt her "charismatic" performance was wasted. Also in 2015, she starred alongside Simon Pegg in the poorly received British comedy Absolutely Anything, as an author agency employee and the love interest of a man (Pegg) chosen by four aliens to do anything he wants. Tom Huddleston of Time Out said her character "is never really developed – which is perhaps a blessing, because her cut-glass-posh performance is almost as grating as Pegg's." A fan of Monty Python growing up, in 2014 Beckinsale appeared on the fourth episode of Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly) where she spoke of her favourite Python comedy sketch. ### 2016–present: Love & Friendship and beyond In the 2016 romantic comedy Love & Friendship, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Beckinsale reunited with her Last Days of Disco collaborators Stillman and Sevigny. Based on Jane Austen's Lady Susan, the film revolved around her role as the title character, a wry and calculating widow, as she pursues a wealthy and hapless man for marriage originally intended for her daughter, though she eventually marries him herself. The film was universally acclaimed by critics and found commercial success in arthouse cinemas. Justin Chang of Variety described the role as "one of the most satisfying screen roles of her career[...] Beckinsale magnetizes the screen in a way that naturally underscores how far ahead of everyone else she is: an effect that doesn't always work to the movie's advantage." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "There aren't great depths to the role, but Beckinsale excels with the long speeches and in defining her character as a very self-aware egoist." Also in the year, she starred in the horror film The Disappointments Room, opposite Mel Raido, both playing a couple in a new house that contains a hidden room with a haunted past. The film was heavily panned by critics and flopped at the box office; it only made \$1.4 million in its opening weekend, and a total of \$2.4 million in North America. Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly concluded that "[m]ost of the film is just Beckinsale walking around looking worried", while Joe Leydon of Variety found her "credible and compelling [...] except for when she's trying way too hard in a rather unfortunate scene that calls for drunken ranting." In late 2016, Beckinsale returned as Selene in the fifth instalment of the Underworld franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars, which grossed \$81.1 million worldwide. Beckinsale starred opposite Pierce Brosnan, Callum Turner, and Jeff Bridges in Marc Webb's romantic coming-of-age drama The Only Living Boy in New York (2017), as a book editor and the mistress of a publisher whose son sees his life upended. Reviews of the film were mediocre, while it found a limited audience in theatres. The A.V. Club found Brosnan and Beckinsale to be "vastly more interesting by the twin virtues of not disguising their voices and fitting so poorly into the sad-faced melodrama this movie wants to be". She is attached to star in an adaptation of The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norton, with a screenplay by Emma Forrest. In 2018, Beckinsale starred as Ingrid Carpenter in the British film Farming. Beckinsale starred in the ITV/Amazon Prime drama The Widow (2019), her first TV series for more than 20 years. The series stars Beckinsale as an Englishwoman who believes her husband, killed in a plane crash three years prior, is still alive in the Congo. Beckinsale starred in the American action comedy film Jolt alongside Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci and Jai Courtney. Jolt was adapted from a screenplay by Scott Wascha and directed by Tanya Wexler and released by Amazon Studios on 23 July 2021. That same year she starred in the Paramount+ dark comedy streaming television Guilty Party. In that series, she served as executive producer as well. In 2021, Deadline announced that Beckinsale will star in the Catherine Hardwicke directed family drama Prisoner's Daughter. ### Modelling Labelled an "English rose" by the BBC as early as 2001, Beckinsale has worked occasionally as a model. In 1997, she appeared in the music video for George Michael's "Waltz Away Dreaming". She starred opposite Orlando Bloom in a 2002 Gap television advertisement directed by Cameron Crowe. She appeared in a Diet Coke television advertisement in 2004, directed by Michel Gondry. She advertised Absolut Vodka in a 2009 print campaign photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. ## Personal life ### Relationships Beckinsale was in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 to 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of The Seagull in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterwards. In 1997, they voiced an audiobook production of Romeo and Juliet. Their daughter Lily Mo Sheen was born in 1999. In 2001, Beckinsale said she was "embarrassed" that Sheen never proposed, but felt as though she was married. They broke up in early 2003, after the filming of Underworld. Beckinsale and Sheen remain close friends; she remarked in 2016, "He's really dear, close family. He's somebody I've known since I was 21 years old. I really love him a lot." Beckinsale met American director Len Wiseman while working together on 2003's Underworld. She persuaded Wiseman to cast Sheen in the film, but while on set, the two fell in love. Wiseman's then-wife Dana, a kindergarten teacher, claimed infidelity in Budapest. They married on 9 May 2004 in Bel-Air, California, but separated in November 2015. Wiseman filed for divorce in 2016, citing "irreconcilable differences", and their divorce was finalised in November 2019. In January 2019, Beckinsale was reported to be dating American comedian Pete Davidson, but by April they had "called time on their romance". ### Personal and political beliefs Beckinsale is a smoker. When she was nine, her mother moved in with Roy Battersby, and his sons introduced her to cigarettes. She is a teetotaller, stating in 2003, "I've never been drunk even. I've never taken drugs. I've never had a one-night-stand." In 2007, she appeared alongside David Schwimmer in the sixth of the Writers Guild of America member-conceived Internet videos for Project "Speechless", in support of the WGA labour strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. In 2012, she appeared alongside Judy Greer and Andrea Savage in the Funny or Die video "Republicans, Get in My Vagina", a satire of the Republican Party's policies concerning abortion and prenatal care. ### Legal issues In July 2003, the Press Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint filed by Beckinsale. She alleged that the tabloid Daily Mail had invaded her and her daughter's privacy by publishing photographs of the actress embracing and kissing her then-boyfriend Len Wiseman. The article in question was headlined, "Mummy's latest love scene leaves Lily unimpressed" and included a picture in which her then-four-year-old daughter appeared to be ignoring her mother's romantic actions. The Commission found that "the photographs had been taken in a public place and did not reveal any private details about Lily—such as her health or schooling—but were restricted to general observations about her apparent reaction to her surroundings." In August 2003, Beckinsale received a published apology from the Daily Mail after it claimed that she had "spent time in a clinic" following her break-up with Michael Sheen. The apology was issued after she filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission. In 2009, Beckinsale was awarded £20,000 in damages by the British High Court after taking legal action against Express Newspapers. The Daily Express had falsely reported that she was "facing heartbreak" after losing out on a role in a remake of Barbarella. ### Philanthropy The British Heart Foundation has been Beckinsale's charity of choice "ever since [she] was six years old" when her father, who had a congenital heart defect, died of a massive heart attack. She has also donated film memorabilia to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, MediCinema, Habitat For Humanity and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In 2008, she hosted the 4th Annual Pink Party to raise funds for the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and organised a screening of All About Eve for FilmAid International. In 2012, Beckinsale joined Nestlé's Share the Joy of Reading Program to raise awareness about the importance of people's literacy. ## Filmography ### Film ### Television ### Video games ### Stage ### Radio ## Awards and nominations

Henry Ritchie

First World War Victoria Cross recipient (1876–1958)

Henry Peel Ritchie VC (29 January 1876 – 9 December 1958) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for valour "in the face of the enemy" that can be given to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Ritchie received the first VC awarded to naval personnel during the First World War for his actions during a raid on the German colonial harbour of Dar-es-Salaam in November 1914, which left him seriously wounded. Despite the courage of his actions during the raid, Ritchie was not initially recommended for the Victoria Cross. Delayed by discussion at the Admiralty concerning the correct medal to award, it was not until 24 April 1915, nearly six months later, that the medal was presented. Ritchie never fully recovered from his wounds and was forced into early retirement the following year. Although he lived another 41 years, he never again commanded at sea. ## Early career Born in Edinburgh to Mary Ritchie (née Anderson) and Dr Robert Peel Ritchie, he spent his youth at 1 Melville Crescent in Edinburgh's exclusive West End. Henry was educated at George Watson's Boys' College and Blairlodge School before he enrolled on the training ship HMS Prince of Wales at the age of fourteen, in 1890. Rapidly rising in the navy due to keen intelligence and impressive strength, Ritchie was promoted to lieutenant six years later, and served for the next fifteen years as a junior staff officer at Sheerness Gunnery School. In 1900 Ritchie became the armed forces lightweight boxing champion, and was the runner-up in the same contest the following year. In July 1902 he was posted to the battleship HMS Sans Pareil, docked in the Medway as part of the Reserve squadron. Whilst stationed at Sheerness, he met and married Christiana Lilian Jardine, with whom he had two daughters. His shore service ended in March 1911, when he was posted as senior lieutenant to the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Goliath. Promoted to commander later that year, he managed the ship's gunnery exercises and procedures while Goliath was part of the Channel Fleet stationed in British waters. It was said by one of his junior officers that "Ritchie had the reputation of being very strict, but I always found him most fair". ## War service At the outbreak of World War I, Goliath was ordered to the Indian Ocean to lead a blockade of the German colony of German East Africa, and specifically its main port at Dar-es-Salaam. It was feared by the Admiralty that the German navy would use its colonial ports to support commerce raiding cruisers such as SMS Emden (1906) or Königsberg, both of which were known to be operating in the Indian Ocean at that time. This concern was amplified because Königsberg, blockaded in the delta of the Rufiji River, had operated from Dar-es-Salaam in the early months of the war and had sunk the British cruiser HMS Pegasus on a raid from the port. Remaining in Dar-es-Salaam's large natural harbour were the German cargo ships Konig and Feldmarschall, the hospital ship Tabora and several smaller coastal vessels – all of which could conceivably be used to resupply the trapped cruiser should they leave port. Despite a declaration from the German Governor Heinrich Schnee that neither the harbour nor its ships would be used for military purposes, the decision was taken by British Admiral Herbert King-Hall that the shipping in the port must nevertheless be neutralised. The Germans had pre-emptively scuttled a blockship in the port's entrance channel, with the intention of preventing Goliath and the other heavy British warships from entering the harbour to shell the undefended city. With close-range bombardment impossible, the British assembled assault teams with volunteers from the small blockading flotilla. Their mission was to augment the existing blockage by immobilising or sinking those cargo ships trapped in the port, thus denying its use to the Germans as well. Command of the assault was given to Commander Ritchie as the second most senior officer present, and he commandeered two small auxiliary gunboats, Dupleix and Helmuth, to carry his raiding parties. ### Raid on Dar-es-Salaam The day prior to the raid the decision was taken that, in order to allow the Germans time to evacuate the target ships and minimise casualties, they would be warned of the British intentions. In a brief parley the German defenders requested that the British conduct their operations under a white flag, which request was denied. Ritchie was informed that he could begin his assault on the following morning of 28 November 1914. Due to a breakdown aboard Dupleix before it reached the harbour, Ritchie had to begin his assault with only Helmuth and a handful of small boats and launches from the blockading ships. There were no signs of life on the target ships as Ritchie's flotilla moved uncontested into the port, and the shoreline was described by officers in the raiding party as "utterly deserted" and "cool and inviting". Shortly after 10:00 the raiders laid explosive charges on the abandoned Konig and Feldmarschall. However they were then challenged by the port's commanding officer, who questioned their right to be in the anchorage and demanded to be permitted to observe their actions in order that he could make a report. In a meeting aboard Helmuth it was explained to him that British orders were to disable German assets in the harbour and that, being at war, his permission was unnecessary. After some discussion he was persuaded to disembark so that Helmuth could continue operations. Leaving demolition parties aboard the cargo vessels, Ritchie then took Helmuth further downriver to check for other shipping, but the small ship grounded on a sandbar. Assuming the route was blocked, he returned to the two cargo ships on one of the expedition's small launches. It was at this stage, whilst conducting a final inspection, that he made the discovery of a large number of empty ammunition cases and discarded bullets in the holds of the cargo ships. Deducing that the German crew had armed themselves before they left their vessels, he suspected preparations were underway to ambush his force when it attempted to leave the harbour. Despite this discovery Ritchie resolved to continue as ordered. He took the precaution of sending Helmuth to the harbour entrance to cover the withdrawal, and gathered together several small boats moored in the harbour. These he secured around his launch, providing added buoyancy in case it received fatal damage in the engagement he was sure would ensue. With preparations complete, one of Ritchie's boats (from the cruiser HMS Fox) moved to the harbour entrance. There it was met with a hail of fire from the shore, where the hidden German crews and town garrison had lain in wait. Helmuth was also attacked, but despite sustaining severe damage both craft were able to limp to safety, carrying several wounded. From outside the harbour Fox and Goliath responded with a heavy barrage, demolishing several streets in the town, including the Governor's Palace. Ritchie, aboard the only remaining British boat in the harbour, attempted to pick up one of his officers who had earlier gone aboard the German hospital ship Tabora to conduct a medical inspection. This effort was unsuccessful, and on leaving the harbour Ritchie's launch came under sustained fire from machine guns, rifles and light artillery. With most of his crew wounded, Ritchie refused to relinquish his place at the helm until he had steered his boat to safety. He was discovered "simply smothered in blood and barely conscious" by Goliath's crew when they went to his aid in the battleship's pinnace. Ritchie was rushed to the sick bay, where it was ascertained that he had been hit in eight separate places. The raid had cost the British one dead, fourteen seriously wounded and twelve captured after they were left behind in the confusion. The raiders had in turn immobilised three large merchant vessels and destroyed several shore installations, as well as taking thirty five prisoners. Two days later, with the wounded hospitalised in Zanzibar, Goliath and Fox returned to Dar-es-Salaam and reduced most of the seafront to rubble, setting fire to several other districts of the town as well. This reprisal served only to turn the hitherto neutral local populace against the British. Feelings ran high in both camps following the raid, with the British claiming that white flags flying from several shore installations should have prevented any German attack, and the Germans insisting that the British had attempted to capture their merchant vessels' crews despite promises not to do so. According to Stephen Snelling in The Naval VCs, both sides had entered the operation with the intention of breaching the predetermined agreements. ## Retirement and the Victoria Cross Ten were honoured for their role in the operation, seven receiving Distinguished Service Medals, two the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal and one, the grievously wounded Ritchie, the Victoria Cross. Ritchie had not initially been recommended for this award; the recommendation being submitted at a later date by an unidentified figure in the Admiralty. Snelling speculates that the Admiralty's change of heart was possibly a morale-boosting measure, although Ritchie's courage during the action was never called into question. The shrapnel and bullet wounds he sustained in the raid were extensive, including injuries to his forehead, left thumb, left arm (twice), right arm, right hip and a badly broken right leg after being hit by two large-calibre machine gun bullets. Ritchie spent six weeks in hospital in Zanzibar before he was considered well enough to be transported home. In England he recovered during the spring of 1915 at Plymouth Hospital, with his family present. Although judged fit in late February, Ritchie was assigned light duties and was not returned to Goliath; a disappointment which proved fortunate for him when she was sunk off the Dardanelles in May 1915 by the Turkish destroyer Muavenet with the loss of five hundred lives. His Victoria Cross was presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace in April 1915. Promoted acting captain, he retired in 1917 having been deemed unfit for further service as a legacy of the wounds he had received. Following his retirement Ritchie settled with his family back in his home city of Edinburgh, and lived a quiet and uneventful retirement. He was not involved in any official capacity during the Second World War, and died at his home in 1958. Ritchie was cremated at Warriston. There are no memorials or headstones dedicated to him today, and his Victoria Cross is not on public display. Memorial outside birthplace, 1 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh. Birthplace ### Victoria Cross citation

U.S. Route 33 in Michigan

Former U.S. Highway in Michigan

US Highway 33 (US 33) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that was once located in Berrien County, Michigan. At the time it was removed from the state, it was only about 2.8 miles (4.5 km) long running north from the Indiana state line to an intersection with US 12 south of Niles. The highway was not originally part of the US Highway System in the state; it was added in 1938 as a second designation for part of US 31 between the state line and St. Joseph. It was later extended further north to the community of Lake Michigan Beach. This extension became the only section of US 33 that was routed independent of another highway until it was truncated to Niles. In 1997, US 33 was officially removed from the state. ## Route description At the time it last existed in Michigan, US 33 started at the Indiana state line at an intersection with State Line Road. From there it ran due north along 11th Street through a residential neighborhood parallel to the St. Joseph River. Just past an intersection with Fulkerson Road, the highway curved briefly to the northeast as it approached Bell Road. US 33 terminated at a five-ramp partial cloverleaf interchange with US 12 (Pulaski Highway) south of the city of Niles in Bertrand Township. According to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the agency that maintained the roadway, in 1998, the last year it was US 33, the highway carried between 17,192 and 24,669 vehicles on average, daily. Additionally, the roadway that carried the highway designation is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. ## History The State Trunkline Highway System was created on May 13, 1913, by an act of the Michigan Legislature; at the time, one of the system's divisions corresponded to US 33. Division 5 followed a course from Niles northward to Mackinaw City. In 1919, the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) signposted the highway system for the first time, and the future US 33 corridor was assigned the original M-58 designation from the state line northward through Niles to St. Joseph. When the United States Numbered Highway System was created on November 11, 1926, the corridor received the US 31 designation. The US 33 designation was later added to US 31 from the state line northward to St. Joseph on January 1, 1938, ending at the intersection with US 12/US 31 at Main Street and Niles Avenue. It was dedicated as part of the Blue and Gray Trail on May 2 of that year. In November 1960, the US 33 designation was extended northward along US 31 from St. Joseph through Benton Harbor to Hagar Shore Road in Lake Michigan Beach. Three years later, a segment of the Interstate 96 (I-96, later I-196) freeway opened northeast of Benton Harbor, and US 31 was rerouted to follow it, leaving US 33 to its own alignment between Scottdale and Lake Michigan Beach, now following 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) of Hagar Shore Road east to its I-96/US 31 interchange. This was the first time that US 33 had a section of its routing in Michigan that was not concurrent with another highway. Additional freeway for US 31 was built in the late 1970s into the 1980s. Called the St. Joseph Valley Parkway, the first section of this freeway through Berrien County was completed in 1979 and ran from the Indiana state line north to US 12; after its completion, US 33 had a second independent routing from the state line north to downtown Niles. US 33 was all but eliminated in Michigan on June 9, 1986, when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) approved a request by MDOT to truncate the designation to the intersection with US 12 south of Niles. Signage was updated in September 1986, renumbering the northern section to M-63 and the section between downtown Niles and US 12 as a rerouted Bus. US 12. The last segment of US 33 between US 12 and the state line was removed on April 25, 1997, when AASHTO approved a joint request by MDOT and its counterpart in Indiana to truncate the highway designation to an intersection with US 20 in Elkhart, Indiana. This remaining segment in Michigan became part of an extended M-51 when the signage was changed a year later. On March 5, 2010, a segment of Bus. US 12 previously used by US 33 in downtown Niles was transferred back to city control. Otherwise, except for a slight reroute at Scottdale, all of US 33 at its greatest extent from 1963 through 1986 remains part of a state highway in Michigan. From the state line into Niles, it is M-51. From the west side of downtown Niles, it is M-139 to Scottdale, and from there north, it is M-63. ## Major intersections ## See also

War Birds

American air war pulp magazine

War Birds was a pulp magazine published by Dell from 1928 to 1937. It was the first pulp to focus on stories of war in the air, and soon had competitors. A series featuring fictional Irishman Terence X. O'Leary, which had started in other magazines, began to feature in War Birds in 1933, and in 1935 the magazine changed its name to Terence X. O'Leary's War Birds for three issues. In these issues the setting for stories about O'Leary changed from World War I to the near future; when the title changed back to War Birds later that year, the fiction reverted to ordinary aviation war stories for its last nine issues, including one final O'Leary story. The magazine's editors included Harry Steeger and Carson W. Mowre. ## Publication history and contents War Birds was launched in March 1928 by Dell Publishing Co., Inc. It was initially successful, and according to pulp magazine historian Ed Hulse it published "some of the best air-story scribes in the country". It was the first pulp magazine to focus on air war, and when it became apparent it was successful, other publishers quickly started similar titles: Flying Aces and Aces both appeared in 1928. In the July 1933 issue Arthur Guy Empey's "O'Leary, Sky Hawk" appeared: this featured Terence X. O'Leary, a red-headed Irish soldier who had already been the protagonist of multiple appearances in the pulp magazines War Stories and Battle Stories. Empey rewrote O'Leary's backstory to make him a pilot who had flown with the Royal Flying Corps, and over a dozen more O'Leary stories appeared in War Birds over the next two years. O'Leary was a member of the "Black Wings Pursuit Squadron", described by pulp magazine historian Robert Sampson as "one of those weird organizations common to pulp war fiction. [Each man] in the squadron..has a long prison sentence hanging over his head, unless he fights fiercely". Sampson considers the O'Leary stories to be the worst air war series in the pulps; he describes them as "a sublime monument to meretriciousness". Hulse similarly considers the quality of these stories to be poor, and suggests that Mowre printed them only because of reader loyalty to the character. In March 1935 the magazine's title was changed to Terence X. O'Leary's War Birds, and the magazine switched to the science fiction genre in an attempt to revitalize it; in Sampson's opinion, these novels "offered some of the worst prose in all the hero pulps". There were three science fiction issues, each featuring a novel by Empey in which O'Leary fought the immortal Ageless Men from Atlantis in planes of the future. Science fiction historian Robert Weinberg comments that "the quality of the science fiction was scarcely a step above the comic book. While good writing was not a prerequisite for success in the pulps, terrible writing usually doomed a magazine". After three issues the title changed back to War Birds, and nine more issues appeared. There was one final O'Leary story, in the October 1935 issue, with the setting changed back to World War I. The final issue was dated October 1937. Other writers who appeared in War Birds included Arthur J. Burks, Robert J. Hogan, Robert Sydney Bowen, William E. Barrett, Frederick C. Painton, and Lester Dent. The cover artists included George Rozen, Sidney Riesenberg, Rudolph Belarski, and Eugene Frandzen. ## Bibliographic details The publisher was Dell Publishing Co. Inc. through the run. Some early issues were edited by Harry Steeger, who left Dell in 1930 to form Popular Publications. Most issues were edited by Carson W. Mowre, who left the magazine not long before the end of its run. The first issue was dated March 1928, and the last was dated October 1937; it was monthly for most of its life, with an extra issue in December for the first three years, except for a couple of gaps in 1932 and 1933, and an irregular period from 1935 to the end. The title was War Birds for all except three issues: the March, April and June 1935 issues were retitled Terence X. O'Leary's War Birds. It was priced at 20 cents until the March 1933 issue, which was 10 cents; thereafter the price varied between 10 cents, 15 cents, and 20 cents. The first issue was 128 pages; the page count varied between 128 and 144 pages for most of its run, with several issues of 96 pages appearing in 1933, two of 112 pages in 1935, and a final issue of 116 pages. A Canadian reprint edition appeared of the July 1934 and April 1935 issues.

Treaty Oak (Washington, D.C.)

350-400 year old oak tree in Washington, D.C

The Treaty Oak was a 350–400-year-old oak tree that once stood on the Oak Lawn estate in Washington, D.C. The estate was previously called Widow's Mite and owned by the Holmead and Nourse families. It included a large four-story Second Empire house that owner Thomas P. Morgan had expanded. The estate was bounded by 19th Street, Columbia Road, Connecticut Avenue, and Florida Avenue, on the edge of today's Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan neighborhoods. The oak tree earned its nickname due to local legends that a treaty was signed there between early settlers and Native Americans. Despite massive development in the surrounding neighborhoods during the late 19th century and early 20th century, the estate remained a wooded area and was sought by local developers. In 1922 a Masonic group purchased the estate for what was then a significant amount of money to build a massive complex that would include temples. The plans were never carried out, and in 1940 the site was chosen for the large Crystal Heights mixed development designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. That plan was also abandoned. The tree remained until 1953 when it was felled for a planned commercial development. The land where the tree and house once stood is the site of the Washington Hilton, an apartment building, and two office buildings. At the time of its destruction, the Treaty Oak was reportedly the largest oak tree in the Washington, D.C. area. ## Legends and history ### Legends The Treaty Oak was estimated to date from the mid-1600s to the early-1700s. There are three unproven legends about the tree, two of which involve white settlers and members of the local Nacotchtank tribe. The area where the Treaty Oak once stood was originally part of a 600 acre (243 ha) tract of land known as Widow's Mite. The local legend behind the name Widow's Mite involves Manacasset, chief of the local Nacotchtank tribe, who allegedly lived beneath the tree due to its strategic view of the surrounding area. During a raid against local white settlers, Manacasset is said to have captured a woman named Magdalena Noyes and her infant daughter. After Magdalena refused his advances, Manacasset sentenced her to live underneath the tree, never stepping outside of its shadow, or she would be killed. Magdalena named her daughter Gwawa, which meant "hope", and she lived underneath the tree for the rest of her life. As a child, Gwawa is said to have been mocked by other Nacotchtank children due to her pale complexion. There was one child, though, a biracial Native American boy named Tschagarag, who befriended her. He taught Gwawa his native language, and together they explored the local area. The two would eventually fall in love and marry. After Manacasset was killed in battle, Magdalena died soon after that. Although she was originally a prisoner confined to live by the tree, during her later years, it was said Magdalena had grown to love the mighty oak. In her will, she allegedly wrote: "I, Magdalena Noyes, bequeath to my daughter, Gwawa, and her husband Tschagarag, all my property, consisting of the 17.5 acres [7.1 ha] of land, the hut I live in and all therein. And if contentment the germ of happiness be transferable, may you receive it and enjoy it all through life. I also have a request which I beg of you fulfill: Regard the Oak that overspreads our dwelling as an ancient relic. Cherish it through life as the talisman of a resigned sufferer. Should you be blessed with offspring, instill them with reverence for the tree such as will transmit from generation to generation." The second legend involves members of the Nacotchtank tribe and white settlers signing a treaty beneath the tree. One version of this story involves Magdalena acting as the interpreter between the two parties. The third legend is that George Washington wanted the Capitol erected on the site, but Magdalena would not agree to the idea. ### Recorded history When the City of Washington was laid out, the land where the Treaty Oak stood was part of a 16 acre (6.5 ha) farm owned by settler Anthony Holmead. He sold the land in 1809 to Colonel Michael Nourse, who was chief clerk at the Treasury Department. Nourse built a Federal style house on the land, next to the oak tree. He later sold the property because it was too far from downtown, resulting in a long commute to work. The property, which was then 10 acres (4 ha) and bounded by today's 19th Street, Columbia Road, Connecticut Avenue, and Florida Avenue on the edge of the Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan neighborhoods, was purchased in 1866 by politician Thomas P. Morgan. He renovated and expanded the home into a large four-story Second Empire style house. He named his estate Oak Lawn due to the large oak tree on his property. As the years progressed the area around Oak Lawn developed into bustling residential and commercial neighborhoods, and due to the impressive views of the city from the estate, it was sought after by local developers. The following owner, the Dean family, sold Oak Lawn in 1922 to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for \$900,000, a significant amount at the time. The Masons planned to build a large \$3,000,000 complex on the site, which they renamed Temple Heights, that would include temples, an auditorium for 3,000 people, and a large tower. The multiyear fundraising campaign ended in 1929 when the stock market crashed. The tree and house remained untouched through the Great Depression. In 1940 developer Roy S. Thurman chose the site for his \$12,000,000 mixed-use development that would include a large parking deck and 14 towers composed of a 2,500-room hotel, theater, apartments, and retail shops. Frank Lloyd Wright was selected to design the massive project, which he called Crystal Heights (later Crystal City). Due to lack of funding, local zoning laws, including the Height of Buildings Act of 1899, and the outbreak of World War II, the project was canceled. During the following years there were several plans for the site, including a park, war memorial, apartments and hotels, and large parking lot. The house was demolished in 1948 after plans were made to build a shopping center on the site. That plan was also abandoned and the Treaty Oak remained until March 13, 1953, when the property was cleared for yet another planned commercial development. At the time it was felled, a government expert estimated the tree was around 350 years old, but it was most often described as 400 years old. It was reportedly the largest oak tree in the Washington, D.C. area. Following numerous abandoned plans for the former Oak Lawn property, in the 1960s, the Washington Hilton and two office buildings were built on the site. A luxury apartment building was also built there in 2016.

Kim Possible (character)

Fictional character from Kim Possible

Kimberly Ann "Kim" Possible is a fictional character and the title protagonist of the animated Disney television series Kim Possible, voiced by actress Christy Carlson Romano. Created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, the character debuted in the pilot "Crush", which premiered on June 7, 2002. After starring in each of the show's 87 episodes, Kim made her final appearance in the hour-long series finale "Graduation", which originally aired on September 7, 2007. A high school cheerleader moonlighting as a teenage crime-fighter, the majority of Kim's missions involve her thwarting the plans of her archenemy Dr. Drakken, a mad scientist, all-the-while coping with everyday challenges commonly associated with adolescence. Inspired by their own daughters, Schooley and McCorkle conceived Kim as a teenage girl capable of doing anything, basing the character on their own childhood hero James Bond. Upon noticing the relative lack of strong female leads in children's animated television, they decided to reverse traditional gender roles by making Kim the show's action hero accompanied by a male comedic sidekick in the form of best friend-turned-boyfriend Ron Stoppable. Devoid of both superpowers and a secret identity unlike traditional superheroes, the character's crime-fighting abilities are instead drawn from her cheerleading experience, thus making her more relatable to young viewers. Originally designed as a bombshell based on video game character Lara Croft, Kim's appearance was ultimately altered to resemble a teenage girl instead. When Kim Possible premiered in 2002, Kim was instantly well-liked by both female and male audiences. The character has since been very positively received by critics, who hailed her as a positive role model for young women, while heavily comparing her to similar crime-fighting television heroines Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sydney Bristow from Alias, both of whom preceded her. Kim has also earned the respect of feminist critics, who appreciated the character for both defying gender roles and challenging negative stereotypes associated with cheerleaders. A fashion trendsetter, the character's wardrobe is also believed to have helped popularize the wearing of crop tops and cargo pants during the early 2000s. The success of the show inspired the release of two television films, Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time (2003) and Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama (2005), as well as a video game series, in all of which Kim stars. ## Role in Kim Possible High school student Kim Possible (Christy Carlson Romano) fights crime alongside her best friend and eventual boyfriend and sidekick Ron Stoppable (Will Friedle), aided by his pet naked mole-rat Rufus (Nancy Cartwright) and computer genius Wade (Tahj Mowry). The character lives in fictional Middleton, USA with her parents James (Gary Cole) and Ann (Jean Smart), a rocket scientist and neurosurgeon respectively, and her younger brothers, identical twins Jim and Tim. Kim goes on extraordinary missions to save the world from danger at the hands of various supervillains and evil geniuses. Her most consistent adversaries are mad scientist Dr. Drakken and his sidekick Shego, the latter of whom is a former superheroine and skilled martial artist who has the ability to generate powerful energy blasts from her hands, and thus poses as her main combatant and threat. Kim becomes a crime-fighter unintentionally. In need of a job, the character creates her own website, on which she promotes her own babysitting and lawn mowing services, using the slogan "I can do anything." When a wealthy entrepreneur accidentally contacts Kim Possible instead of Team Impossible when he becomes trapped by his own laser security system, Kim rushes to his aid, using her gymnastic abilities to disable the device. As news of Kim's heroism spreads and requests for her help increase, the character finally decides to pursue it as a career. Although hardly a normal teenager, Kim insists that she is just a "basic average girl" and must nonetheless cope with usual adolescent affairs, such as maintaining good grades in school, pleasing her parents, learning how to drive, dating and relationships, and attending cheerleading practice. Because Kim is too young to legally drive for most of the series, she relies on favors from friends – typically people she has rescued – for transportation. ## Development ### Conception and writing Long-time writing partners Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle said the idea for Kim Possible arrived from "out of the blue", when they realized there were few animated television shows starring strong female characters in lead roles. Both McCorkle and Schooley had worked as writers on the male-led animated series Aladdin and Hercules for several years but longed to write "something original", and had just recently learned that young people were beginning to yearn for shows that depicted "ordinary kids in extraordinary circumstances." Thus, Schooley and McCorkle conceived Kim as a "girl who can do anything"; Kim Possible offered the writers a first-time opportunity to create an entirely new character "from scratch", which Schooley described as a "refreshing" experience in comparison to writing for characters who had already been long established. Both Schooley's and McCorkle's own daughters inspired them to conceive Kim as "a character that our daughters and other girls can look up to", all-the-while aware of the "ancient truism" that while girls seldom hesitate to watch a show about a male lead, boys are usually less willing to do the opposite. Thus, the writers decided to reverse traditional gender roles by making Kim the show's competent action hero and Ron her "fumbling" sidekick, longing to provide young girls with "a character that they can pretend to be" similar to their own childhood heroes, fictional spy James Bond and Captain Kirk from Star Trek. According to McCorkle, Kim has much more in common with James Bond than comic book superheroes. The recurring character Monique was created because Schooley and McCorkle felt that it would be more realistic if Kim had a female best friend in addition to Ron. After three years, production on Kim Possible had virtually ceased following the premiere of the film So the Drama because the writers felt that finally establishing Kim and Ron as a couple would serve as "great wrap-up to the series", and thus had long abandoned creating new "outlets" for the character during the show's third season. Schooley and McCorkle had always wanted Kim and Ron to eventually end up a couple, but avoided this storyline for as long as possible in fear of "paint[ing] [themselves] into a corner". When the show was surprisingly renewed for a fourth season by popular demand, Schooley and McCorkle realized that pursuing Kim and Ron's relationship provided the series with "new story ideas" and "opportunities for comedy", and ultimately learned to appreciate the characters' "new dynamic." To prevent Kim and Ron's relationship from becoming "soap-opera-ish", the writers strove to maintain the basics of their friendship, with Kim continuing to save the world with Ron as her sidekick. In terms of character development, the show's main titles were finally adjusted to reflect the grade in which Kim is currently enrolled, changing it from high school sophomore to high school senior. Additionally, Kim finally gets her own car, which she inherits from her father, while her younger brothers Jim and Tim begin enrollment at Middleton High School, having skipped several grades due to their genius-level intellect, much to Kim's chagrin. However, Kim eventually relents and insists that her brothers continue attending the same school as her, threatening to leave if they do. McCorkle recalled an incident in which a fan of the show was very much surprised to learn that the writers were actually men upon meeting them; the fan had always just assumed that they were both young women because of the way in which they characterized Kim. ### Design, personality and abilities Aware of what does and does not work in television animation, Schooley and McCorkle knew that Kim needed to be an appealing character. Kim's appearance evolved dramatically over the course of three months. The character was originally designed to look like "a pretty standard-looking athletic blonde", which was gradually changed in favor of a more distinctive appearance. At one point, Kim's design was based on that of video game character Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. However, Disney Channel eventually determined that Lara was "not a very real character". Finally, the creators decided to give Kim a more realistic appearance akin to that of a 14-year-old girl as opposed to a bombshell, concluding, "She has a nice, very appealing design, but we just wanted to keep it out of that realm of video game heroine." The creators admitted that Kim would have been their "dream girl" in high school, joking, "She would have been way out of our class though." Director Chris Baily wanted Kim to be designed with "graphic sensibilities" similar to those of the show's backgrounds, creating a 3D character "whose feet can be planted on the ground and communicate a sense of space." For example, when the character is dressed in all-black, Kim was drawn without a white outline so that she virtually disappears when she moves in front of a black background, yet her "simple design" and flesh allows audiences to "fill in where her body is" naturally. The show's female characters are the only characters drawn with lips, only the upper of which is visible. Describing Kim as "a mostly graphic heroine", Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times author Giannalberto Bendazzi agreed that the character's "limited animation" was intentional. In the fourth season, the character's signature midriff baring crop top and cargo pants are replaced by a T-shirt and pants because the former outfit was damaged during a fight with Shego. Some viewers noted that Kim's face appeared to be "rounder" than it had been drawn in previous seasons. Kim was animated by Rough Draft Korea. The creators wanted to make Kim as believable as possible. Schooley's and McCorkle's own daughters inspired them to conceive Kim as a "character with dimension ... that girls could watch and appreciate." McCorkle was quick in deciding very early on that Kim does not belong to a spy organization, nor does she possess any superpowers. Although admitting that the character's accomplishments are generally "implausible," Schooley and McCorkle wanted Kim to remain relatable to young viewers, and avoided making her "impervious" like superheroes by giving her "real problems and teen issues." McCorkle described Kim as "incredibly competent in the action world but challenged in the real world by all the things we all have trouble with", including embarrassment, school work and family. Schooley explained that "What makes Kim effective in the action world is gymnastics, cheerleading, physical activity, something that any kid, any girl, in the world could do." Additionally, the character is skilled in 17 different types of kung fu. At one point an indestructible supersuit complete with special abilities was created for Kim, but the outfit was ultimately abandoned to avoid contradicting with the character's "she can do anything" motto. Elaborating on her role in the pilot, Schooley believes that "Kim's mix of tenacity, intelligence and heart makes for a very strong female role model for kids," however, "Sure she can save the world, but that doesn't help her a bit when she comes face-to-face with her latest school crush." Furthermore, the writers envisioned the character having her own website and hand-held communicator – named the "Kimmunicator" after the character – with video chat, both of which were considered revolutionary back in 2000, a time when few young people owned cellphones. Kim's use of advanced technology represents her ability to "effortlessly hop around the world and get back in time for dinner. Which is pretty unrealistic, but it's what kids can do on the internet now. They can talk to somebody anywhere". > "Ms. Possible, when not solving the typical dilemmas facing high school youth, faced off against a bevy of (occasionally competent) do-badders using her smarts, courage, acrobatic martial-arts skills and sundry cool gadgets. Kim, Ron and Rufus spring into action when alerted by Wade, a comrade of comparable age who somehow manipulates a computer surveillance system the Pentagon might envy. Plausible it may not be, but popular it surely is." Kim's main goal in the series is simply to help those in need regardless of money or rewards, which Schooley and McCorkle deliberately instilled in the character's personality. One of her trademark gags involves her thanking people for providing her with transportation, to which they respond "No, thank you, for saving us". Although primarily writers, Schooley and McCorkle remained thoroughly involved in determining the overall appearance of the series, as well as the design of its characters. However, they accredit the majority of the series' aesthetics to season one director Chris Baily and artistic director Alan Bodner. Cartoonist Stephen Silver served as a character animator on the show. ### Voice Kim is voiced by American actress Christy Carlson Romano, who was only 16 years old when she was first cast as the character. The titular role was originally offered to actress Anneliese van der Pol, who turned it down in favor of co-starring as Chelsea Daniels in the Disney Channel Original Series That's so Raven. Before being cast as Kim, Romano had already been well known for starring as Ren Stevens in the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens. The actress was finally introduced to the show's creators by Disney Channel executives after Schooley and McCorkle had already auditioned several people for the role. According to McCorkle, Romano "nailed" her audition, which he described as "just fantastic." Kim was Romano's first voice-acting role. Upon being cast as Kim, Romano immediately identified with the character because they were "both dealing with teenage issues" at the time. During the show's first season, Romano and the rest of the Kim Possible cast recorded at different locations. Like her character, Romano also balanced her acting profession with schoolwork, and agreed that they are both confident in their endeavors. Because the actress was enrolled in high school in New York City at the time, she was often required to participate in cast meetings and table reads via telephone; Romano was actually unable to attend her own senior prom because she was working on Kim Possible. Occasionally, the actress herself would serve as creative inspiration for the writers; one episode in particular, "Blush", was based on the fact that Romano is a shy and easily embarrassed person who tends to "blush at even the slightest compliment/awkward situation." The writers also gave Kim several interests that are similar to Romano's own. Schooley enthused that the actress "add[s] something to [her character] that makes it more than a typical gag-oriented cartoon", crediting both her and co-star Will Friedle, voice of Ron, among reasons fans connected with the characters. Romano described Kim as a "very ambitious, very skilled, very smart" character, and attempted to make her as much of a role model as possible. The actress also described the character as "a really confident, sweet girl who everybody loves. And she is a heroine who little girls look up to. ... She is a typical role model, perfect in every way. How could you not like Kim?" Romano initially doubted that the show would be successful, but eventually admitted that "the animation was great and the writing was amazing. It's done so that kids and adults can enjoy it; families can share an amazing experience together." Additionally, Romano's character greatly influenced her own career, and considers Kim to be a positive role model for young girls. Romano identified the season one episode "Mind Games" in which Kim and Ron switch bodies as her favorite. By the end of the series, Romano was 21 years old and attending Columbia University for political science. Kim's final recorded line in the series is "uuhhh...huh?", which Romano recorded tearfully due to the series ending. Describing Kim as independent and athletic, Romano attributes her character's timelessness to her authenticity and genuineness, explaining that she "forged a path and now there are female shows everywhere". ## Characterization and themes The character's name "Kim Possible" is a portmanteau of the word "impossible". Although she is referred to by several nicknames throughout the series, Kim forgoes a secret identity entirely, and is known as simply "Kim Possible" to "everyone who knows her [and] knows what she does". Kadeen Griffiths of Bustle observed that, instead of a secret identify, Kim maintains "her own website where people could book her for jobs with a tagline that promised that she could do anything", a claim corroborated by the fact that she fights crime while performing well in class and remaining her school's cheerleading captain. Writing for Women Write About Comics, Jamie Kingston observed that Middleton High School "ignores her as a heroine unless something happens on school grounds where she has to do her thing". As such, Kim's work rarely receives attention from her immediate family and peers, although her clients remain grateful. According to Metacritic, Kim is stubborn and strong-willed with "a fuse shorter than a grenade", but remains "extremely humble, refusing to take credit for her truly amazing actions". Meanwhile, David Horiuchi of Amazon.com described the character as "tough, witty, and refreshingly free of any saucy teen attitude". UGO described Kim as a "cheery and upbeat" character who "settles for nothing less than excellence". Despite her high school popularity, Kim is neither stuck-up nor superficial, and remains fiercely devoted to her schoolwork. The character's intellect counters negative stereotypes associated with cheerleading, often incorporating cheerleading routines into battle, whereas her rival and "polar opposite" Bonnie Rockwaller is depicted as "a typical cheerleader". Described by Tracey McLoone of PopMatters as "clever, as well as graceful and physically fit", the character also disproves the belief that brawn is superior to brains in battle. Nonetheless, Kim exhibits personality traits and interests typically associated with teenage girls, such as shopping, boy bands, fangirling over popular trends, describing herself as "basic average girl". CinemaBlend's Emily Marek said Kim's feminine interests "didn’t take away from the fact that she was saving the world on a weekly basis". Her best female friend Monique represents "Kim's bridge between the world of super-spy, superhero action, and the world of high school, and stuff teen girls care about". Despite her confidence as a young woman, Kim remains very much concerned about her love life, which is sometimes treated as one of her weaknesses. Although she excels at fighting, she struggles with real-world issues such as school. Mike McDaniel of the Houston Chronicle joked that "Nothing's impossible with Kim Possible -- except maybe landing a date." Much of the character's dialogue consists of "not-so-typical teen slang" including "So not the drama" and "No big", as well as her signature catchphrase "What's the sitch?". Kim's unconventional relationship with her inept, unpopular best friend Ron ultimately uncovers the best in both characters. Ron helps balance some of Kim's negative qualities that could otherwise come off as unflattering. Their relationship heavily explores the friend zone, since Kim and Ron remain platonic friends for the majority of the series, although their romantic interests in each other is hinted at throughout. Kim has been jealous of Ron's girlfriends at times, while Ron fears confessing his love for her would jeopardize their friendship. Sarah Freymiller of Bustle described Ron as "the Joker to [Kim's] Batman; he is the intelligent, kind chaos in her highly-organized life". Meanwhile, Priya Krishna of BuzzFeed News observed, " At the end of the day, Kim needs Ron, and Ron is always there for her and never feels emasculated by the fact his friend/girlfriend is clearly better than him at everything". Kim was among several fictional characters who debuted towards the end of the girl power and third-wave feminism eras. As an animated series, Kim Possible employed a diverse cast of strong female characters, namely Kim and Shego. Many of the character's typically feminine belongings double as powerful weapons and tools, namely her lip gloss and compact mirror. In his book Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture, author Jeffrey A. Brown believes that "Kim may be the epitome of a Girl Power-derived heroine". Like Kim herself, her grandmother Nana Possible also fought crime when she was young, from whom Kim is believed to have inherited her abilities. Kim's entire family is very intelligent, therefore the character is spared "the burden of being the only brain on the show". The character's relationship with her parents is atypically healthy for a teenager. Kim's father James "views women as equals", and thus has a good relationship with Kim although he struggles to come to terms with the reality that she is growing up and dating. Her mother Ann is essentially a "grown up" version of Kim, whose work as a brain surgeon Kim also admits to being impressed by. The Artifice observed that Kim and Shego are strikingly similar in appearance. Metacritc believes that Shego is essentially "Kim's dark reflection"; both characters are smart, athletic and attractive with green eyes, but Shego chooses to use her powers for evil instead. Despite their bitter rivalry, Kim and Shego have mutual respect for each other to the point of which they occasionally work together when the situation demands it. According to Metacritic, Kim's "fiery" red hair symbolizes "her attitude that is best summed up by the phrase, 'I can do anything.'" The character is infamous for her puppy dog pout, which she often uses to get her way. ## Appearances Kim Possible was very successful, running for a total of five years from June 7, 2002, to September 7, 2007, and spanning four seasons, becoming the longest-running Disney Channel Original Series until eventually being surpassed by Phineas and Ferb. The series comprised 84 episodes, with Kim starring in each one. Kim also made an appearance in the Lilo & Stitch: The Series crossover episode "Rufus". A stop-motion version of Kim appeared in an episode of Robot Chicken where she is trapped by Kim Jong-un while trying to stop North Korean nuclear launch codes, and they both mock their names by making puns out of them. She is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane in the episode. Also, the title name in the skit is called "Mission Kim Possible", a parody and allusion of Kim Possible and Mission: Impossible, a successful action spy movie franchise that served as a follow-up to the 1966 and 1988 TV shows. Sadie Stanley portrayed Kim Possible in Disney Channel's live action adaptation television film of the animated series, aired on February 15, 2019. Kim, Ron and Rufus have had non-speaking cameos in the 2022 animated series Chibiverse. ### Epcot theme park attraction In 2009, a theme park attraction entitled the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure premiered at Walt Disney World's Epcot. Upon arrival, visitors were allowed to partake in an alternate reality game (ARG) inspired by the television series in which they entered into the world of Kim Possible and ventured on a "high-tech scavenger hunt" in a simulated country of their choice. The attraction closed down in 2012 and was replaced by Agent P's World Showcase Adventure, another scavenger hunt-like attraction inspired by the Phineas and Ferb series. ## Reception and legacy Response towards Kim has been very positive, with critics commonly praising her as a positive role model to whom young viewers can relate. Jacqueline Cutler of the Sun-Sentinel hailed the character as "as close to a role model as an animated cheerleader trying to save the world can be". Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joked that, despite dressing like singer Britney Spears, Kim shares "the same insecurities as all adolescents". Tracey McLoone of PopMatters believes the show's "merit lies primarily in [its] heroine", while Levi Buchanan of IGN found the character to be "well-fleshed out". The Sunday Mail's Shuhaidah Saharani touted Kim Possible "Disney Channel's favourite femme fatale". Reviewing Kim Possible: So the Drama, the film originally intended to end the series, Amazon.com's David Horiuchi cited the character among the main reasons why the show will be missed. Several reviewers, such as Betsy Wallace of Common Sense Media, also compared Kim to television action heroines who preceded her, namely Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sydney Bristow from Alias, as well as the titular Powerpuff Girls. Horiuchi described Kim as "An Alias-type heroine for the tween-age set" whose "school-girl awkwardness can prove appealing to grown-up kids as well", whereas McLoone appreciated that Kim is seemingly more confident than her contemporaries. Likening Kim to comic book superheroine Wonder Woman, Kathryn Shattuck of The New York Times wrote that Kim is prepared to defend humankind "without sacrificing her interest in boys and clothes", observing that she does not rely on costumes "or a jolt of testosterone to get the job done". The Huffington Post's Carly Steyer credited Kim with teaching the importance of maintaining a healthy work–life balance, writing, "She paid an appropriate amount of attention to her schoolwork, and worked hard, but didn't slave over it to the extent that she didn't have any time left to save the world". In a 2019 retrospective, Variety's Mekeisha Madden Toby wrote that the series "connected with its audience because it portrayed a strong but fashion-forward young woman who fought crime and got good grades". Paste's Alexis Gunderson crowned Kim the year 2000's "favorite red-headed teen action heroine". The character has also been well received by feminist critics, some of whom consider her to be a feminist icon. Writing for the feminist website Refinery29, Claire Fahey described Kim as "a feminist icon for the millennial generation". Courtney Thompson of Body+Soul claimed Kim was "many women’s first feminist role model before we even recognised ourselves, or her, as feminist". Believing there to have been few female-lead action cartoons prior to Kim Possible, Thompson credited the character with "introduc[ing] a new form of girl power we hadn’t seen before". According to Odyssey contributor Veronica Faison, Kim "planted my early feminist roots, and perhaps even set my social justice path". Calling her a "cartoon idol", Kadeen Griffiths of Bustle lauded Kim as an "amazingly feminist" character who "taught girls that it was okay to overachieve" and "worrying about boys didn't make you any less of a hero". Both BuzzFeed's Ellie Bate and Bustle's Sarah Freymiller applauded Kim for combating outdated, sexist stereotypes about cheerleaders, while Pride ranked her among "13 Cartoon Characters Who Defied Gender Stereotypes". Rebecca C. Hains of Salem State College cited Kim among several "strong powerful girl [television] heroes" responsible for "breaking the mold" during the early 2000s. Stephanie Janssen of The Spectator recalled that "Seeing on the TV that Kim can do anything made me feel like I could do anything, too". Esmeer Rigden-Briscall of Her Campus credited Kim with teaching several valuable feminist lessons, describing her as simultaneously "the most underrated but most needed Kim around". However, Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection author Lyn Mikel Brown dismissed Kim as both a feminist and role model because of her perceived reliance on Ron's intelligence, as well as the observation that "Her biggest threat is not evil, in fact, but the head cheerleader". Since her debut, Kim has been a popular character among both female and male fans of the show. At one point, fans of the character had sent her over one million e-mails via her website. MTV's Deepa Lakshmin predicted that Kim "will live on in our hearts forever". UGO ranked Kim 59th on the website's list of the 75 "hottest" animated characters, crowning her the "Disney Channel queen". Kim is also regarded as a fashion trendsetter, with Charmaine Simmons of Bustle crediting the character with popularizing crop tops, cargo pants and bodysuits. Also writing for Bustle, Sarah Freymiller called it "refreshing to see a girl decked out in functional black and army green attire" for much of the series. Fahey said Kim "rocked the hell out of her signature black crop top and loose cargo pants way before they were ever in style". Upon Apple's release of the Apple Watch, several critics drew similarities between the real-life device and the Kimmunicator.

Antonín Vězda

Czech lichenologist

Antonín (Toni) Vězda (25 November 1920 – 10 November 2008) was a Czech lichenologist. After completing a university education that was postponed by World War II, Vězda taught botany at the Czech University of Life Sciences. In 1958, he was dismissed from his university position as a result of the restrictions placed on academic freedoms by the communist regime in power. He eventually was hired as a lichen researcher by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, who allowed him to work from his apartment, which served also as an office and herbarium. Vězda was a productive worker, publishing nearly 400 scientific papers between 1948 and 2008, most solitarily, describing hundreds of new taxa, and building up a herbarium collection of more than 300,000 specimens. He was praised for his series of exsiccates – sets of dried herbarium specimens – assembled with both local species as well as samples sent to him from colleagues throughout the world. Known as an outstanding lichen taxonomist, he was awarded an Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Two genera and twenty-four species have been named in honour of Vězda. ## Biography Vězda was born in Brno on 25 November 1920. His father, a printer, was interested in horticulture and mycology, which may have helped spur an early interest in natural history. Vězda qualified to enter university in 1940, but the German occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II made it impossible for him to study. In 1945 he became an assistant to Alois Zlatník (dendrologist in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague) and at the same time began study of natural history at Masaryk University in Brno. He earned two diplomas, in science and in forestry, from this institution in 1947. In 1951 he completed a diploma in forestry engineering at the Agricultural University as a forest engineer, and started teaching forest botany at this institution. Vězda, like many other academics at that time, was dismissed from university for political reasons in 1958, as they were considered untrustworthy by the communist regime in power. With his academic freedoms thus restricted, he worked as a forester. After studying at the Botanical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Průhonice near Prague, he became a researcher in lichenology for this institution starting in 1963 – this was a job he was allowed to do at home. His three-room apartment in Brno became his office, herbarium, and home. His address, Tábor 28A, eventually became well known to lichenologists over the world, many of whom who knew him only through correspondence or by sending him specimens to study. In 1967 Vězda earned a Candidate of Sciences degree after defending a dissertation on the family Gyalectaceae. This dissertation launched his international career, and, despite the isolation imposed by the communist regime, he continued corresponding with prominent lichenologists worldwide, some of whom visited him, or sent him collections for analysis. It was in this way that he met Josef Poelt, with whom he developed a long-lasting friendship. Vězda was a passionate collector of lichens. During the time of the Iron Curtain, his travels had to be limited to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus; even there he could often only collect disguised as a tourist. It was only later, after retirement, that he visited many regions in Western and Southern Europe and overseas areas, including the Canary Islands, Dominica, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Seychelles. Vězda created several extensive works of exsiccata (a collection or series of dried herbarium specimens). His exsiccata collection titled Lichenes Cechoslovakiae exsiccati contained many species from his home country, while Lichenes selecti exsiccati became one of the largest exsiccata ever issued, with around 2500 specimens; he was praised by colleagues and herbaria curators worldwide for this collection. His exsiccata series Lichenes Rariores Exsiccati (1992–2003) contained nearly 500 specimens with material gathered by 72 collectors. Known as one of the best lichen taxonomists, Vězda had a prolific output as a scientist, publishing 376 scientific papers between 1948 and 2008. About 70% of these papers were published solitarily; when he did have co-authors, they were most often Josef Poelt, William W. Malcolm, and Klaus Kalb. He named 478 taxa, including 2 families (Protothelenellaceae Vězda, H.Mayrhofer & Poelt, and Solorinellaceae Vězda & Poelt), 38 genera, and 399 species, and several taxa at various other ranks. He also proposed 282 new combinations. In the year before his death, Vězda published a summary of the new species he and coauthors described between 1958 and 2007. He developed an early interest in the family Gyalectaceae, including the genera Bacidia and Micarea. The first species he described was Gyalecta cernohorskyi in 1958. Vězda has been credited with introducing the lichen term in a 1973 publication, referring to a microscopic spore-producing structure found in tropical foliicolous lichens. Vězda was active as a lichenologist well into his 80s. In addition to his collection of about 10,000 reprints and 500 books about lichens, his personal herbarium amassed more than 300,000 specimens; these collections are now kept at the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Antonín Vězda died in Brno on 10 November 2008, at the age of 87. ## Recognition Vězda was one of the first recipients of the prestigious Acharius Medal in 1992, awarded for lifetime contributions to lichenology. A Festschrift was dedicated to him in 1995 in the journal Scripta Lichenologica, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The same year, he won the Holuby memorial medal from the Slovak Botanical Society. An exsiccate issued in 2010, containing "little, fine, special lichens and lichenicolous fungi", was dedicated to him by Hungarian lichenologist Edit Farkas. He became an honorary member of the British Lichen Society, the Societa Lichenologica Italiana, the Czech Botanical Society, and the Czech Scientific Society for Mycology. Vězda has been used as an example of someone most closely approaching the ideal "universal lichen taxonomist", which is "characterised by a broad knowledge in lichen taxonomy, prolificacy and efficiency in publishing their studies, usually in sole authorship, and distribution of knowledge via exsiccata rather than teaching or having students". The National Museum in Prague, which holds his extensive collections of exsiccate material, calls him "possibly the best-known Czech lichenologist". Robert Lücking, a former mentee of Vězda, suggested that he may have been "the most eminent lichen taxonomist of the past century". ### Eponymy Two genera have been named to honour Antonín Vězda: Vezdaea Tscherm.-Woess & Poelt (1976), and Zevadia J.C.David & D.Hawksw. (1995). Vězda has also had many species named after him, including: Asterothyrium vezdae Flakus & Lücking (2008); Bacidia vezdae Coppins & P.James (1978); Bacidia vezdana Lücking (1992); Badimia vezdana Lücking, Farkas & V.Wirth (2011); Belonia vezdana Malcolm & Coppins (1997); Buellia vezdana P.Scholz & Knoph (1995); Byssolecania vezdae Kalb & Lücking (2000); Byssoloma vezdanum Sérus. (1978); Chromatochlamys vezdae H.Mayrhofer & Poelt (1985); Cliostomum vezdae Kantvilas & Elix (1995); Dimerella vezdana Lücking (1999); Enterographa vezdae Sparrius (2004); Gyalideopsis vezdae Kalb (1983); Laurera vezdae Makhija & Patw. (1988); Lecidea vezdae V.Wirth (1974); Linhartia vezdana Lücking (1995); Ocellularia vezdana Frisch (2006); Porina vezdae Lücking (1991); Rinodina vezdae H.Mayrhofer (1984); Stigmidium vezdae Matzer (1996); Thelotrema antoninii Purvis & P.James (1995); Topeliopsis vezdae Kalb (2001); Tricharia vezdae W.R.Buck (1980); and Echinoplaca vezdana Lücking & Kalb (2001). ## Selected publications A complete listing of Vězda's scientific publications up to 2006 is given in a series of publications by Černohorský (1980), Pišút (1990) and (2001), and Krahulec and Palice (2006). Some of his major works include: ## See also \*: Category:Taxa named by Antonín Vězda

KCPQ

Fox TV station in Tacoma, Washington

KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, serving as the Fox network outlet for the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KZJO (channel 22). The two stations share studios on Westlake Avenue in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood; KCPQ's main transmitter is located on Gold Mountain in Bremerton. The station signed on in August 1953 as KMO-TV, the adjunct to Tacoma radio station KMO. It was briefly a network affiliate until another Seattle station signed on; the next year, KMO radio and television were sold to separate owners. The buyer for channel 13 was J. Elroy McCaw, a Seattle broadcaster, who changed the call letters to KTVW and ran it as an independent station. While KTVW produced a number of local programs, McCaw, a famously parsimonious owner, never converted the station to broadcast in color, and its syndicated programming inventory was considered meager. McCaw died in August 1969; three years later, his estate sold the station to the Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation. While Blaidon tried several new programs and began color telecasting, the station continued to underperform financially. Two attempts to sell KTVW to out-of-state buyers failed because of its high liabilities. After a walkout by employees by January and the appointment of a receiver in July, KTVW was ordered closed on December 12, 1974. The Clover Park School District in Lakewood purchased KTVW at bankruptcy auction in 1975. The station returned to the air on a non-commercial basis as KCPQ in January 1976, serving as an effective replacement for Clover Park's UHF station, KPEC-TV (channel 56). However, changes to the structure of school financing in Washington and the refusal of voters to approve bonds to rebuild Clover Park High School forced the school district to sell KCPQ back into commercial use. After being off the air for most of 1980 to relocate its transmitter, KCPQ returned under new owner Kelly Broadcasting, who rebuilt the station as a competitive independent. During Kelly's 19-year ownership of KCPQ, the station became a Fox affiliate, relocated its studios from Lakewood to Seattle, and established its present local news department. KCPQ was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1999 as part of Kelly's exit from the broadcasting industry. As Tribune expanded the station's news output, it also had to fend off overtures by Fox, which had coveted owning the station since the 1990s and at one point threatened to buy another station to broadcast Fox programming. Tribune was purchased by Nexstar Media Group in 2019; Nexstar then traded KCPQ to Fox as part of an exchange of Fox affiliates in three cities. ## History ### As KMO-TV/KTVW In December 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) simultaneously granted applications for very high frequency (VHF) channels 11 and 13 in Tacoma; channel 13 was awarded to radio station KMO (1360 AM). The station began broadcasting as KMO-TV on August 2, 1953, from studios in Tacoma and a transmitter near Ruston. KMO-TV briefly carried NBC programs until Seattle's KOMO-TV began broadcasting on December 11. After that, KMO-TV's output primarily consisted of local and syndicated programs. After 27 years of broadcasting dating to the launch of KMO radio and within a year of starting the TV station, owner Carl E. Haymond sought to exit the business, having sold stakes in radio stations in California and Arizona. He first attempted to sell KMO radio and television together to the owners of Seattle radio station KAYO (1150 AM) for \$350,000 (equivalent to \$ in dollars); the unusually low purchase price was attributed to the station's lack of network affiliation and financial losses. However, the FCC warned that it appeared it would need to hold a hearing to approve the sale due to the then-impermissible overlap of the Seattle and Tacoma radio stations' coverage areas; the deal was then scrapped several weeks later. Two months later, Haymond sold KMO-TV for \$300,000 (equivalent to \$ in dollars) to J. Elroy McCaw, a Seattle-based radio station owner. With KMO-TV separated from KMO radio, the television station changed its call sign to KTVW in October 1954 and announced plans to open auxiliary offices in Seattle. The station also began airing Seattle Americans minor-league hockey, with which several of its principals had connections. For two months, KTVW's general manager served as the team's president; when he resigned for a television job in Los Angeles, McCaw became the team's sole owner. At this time, the Americans were the only professional hockey club to televise all their home games. McCaw tried to make several moves in the late 1950s. In an unusual arrangement, the station briefly aired the CBS network news in late 1957 when Tacoma's then-CBS affiliate, KTNT-TV (channel 11), dropped the CBS Evening News with Douglas Edwards to make way for an expanded local news program. CBS, which wanted the newscast to continue to air in the Seattle market until KIRO-TV could sign on as the market's CBS station (which it would do on February 8, 1958), arranged for the network hookup to bring the program to KTVW on an interim basis. In 1957, McCaw filed to move the transmitter from Tacoma to Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, which would have come with an upgrade to the maximum 316,000 watts; local residents objected to the erection of another TV tower in the area and to McCaw's proposal to create a "tower park" that would have required the demolition of 75 to 80 homes. This proposal had stalled by 1958, when it was reported that the owners of Los Angeles station KCOP-TV, including Bing Crosby, were negotiating to buy KTVW and another independent station McCaw owned, Denver's KTVR. Ultimately, the station increased its effective radiated power from the Ruston transmitter to 214,000 watts in 1960. McCaw was regarded as a penny-pincher. Of his Denver station, it was remarked by Edwin James of Broadcasting that "McCaw's saving ways had been reflected in the station's programming". Local programs from KTVW during its 20-year run included a movie block hosted by Stu Martin; the afternoon children's show Penny and Her Pals, hosted by LeMoyne Hreha; and, for one year, coverage of the Seafair hydroplane races. In 1967, when an engineer's strike kept most of the other Seattle stations from broadcasting the event, KTVW stepped in to fill the void on short notice. In 1967, channel 13 began airing a six-hour stock market show, the first such program to broadcast on a VHF station. These shows, along with most of channel 13's local programming, were temporarily suspended at the end of March 1970 as part of cutbacks it attributed to "the economic slowdown". The cutbacks left Bob Corcoran, a talk show host, as KTVW's sole on-air personality. KTVW was left airing, in the words of the television editor of The Seattle Times, "scratchy old movies and ... Neanderthal reruns from the violence-action era of television". The business news programming briefly left the air that April. In early 1969, plans were floated to convert KTVW to color, move the transmitter to Port Orchard, and relocate the studios to Seattle. The television editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer hailed the proposed changes as heralding the end of "the funny station way over at the end of your television dial ... with the fuzzy picture and the funny, fuzzy programs and the fuzzy, old, awful movies". However, any hopes of an upgrade were dashed when McCaw died of a stroke that August. His indebted businesses fell into a tailspin after his death; creditors made more than \$12 million (equivalent to \$ in dollars) in claims, after which the bank declared his estate insolvent, requiring the family to sell off his various holdings, including the family mansion and yachts. ### Blaidon ownership, financial woes, and the end of KTVW After nearly three years, on March 27, 1972, McCaw's estate sold KTVW to the Seattle-based Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation, named for co-owners Blaine Sampson and Don Wolfstone, for \$1.1 million (equivalent to \$ in dollars). During the sale process, the stock market program—which had returned in 1971 after it reorganized under a new production company—stopped airing after channel 13 asked for more money for its air time in contract negotiations. Wolfstone recognized that the station needed help if it were to become viable, telling a writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that "there's not much of a worse [station] in the country". Blaidon tried to turn KTVW around by boosting the station's signal strength, acquiring first-run syndicated programming, and installing color-capable broadcast equipment (the station had broadcast exclusively in black-and-white until Blaidon bought it). Channel 13 premiered its new programming lineup with The Tony Visco Show, its flagship effort. This talk/entertainment show was hosted by Tony Visco, a Las Vegas lounge entertainer and singer, attempted to recreate a Tonight Show-style program. Don Wolfstone—the "Don" in "Blaidon"—brought in a Los Angeles producer/director to develop the show, which featured a live band on-set, and had hopes of flying in show-business guests from Los Angeles and later syndicating the program nationwide. After two months on-air, rising production costs forced Blaidon to relocate the program from a Tacoma restaurant to the station's studios; channel 13 canceled The Tony Visco Show before the year ended. Another new program launched under Blaidon was an afternoon cartoon show hosted by local actor Mike Lynch, playing a "superhero" character for whom viewers were asked to suggest a name; the winning entry was "Flash Blaidon". Despite KTVW's improved programming and ratings that at times were competitive with KTNT-TV, national advertisers failed to materialize. The News Tribune described the station, in retrospect, as "a down-at-the-heels purveyor of old movies and used-car commercials". At the end of 1973, Blaidon filed to sell channel 13 to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) of Portsmouth, Virginia; the filing alone signaled trouble, given that at the time, the FCC barred selling a station in less than three years of ownership unless the buyer demonstrated it was facing financial hardship. The station's remaining live programming, such as Flash Blaidon, was canceled. Over the course of 1974, KTVW's financial position deteriorated. On January 15, 40 employees staged a walk-out, forcing the station to go off the air, complaining about not having been paid in nearly four weeks. After they were paid by cashier's check, channel 13 resumed operations the next day, but employees remained skeptical of Blaidon's financial condition. By the end of January, Blaidon had pleaded with the FCC to expedite approval of the CBN transfer; Wolfstone expected the Internal Revenue Service to lock up his Seattle office for failing to pay withholding taxes in the second half of 1973. The FCC approved the CBN transaction, but the buyer had second thoughts about the \$5.1 million (equivalent to \$ in dollars) purchase price of channel 13 and asked for several time extensions to consummate the purchase. In July, MCA Television, among KTVW's largest creditors, successfully petitioned for the appointment of a receiver to manage the station's affairs. Despite a brief improvement in financial position when the receiver separated KTVW from Blaidon, the CBN sale fell apart over its refusal to assume all of the television station's liabilities. The bankruptcy court approved a second offer from the Suburban Broadcasting Company, which owned WSNL in Patchogue, New York, but this deal collapsed, as Suburban also refused to assume the station's liabilities. On the afternoon of December 12, 1974, 5:10 p.m., KTVW was airing a rerun of Batman when Bruce Clements, a court-appointed trustee in charge of its affairs, ordered the station to go off the air at 5:30 upon that program completing its airing. By the end of January 1975, the bankruptcy court was entertaining two "very firm offers" for the station. In 1976, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Blaidon, alleging that they had sold stock to non-Washington residents without SEC approval and issued misleading financial reports to prospective investors in the company. ### KCPQ: The Clover Park years When the bankruptcy court revealed the identity of the winning bidder for channel 13's transmission site—the studio equipment having been sold at a sheriff's sale—the local television community was shocked to learn that the buyer would be the Clover Park School District. Clover Park had operated KPEC-TV, an educational station on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 56, since April 1960; it was one of the South Sound's two educational TV stations, alongside KTPS-TV (channel 62), owned by Tacoma Public Schools. By 1975, KPEC-TV's UHF equipment, which had been in service for more than a decade, was aging and needed replacement. It was more cost-effective to replace the channel 56 physical plant with KTVW, a high-power VHF station that could reach more western Washington homes and schools. A booster group for KTPS, the fledgling Trinity Broadcasting Network, and a commercial group headed by Stan Naccarato, manager of the Tacoma Twins, also bid. Clover Park won the station for a final cost of \$378,000 (equivalent to \$ in dollars), with KSTW (the former KTNT-TV) owner Gaylord Broadcasting providing \$250,000 of that total in what was viewed as a move to make KSTW the only independent in the market. Transmitter testing took place in November 1975, with channel 13 repeating the KPEC-TV signal; eventually, a new microwave link would be used to feed programming from channel 56's existing studios to the channel 13 transmitter near Ruston. The call letters were changed to KCPQ-TV and the license modified to noncommercial before channel 13 returned to the air on January 4, 1976; the microwave link was not ready, so KPEC-TV remained in service until it was. The new KCPQ also aired some programming produced by KTPS. Programming in the Clover Park era, which included PBS material, represented a continuation of KPEC-TV's former service and originated from its existing Lakewood studios. The transmitter upgrade also attracted a high-profile name: Jim Harriott, who had been the highest-paid anchor in local TV news at KING-TV and who took a pay cut to come to channel 13 and helm public affairs programming. Harriott soon left when KIRO-TV offered him a job. ### From Clover Park to Kelly KPEC-TV had turned a profit prior to the channel 13 move, a rarity among educational TV stations. However, two simultaneous events in 1978 prompted the district to reconsider its ownership of a television station. The Washington State Legislature—which KPEC-TV and later KCPQ covered for the state's public television stations—approved plans to fully fund basic education at the state level, which would change channel 13 into a financial drain on the school system. For instance, Clover Park would stop receiving federal funds that accrued to it for educating military dependents to the tune of \$3.5 million a year; this money would instead go to the state, making the \$600,000 in annual station maintenance costs (equivalent to \$ in dollars) a "luxury". Meanwhile, portions of Clover Park High School were condemned, but voters rejected four separate bond initiatives that would have funded the reconstruction of the high school and taken students out of portable classrooms. The school board stated that annual losses from operating KCPQ reached \$500,000. In late 1978, the Clover Park School District received a \$6 million offer from two investors from Tucson, Arizona: Gene Adelstein and Edward Berger, owners of that city's independent KZAZ-TV. Adelstein and Berger were looking to expand; already in the early stages of a bid to build a new station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the pair saw the Seattle–Tacoma market as having recovered from the market conditions that claimed KTVW four years prior and as being overserved by educational stations. They also felt that the Tacoma area alone represented a market of similar size to Tucson. Channel 13, however, attracted another buyer who topped the Adelstein–Berger bid. In January 1979, the school board accepted an offer from Kelly Broadcasting, owners of KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, to buy KCPQ from the Clover Park School District for \$6.25 million (equivalent to \$ in dollars). This purchase price was financed by Kelly Broadcasting's sale, earlier that year, of two radio stations in Sacramento. The sale was met with stiff protests and a petition to deny led by members of the station's advisory board, organized as "Save our Station 13". After the approval of a settlement between this group and Kelly that included a \$450,000 gift (equivalent to \$ in dollars) from the buyer for public television and the donation of the Ruston tower to KTPS, KCPQ ceased educational broadcasting on February 29, 1980, and the station went silent for a major technical overhaul. While KCPQ would continue to use Clover Park's studio space, the transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain, a peak located west of Bremerton, where the station erected a new tower; this enabled channel 13 to increase its signal footprint across western Washington. After more than eight months and several delays, KCPQ returned to the air—and to commercial operation as the Seattle market's second independent station—on November 4, 1980, when it adopted the Q13 moniker (it was also called "The New 13" early on); on opening night, it counterprogrammed election returns on the network affiliates with the movie The Deer Hunter. Channel 13 represented a challenge that brought Bob Kelly, who with his brother had owned KCRA, out of semiretirement; disenchanted with network television, he had turned his attention to other Kelly family ventures. Among the new KCPQ's launch programs were a nightly 8 p.m. movie, game shows, and a local children's show, Captain Sea-Tac. John Komen, a political reporter, was the only holdover from the public station's programming. KCPQ grew quickly in its first five years. What started as a station heavy on movies and branded as "The Northwest Movie Channel" expanded to include a strong offering of college sports (including Washington and Washington State football) and even tried its hand at a full local newscast. When KSTW opted not to join the new Fox network in 1986, the affiliation went to KCPQ that June ahead of its launch on October 9; of the first 79 stations to affiliate with Fox, it was among the 13 on the VHF dial. In February 1990, KCPQ signed a three-year deal with Buena Vista Television to carry The Disney Afternoon, spurning Fox's own children's lineup which launched that fall. This led to a threat from Fox to strip KCPQ of its affiliation if it did not commit to running Fox Kids in sequence beginning in 1992, as well as an antitrust lawsuit between Buena Vista and Fox, which Buena Vista alleged was coercing affiliates to air its children's programming in a restraint of trade. Fox ultimately relented on its pressure, but KCPQ dropped the Disney Afternoon block in the fall of 1993. ### Later Kelly ownership and sale to Tribune The second half of the 1990s was a time of major changes at channel 13. In 1995, Kelly Broadcasting bought a former candy factory on Westlake Avenue along Lake Union in Seattle which would be renovated and expanded to house KCPQ's operations. Even though Bob Kelly lived in Tacoma, the company made the decision to move out of the South Sound and into a space more than twice the size of the prior studio and closer to the bulk of market activity. On September 13, 1997, KCPQ moved its studios to the new, \$30 million Seattle facility, retaining only a small sales office in the city of license of Tacoma. This marked the end of television broadcasting from the Clover Park studios after more than 20 years on channel 13 and more than 35 since the founding of KPEC-TV. There were also changes in ownership. In 1997, Kelly Broadcasting experienced an internal changing of the guard, as Bob Kelly and his son Chris sold their stakes in Kelly to family members Jon and Greg Kelly and KCPQ general manager Roger Ottenbach. Not long after, the family company decided to exit an increasingly consolidated television business. In August 1998, Kelly Broadcasting announced the sale of its Sacramento television business to Hearst-Argyle Television; the next day, it sold KCPQ to the Meredith Corporation, which immediately traded it to the Tribune Company in exchange for Tribune's Atlanta station, WGNX. The swap made sense for both companies; WGNX was the only CBS affiliate owned by Tribune, whose portfolio otherwise consisted of Fox and The WB affiliates, while Meredith owned several CBS outlets in top-25 markets. Following the purchase of channel 13, Tribune merged KCPQ's operations with those of KTWB-TV (channel 22, now KZJO), which Tribune had acquired the year prior; the two stations became co-owned in 1999, after the FCC began to allow same-market duopolies. On August 1, 2001, KCPQ began digital broadcasting on channel 18. KCPQ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to VHF channel 13 for post-transition operations. ### Fox covets Seattle The size of the Seattle market and its status as an NFL football city led Fox to covet owning a station there. By 1997, it had already made two rejected offers to buy KCPQ. KCPQ first came in danger of losing its Fox affiliation in February 1997, when Fox Television Stations was reported to be in negotiations to acquire then-UPN affiliate KIRO-TV from Belo Corporation. Belo had just acquired the Providence Journal Company and KING-TV, requiring it to dispose of KIRO. Fox was reportedly dissatisfied with KCPQ, which was described by one observer as being "recalcitrant". The trade with Belo never materialized; KIRO was ultimately sold to Cox Broadcasting. In 2002, the Seattle Seahawks moved from the American Football Conference to the National Football Conference, to which Fox holds the rights for most games. In June 2014, Fox reached a deal with Cox to trade its stations in Boston and Memphis for Cox's Fox affiliate, KTVU, and associated independent KICU in San Francisco; Fox was also reportedly considering a deal to acquire KIRO, which would have displaced the Fox affiliation from KCPQ. In 2013, Fox had made a similar move in Charlotte, North Carolina (home market of the Carolina Panthers), exercising an option to buy WJZY and move its affiliation there. In September 2014, the New York Post reported that Fox was planning to acquire KCPQ from Tribune in exchange for its Chicago MyNetworkTV station WPWR-TV—which would have created a duopoly with WGN-TV in that city. On September 23, Tribune announced that it had been notified by Fox that its affiliation with KCPQ would be terminated as of January 17, 2015, but that discussions between the two companies were still ongoing. Days earlier, on September 19, Fox had struck a deal to buy KBCB, a station in Bellingham, for \$10 million; the purchase, submitted for FCC approval on October 3, was described as a "strategic option" for Fox by an insider. Naming KBCB as Fox's Seattle affiliate would have had immediate complications for Fox's distribution in the market, as the Bellingham station provides a marginal signal to Seattle proper. By the time the KBCB purchase was disclosed, talks between Tribune and Fox had deteriorated; a Wall Street Journal report on October 7 stated that Fox no longer planned to include WPWR in a potential swap for KCPQ. On October 17, 2014, Fox announced that Tribune had agreed to extend its affiliation agreement for KCPQ through July 2018 and that it had agreed to pay increased reverse compensation fees to Fox for the broadcasting of its programming beginning in January 2015. Shortly thereafter, Fox's purchase of KBCB was abandoned and was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014. ### Sinclair sale attempt; acquisition by Nexstar and Fox Tribune Media agreed to be sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group on May 8, 2017, for \$3.9 billion and the assumption of \$2.9 billion in debt held by Tribune. As Sinclair already owned KOMO-TV and KUNS-TV, KCPQ was one of 23 stations identified for divestment in order to meet regulatory compliance for the merger. Fox Television Stations agreed to purchase KCPQ as part of a \$910 million deal with Sinclair; Howard Stirk Holdings additionally agreed to purchase KUNS-TV. After lead FCC commissioner Ajit Pai publicly rejected the deal after details of Sinclair's proposed divestitures came to light, Tribune terminated their merger with Sinclair on August 9, 2018, nullifying both transactions. Tribune Media agreed to be acquired by Nexstar Media Group for \$6.9 billion in cash and debt on December 3, 2018. Following the merger's completion on September 19, 2019, Fox Television Stations purchased KCPQ and KZJO as part of a \$350 million deal, with Fox citing KCPQ's status as the broadcaster of most Seahawks home games as the impetus for the transaction. The sale was completed on March 2, 2020. After its acquisition by Fox, KCPQ dropped the Q13 moniker and rebranded to "Fox 13" on September 26, 2021, conforming with the branding of other Fox-owned stations. ## Local programming ### Newscasts The first local news service on channel 13 operated when the station was KMO-TV in 1953; the next time channel 13 tried its hand at a regular local newscast was in 1981, when the station aired regular news updates, expanding briefly by running a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast by the mid-1980s. This news operation could not compete with the more established 10 p.m. news on then-independent KSTW and was axed in June 1986 as part of economic cutbacks by the station. In 1991, KIRO-TV proposed to produce a 10 p.m. program for KCPQ, but channel 13 "wasn't ready" for the venture, and KTZZ aired it instead, lasting until 1993. By 1997—as the Fox network had added a national news service and more of its affiliated stations were adding newscasts, and after KCPQ had relocated to the larger Seattle studios—KCPQ began planning to start up a newscast of its own. As a potential stopgap, KCPQ considered airing a 10 p.m. newscast from KIRO-TV, which at that time was preparing to switch back from UPN to CBS and was shopping the 10 p.m. hour to other local stations. While KCPQ reached an initial agreement to air the KIRO newscast for three years, minutes from signing the contract, an impasse was reached over a "deep philosophical issue": the length of the contract, because KCPQ wanted a term of no more than 18 months before it would start up its own newscast. After no agreement could be reached with KIRO, Kelly decided to re-launch the station's news division (and newscast) independently and hired Todd Mokhtari, producer of KCRA-TV's morning and evening newscasts, to be the news director for a new 10 p.m. newscast. Q13 Reports began airing on January 18, 1998, initially running as a half-hour from Sunday to Thursday nights; the broadcast debuted without its lead anchor, Leslie Miller, a Canadian who was still awaiting a work permit and wound up not debuting until April. The station benefited from the decision of Paramount Stations Group to drop KSTW's competing newscast after 21 years on air in December 1998. By early 1999, the station was beginning to contemplate an expansion into morning news. In January 2000, the morning show debuted, with Christine Chen—a former KSTW anchor who worked at KCPQ on a freelance basis for nearly a year—selected as its first anchor. After adding a 9 p.m. newscast on KMYQ (now KZJO) in 2008, KCPQ expanded into early evening news in the 2010s with 4 and 5 p.m. programs added. A half-hour 11 p.m. newscast followed in 2014 when the revival of The Arsenio Hall Show was canceled. By 2021, KCPQ was producing 54 hours of locally produced newscasts weekly, with 11 hours each weekday. This was further expanded by the addition of a 6 p.m. news hour in January 2022. In April 2022, KCPQ relaunched its morning show as Good Day Seattle, adopting the Good Day title used by other Fox-owned stations. ### Non-news programming The station produces a local program on law enforcement and crime news, The Spotlight with David Rose, which airs every Friday at 11:00 p.m. The program began production in 2008 as Washington's Most Wanted, a local version of America's Most Wanted. KCPQ became the local broadcast partner of the Seattle Seahawks in 2012, airing preseason games and team features; KING-TV, which lost the partnership to KCPQ, regained it in 2022. Beginning in 2014, KCPQ and KZJO became the broadcast home for locally televised Seattle Sounders FC matches; while all the matches were carried on KZJO, KCPQ aired two specials on the team each year. In 2016, KCPQ and KZJO began broadcasting locally televised games of the Seattle Storm of the WNBA; initially starting with 15 home games on channel 22 in 2016, KZJO is slated to carry 29 games in the 2023 season plus six more on KCPQ. In 2023, KCPQ and KZJO entered into a content partnership with the Seattle Kraken hockey team which includes a weekly show on the team, titled What's Kraken?. ### Notable former on-air staff - Peter Alexander — reporter and anchor, later of NBC News - Christine Chen — anchor - Ron Corning — anchor - Stanley Kramer — movie host (1980s) - Don Poier — sports play-by-play (1980s; later voice of Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies of NBA) ## Technical information ### Subchannels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: KCPQ carries two subchannels belonging to KONG, one of Seattle's two ATSC 3.0 television stations. In exchange, KCPQ is carried in ATSC 3.0 on the KONG multiplex. KCPQ's main channel is also simulcast on KZJO's transmitter as channel 22.2, which together with the digital replacement translator at that site makes the signal more accessible to viewers using UHF-only antennas and to viewers who receive a stronger signal from its transmitter in the Capitol Hill area. ### Translators KCPQ is rebroadcast on four translators outside of the Seattle metropolitan area as well as a digital replacement translator co-sited with KZJO in Seattle: - Aberdeen: - Centralia, Chehalis: - Chelan: - Seattle: (RF 22) - Wenatchee:

2010 Turkish Grand Prix

The 2010 Turkish Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 May 2010 at the Istanbul Park, Tuzla, Turkey. It was the seventh round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship and the sixth Turkish Grand Prix. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton won the 58-lap race starting from second position. His teammate Jenson Button finished second, and Red Bull driver Mark Webber took third. Webber clinched the pole position and maintained his lead at the start of the race with Hamilton in second who fended off a challenge from Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull. The order was maintained until the first sequence of pit stops when Hamilton lost second place after his crew had trouble with fitting one of his tyres correctly. Webber conserved fuel on lap 40 which allowed Vettel to challenge him for the lead but the two collided. Vettel retired and the crash promoted Hamilton and Button to first and second. Hamilton and Button were instructed to conserve fuel for the remainder of the race but the latter had not been given a target lap time and attempted to overtake Hamilton on lap 48 although the former retained the lead which he held for the remaining ten laps to win his first race of the season. Hamilton's victory made him the fifth different driver in seven races to win a Grand Prix in 2010. The result extended Webber's advantage over second place in the Drivers' Championship, now occupied by Button, by five points. Hamilton's victory elevated him to third place, while Alonso fell from third to fourth. Vettel's retirement demoted him from second to fifth. McLaren's 1–2 finish reduced Red Bull's lead in the Constructors' Championship to one point. Ferrari fell from second to third after a poor result, with 12 races left of the season. ## Background The 2010 Turkish Grand Prix was the seventh scheduled round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship after taking a two-week break from the previous race of the season in Monaco. It was held on 30 May 2010 at the Istanbul Park circuit in Tuzla, near Istanbul, Turkey. The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Lotus, Hispania and Virgin. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought four different tyre types to the race: two dry compounds (soft "options" and hard "primes") and two wet-weather compounds (intermediate and full wet). Before the race Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were tied for the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 78 points each, with Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso in third with 75 points. Jenson Button was fourth on 70 points and Felipe Massa was fifth on 61 points. Red Bull led the Constructors' Champions with 156 points, Ferrari and McLaren were second and third with 136 and 129 points respectively, while Mercedes (78 points) and Renault (65) contended for fourth place. Webber dominated the previous two rounds in Spain and Monaco and clinched the pole position in both events. Despite the form, Webber said Red Bull were still wary of their rivals, saying that they had a good foundation and position but no person knew who would be challenging for the title late in the season, but did not feel it would between two people. Ferrari came into the event with a long series of success at the track, having won three of the last five races held at Istanbul Park. The team identified the event as their 800th Grand Prix and their cars carried a logo celebrating the achievement on their engine covers. Alonso was upbeat about their chances in the race, saying that compared to the Spanish Grand Prix, he felt their situation was a little better due to the fact Istanbul Park's characteristics are different and did not require the maximum amount of aerodynamic downforce, but a lower level which was suited to the F10. Alonso also believed it would be a "surprise" if the Red Bull team finished behind him. Hamilton claimed that McLaren would be competitive in Turkey and hoped that he would secure his first victory of the season. Several teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Red Bull introduced a revised version of its RB6 chassis for Vettel as his previous monocoque had a small defect which created handling difficulties in Monaco. The team tested a version of McLaren's F-duct system (which increases the top speed of a car) during the Friday practice sessions but removed it for qualifying and the race because both of McLaren's drivers found the device difficult to operate. Ferrari modified their F-duct system so that it would allow their drivers to operate the system by using their left leg. Mercedes arrived at the circuit by reverting to a previous specification of suspension and introduced a longer wheelbase on both their cars as well as a new version of their F-duct system. Williams decided to revert to an old specification of their front wing following accidents involving their drivers in Monaco, though the team brought new brake ducts. Lotus débuted a new rear wing specification which improved forward balance of their chassis. Virgin managed to procure a longer-wheelbase version of the VR-01 for Lucas di Grassi after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull prevented them from having two cars prepared in time for the previous race. ## Practice There were three practice sessions preceding Sunday's race—two 90-minute sessions on Friday, and one 60-minute session on Saturday. The Friday morning session was held on a dusty track scattered with debris and several drivers spun off the track. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the first session, at 1 minute and 28.653 seconds; his late lap was almost one second quicker than teammate Button. The two Mercedes drivers was third and fourth quickest; Michael Schumacher ahead of Nico Rosberg. Vettel and Webber set the fifth and eighth fastest times respectively for Red Bull; they were separated by the Renault duo of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov. Alonso and Adrian Sutil rounded out the top ten. The session was disrupted with two minutes to go when Sutil ran wide at turn eight, which caused him to spin backwards and crash into a barrier, breaking his front wing and both front tyres. The session was ended early due to limited time running. In the second practice session that afternoon, Button set the quickest lap of the day, a 1:28.280, which was nearly one tenth of a second quicker than Webber. Vettel was third fastest followed by Hamilton and Alonso in fourth and fifth. Both Mercedes cars were slower in the session with Rosberg sixth and Schumacher seventh. Kubica, Petrov and Massa followed in the top ten. Webber stopped outside the exit of turn two with an engine failure and engaged in an argument with marshals on preventing the car from moving backwards. In the final practice session, Vettel was fastest with a time of 1:27.086. This made him three tenths of a second faster than Rosberg in second place. Hamilton set the third quickest lap despite spinning sideways into the turn eight gravel trap. He was ahead of Webber who was afflicted with a throttle problem. Kubica, Alonso, Schumacher, Button, Massa and Petrov completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. ## Qualifying The qualifying session held on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars that finished the session 18th or lower. The second session lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions eleven to 17. The final session ran for ten minutes and determined pole position to tenth. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to change tyres before the race, and as such started the race on the tyres that they set their quickest lap on. The session was held in dry weather conditions. Webber set the fastest time in the final session, and took his third successive pole position with a lap of 1:26.295. He was joined on the grid's front row by Hamilton, who recorded a lap time 0.148 seconds slower. Vettel set the fastest times in the first two sessions, though mistakes on his first two runs due to a roll-bar failure in the final session prevented him from recording a faster lap. He dropped to third overall in the final session. A car setup error caused Button to run too low to the ground through turn eight and was restricted to fourth. Schumacher qualified in fifth and was happy with his starting position despite spinning at turn eight on his final qualifying lap. Rosberg qualified sixth and despite wanting to start higher up the field, he was confident about his race chances. Kubica had problems when running the soft compound tyre, managing seventh, but was happy with his lap in the final session. He was ahead of Massa in the faster of the two Ferrari cars. Petrov secured ninth in the slower Renault car. Kobayashi rounded out the top ten fastest qualifiers. Sutil was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session in eleventh; his best time of 1:27.525 was eight tenths of a second slower than Vettel's pace in the second session. Alonso recorded the twelfth fastest time and could not secure a position in the final session as his car touched a white line under braking on the circuit, causing his car to slide. Nevertheless, Alonso thought that the error did not cost him time. He was followed by Pedro de la Rosa in the other Sauber car in 13th, who in turn, was ahead of Sébastien Buemi for Toro Rosso and Williams driver Rubens Barrichello. This formation continued on the eighth row of the grid, which was occupied by Jaime Alguersuari in the second Toro Rosso and Nico Hülkenberg in the other Williams. Vitantonio Liuzzi failed to progress beyond the first session; the Force India driver qualified in 18th. The Lotus cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli lined up in 19th and 20th respectively. Timo Glock and Bruno Senna lined up on the eleventh row of the grid, with their teammates Lucas di Grassi and Karun Chandhok qualifying at the rear of the field. ### Qualifying classification The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold. - — Lucas di Grassi started from the pit lane after an issue with his engine's oil system was discovered. ## Race The race commenced at 15:00 Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3). The conditions on the grid were warm and sunny before the race; there was an air temperature between 28 and 29 °C (82 and 84 °F) with a track temperature ranging between 39 and 49 °C (102 and 120 °F). Di Grassi changed his engine and began from the pit lane because his team rectified an issue with his engine oil system which was discovered one hour beforehand. As the five red lights went out to signal the start of the race, Webber maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner. Hamilton had wheelspin when he moved out of his starting position and abandoned the use of his second clutch. Vettel made a brisk start to pass Hamilton for second around the inside of turn one but Hamilton reclaimed the position by passing Vettel around the outside at the third corner. Schumacher also made a fast getaway and overtook Button for fourth place but the latter retook the position at turn twelve after slipstreaming in Schumacher's tow on the back straight. De la Rosa ran wide at turn two allowing Buemi to pass him heading into the third turn. However, Buemi went wide allowing Hülkenberg to take advantage of Buemi's error. Buemi attempted to re-pass Hülkenberg around the inside at turn seven but Hülkenberg made contact with Buemi, puncturing the right rear tyre of Buemi's car which forced both drivers to make early pit stops. At the end of the first lap, Webber led Hamilton by 0.4 seconds, who in turn was followed by Vettel, Button, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, Massa, Petrov, Sutil, Kobayashi, Alonso, de la Rosa, Alguersuari, Hülkenberg, Liuzzi, Trulli, Kovalainen, Senna, Barrichello, Glock, Chandhok, di Grassi and Buemi. The first four drivers opened a gap from the rest of the field, as Webber set the fastest lap of the race so far on lap two with a time of 1:33.685. Hamilton attempted an overtake manoeuvre on Webber heading into turn twelve on lap three but was unable to get close to affect a pass. Alonso passed de la Rosa for twelfth place on the same lap and began to battle Kobayashi for eleventh. Hamilton attempted to pass Webber for a second time at turn twelve on lap four but could not get close enough. This was because Hamilton's car was more effective than Webber's; it allowed Webber to pull away through turn eight but Hamilton could close the gap between himself and Webber in the back straight by employing his car's F-duct. Hülkenberg passed di Grassi and Chandhok in turn eight to move up into 21st place by lap six, while Webber, Hamilton and Vettel traded the fastest lap with Hamilton quickest on the same lap. McLaren became aware of a higher than expected fuel consumption by the tenth lap and they ordered both their drivers to change engine modes for fuel conservation. Kobayashi made a pit stop on lap eleven which released Alonso into clean air; Alonso made his pit stop on the following lap for hard tyres and rejoined ahead of Kobayashi. The next few laps saw a large amount of activity in the pit lane. Vettel made his pit stop from third position on lap 15, and rejoined in front of Rosberg, while Button pushed hard in an attempt to move ahead of Vettel. Hamilton and Webber both made their pit stops on the following lap; Webber emerged in front as Hamilton's pit crew were slow to fit Hamilton's left-rear tyre. Hamilton fell to third place behind Vettel. Button thus inherited the lead but reported to his team via radio that he was losing rear grip in his tyres after pushing hard. He made a pit stop on lap 18 and re-emerged in fourth. Hamilton attempted to pass Vettel around the outside heading into turn 12 on lap 18 but was unable to complete the manoveure after running deep into the corner. By the end of the 19th lap, all of the leading drivers had taken their pit stops. The running order was Webber leading with Vettel, Hamilton and Button in close attendance, then a 15-second gap back to Schumacher, Rosberg and Kubica. Massa in eighth was being caught by Petrov in ninth, and the two were followed by Alonso, Kobayashi, Sutil, de la Rosa, Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Hülkenberg, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Trulli, Glock, Senna, Buemi, di Grassi and Chandhok. The top nine drivers remained in the same positions in which they had qualified, and as the race continued, there was a threat of rain forecast by meteorological service Météo-France which intensified by hot weather and heavy clouds brewing to the west of the circuit. Trulli pulled off to the side of the track with an hydraulic failure, becoming the first retirement on lap 35. Trulli's teammate Kovalainen retired the lap after with a power steering failure in turn eight which was followed by him not being able to operate his gearbox, clutch and throttle and his car was pushed into the Lotus garage. On lap 39, Webber asked Red Bull to advise Vettel to reduce his speed but his request was rejected due to the quick pace and the close distance between themselves and the McLaren cars. Webber entered fuel-saving mode on lap 40 which lost him performance while Vettel had saved one kilogram of fuel and opted to run on a faster engine setting. Vettel got a run exiting turn eleven and turned left to the inside lane and drew alongside Webber on the back straight. As the pair approached turn twelve, they made contact at high-speed which sent Vettel spinning through 360 degrees twice. Both drivers ended on a run-off area and Vettel almost hit Webber again as Hamilton and Button overtook them. Vettel retired with a punctured right-rear tyre and Webber sustained damage to his front wing endplate. The expected rain only manifested as a very light drizzle on lap 41, as Webber made a pit stop for a replacement front wing two laps later. Hamilton was informed by McLaren to conserve fuel on lap 44 as the drivers drove cautiously through turn one because of the light rain. Senna drove to the pit lane to retire with a fuel pressure issue. Button was instructed to conserve fuel although he was not given a target lap time because the team's chief engineer Phil Prew felt Button would not pass his teammate. Hamilton had been told by his race engineer Andy Latham that Button would not overtake him. McLaren asked both drivers to drive cautiously through turn eight where there was a high risk for problems with their front-right tyres. Button drew alongside teammate Hamilton on lap 48 heading into turn twelve and passed Hamilton (who drove on the inside line) around the outside of the corner. Hamilton reclaimed the lead on the following lap after getting a run on the pit straight and narrowly avoided a collision with Button at turn one. Hamilton began to pull away from teammate Button. Sutil passed Kobayashi around the outside for tenth on lap 52 while Button was ordered to conserve his tyres and fuel on the same lap. Chandhok became the final retirement of the race when he entered the pit lane with a fuel pump failure on lap 53. Alonso attempted to overtake Petrov around the outside of turn one on lap 54 but was unable to get ahead. Alonso tried again going into turn three and Petrov (who had worn tyres) made an error allowing Alonso to move into eighth. Both drivers made contact and Petrov sustained a punctured tyre. Petrov made a pit stop for soft tyres on lap 56 and emerged in 15th. Hamilton maintained his lead throughout the remainder of the race and took the checkered flag on lap 58 to secure his first win of the season, 2.6 seconds in front of teammate Button. Webber was third, ahead of Schumacher who equalled his best result of the season, having finished fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix as well. Rosberg held off Kubica to take fifth, followed by Massa, Alonso, Sutil and Kobayashi. De la Rosa was close behind teammate Kobayashi in eleventh. Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Barrichello, Petrov, Buemi, Hülkenberg, Glock, di Grassi and Chandhok (despite his mechanical issues) were the final classified finishers. Hamilton's victory made him the fifth different driver in seven races to win a Grand Prix in 2010. ## Post-race The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Hamilton said the race was "quite exciting" and dedicated the victory to his father Anthony. He stated that he was unfortunate up until the race but was happy that he could help McLaren achieve their second 1–2 finish of the season. Button said his second-place result was pleasing despite him starting from fourth position, and stated the pace of his McLaren was good. He felt the event was "fun", and praised his team for improving his car which allowed them to challenge Red Bull. Webber revealed that he had been confident that he would be able to take victory having fended off both McLaren cars for the previous 40 laps. He also stated the first stint of the race was "very interesting" and had expected it to be an "interesting race" but revealed he was not as comfortable on the hard-compound tyre. Much of the post-race debate centred on the Red Bulls' clash at the front of the field on lap 40. Both Webber and Vettel blamed each other for the crash. Team principal Christian Horner implied Webber remained partially responsible for failing to give Vettel enough room on the run to the corner, and he was noticeably frustrated and angry at both of his drivers for wasting a potential 1–2 finish. Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko insisted the team did not favour Vettel through their strategy and also offered the perspective that Vettel had to attack for fear of backing off into the clutches of Hamilton behind. McLaren chief engineer Tim Goss said the crash had prevented Red Bull from securing a 1–2 finish, but understood why Webber switched to a different engine mode as he noted that one of Vettel's engines had failed earlier in the season. He felt that the battle between both McLaren and Red Bull drivers for both championships would continue unabated. Red Bull held a meeting at their factory in Milton Keynes four days after the race, and all people in attendance believed the situation had been dealt with. The incident between Webber and Vettel is widely seen by the media as a key moment in the rivalry between the two drivers. Mercedes maintained they had achieved what the car was capable of with fourth and fifth-place finishes for Schumacher and Rosberg respectively. Massa said it was a "very boring" and "difficult" race from his point of view because he was behind Kubica for the duration of the race whom he could not overtake. Alonso was disappointed with the team's performance in what Ferrari identified as their 800th start, yet he looked forward to upgrades in the following races. James Key, the technical director of BMW Sauber, stated he was happy with the double finish and the one point the team picked up, courtesy of Kobayashi. Despite setting the race's fastest lap, Petrov was disappointed to not finish in a points-scoring position. He said there were many positives he could take from the event and hoped to achieve a stronger result in the Canadian round. The result extended Webber's lead in the Drivers' Championship to five points over Button who moved into second place. Hamilton's victory promoted him to third, while Alonso's eighth-place finish demoted him third to fourth. Vettel's fell from second to fifth. McLaren's 1–2 result allowed them to assume the lead of the Constructors' Championship with a one-point advantage over Red Bull. Ferrari's poor finish dropped them from second to third, while Mercedes remained in fourth position with 100 points. Renault retained fifth on 73 points, with 12 races left in the season. After their strong finish, Hamilton hoped McLaren's result would give them further momentum to challenge Red Bull for the championship. ### Race classification Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold. ## Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Constructors' Championship standings - Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ## See also - 2010 Istanbul Park GP2 Series round - 2010 Istanbul Park GP3 Series round ## Explanatory notes

Craig Taborn

American keyboardist and composer (born 1970)

Craig Marvin Taborn (/ˈteɪˌbɔːrn/; born February 20, 1970) is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music. While at university, Taborn toured and recorded with jazz saxophonist James Carter. Taborn went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. He has a range of styles, and often adapts his playing to the nature of the instrument and the sounds that he can make it produce. His improvising, particularly for solo piano, often adopts a modular approach, in which he begins with small units of melody and rhythm and then develops them into larger forms and structures. In 2011, Down Beat magazine chose Taborn as winner of the electric keyboard category, as well as rising star in both the piano and organ categories. By the end of 2020, Taborn had appeared on 14 albums as a leader or co-leader and more than 100 as a sideman. ## Early life Taborn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to John, a psychologist, and Marjorie, a social worker. His father was a department chair at the University of Minnesota and his mother worked for Minneapolis public schools. Taborn's older brother, John Gregory, became a psychologist. They grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota, where Craig Taborn attended Breck School. His parents gave him a Moog synthesizer as a present when he was 12, which was also around the time when he started playing piano. He received basic instruction initially from his father, who played by ear. Taborn borrowed records from a public library and listened to public radio, discovering music from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and Sun Ra, among others. As a youth he also listened to heavy metal and contemporary classical music, and identified commonalities among these disparate forms of music. At high school, Taborn studied music theory and composition for two years with teachers who had doctorates in music. In his own words, he is "not a classically trained pianist at all"; he practiced with others, initially playing rock, progressive rock, and jazz fusion, before becoming more interested in jazz. He borrowed from the library Segments II (Orchestra Of Two Continents) by pianist Cecil Taylor's band while at high school, but found separating the various elements of the music too difficult. After attending a Last Exit concert (a loud free jazz band of Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Sonny Sharrock), he went home and listened to the Taylor album again: "It was more manageable in terms of being able to hear detail and listen to content. That was a big moment in terms of being able to relax and process information in more abstract environments." ## Later life and career ### 1988–1999 Taborn studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1988. He auditioned for the jazz program in the university's School of Music, but joined the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Taborn met drummer Gerald Cleaver soon after arriving at university, and they established an electronic group, the Tracey Science Quartet. Taborn also played with Marcus Belgrave and Wendell Harrison. While still a university student, he became known for his membership of saxophonist James Carter's band, where he contributed to a series of albums, beginning with JC on the Set, which was recorded in 1993. Taborn's first recording as leader came in 1994, and was released by DIW. Craig Taborn Trio, with bassist Jaribu Shahid and drummer Tani Tabbal, featured Taborn playing in a range of styles on piano and included several of his own compositions. At this stage in his career, his comments on his tastes in composition and performance were: "Even though I like avant garde jazz and classical music, I like to swing. I like to work with harmony and melody in my own music, and I like acoustical instruments. But I can be quite dictatorial about the composed section, and lay down in great detail what everyone is supposed to do and how they should do it." Frequent performances and tours with Carter and others meant that Taborn's studies were delayed: he graduated from university with a BA in general studies (rather than the intended English literature) in April 1995, after which he moved to New York. He continued playing with Carter into 1998. In the late 1990s, Taborn also recorded with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell (Taborn's first appearance on the ECM label), and for techno producer Carl Craig's album Programmed as part of Innerzone Orchestra. ### 2000–2009 In 2001, Taborn made his second recording as leader: Light Made Lighter, for Thirsty Ear, with Chris Lightcap on bass and Cleaver on drums. "On the strength of this recording", wrote the Los Angeles Times reviewer, "Taborn emerges as one of the most exciting pianists to lead a band since the ascent of Matthew Shipp". Another reviewer commented that "Taborn seems to revel in the cracks the way [Thelonious] Monk did, hitting the awkward-sounding notes between the notes to punctuate his lines". In the 2000s, "Taborn became one of the most in-demand musicians in New York", in the words of one biographer. He played and recorded with a large, diverse range of musicians, in both free jazz and more mainstream bands, and playing various keyboard and electronic instruments. One critic observed that a lot of his collaborations in the early and mid-2000s did not feature a bassist, and suggested that Taborn's "dexterity and inventiveness [...] stand in for both a keyboard and a bass player." In 2001, he had his first solo concert in New York, and made his first recordings under the leadership of saxophonist Tim Berne, and with a trio led by percussionist Susie Ibarra. On these, he employed electronics as well as piano. Taborn went on to record, during the period 2002–04, as a sideman under the leadership of Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Marty Ehrlich, Drew Gress, Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and others. In 2003, Taborn toured Europe with Ibarra's band, and played with saxophonist Lotte Anker for the first time. Taborn's third release as a leader was Junk Magic in 2004, again for Thirsty Ear, with tenor saxophonist Aaron Stewart, violist Mat Maneri and drummer Dave King. The album's title was also the name of the band, which was formed to be Taborn's electronic group, allowing him to explore the interactions of composition, improvisation and electronics. Texture and pulse were important contributors to the overall sound. Taborn played with Chris Potter from around 2005, and toured Europe with the saxophonist's Underground band early in 2007. The pianist played the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2007. In late 2007 and early 2008, Taborn toured internationally with Underground, guitarist David Torn's Prezens, as well as being part of shorter tours and making occasional appearances with Cleaver, Gress, Ibarra, Mitchell, and William Parker. In April 2008 he toured Europe with Berne's Science Friction, was back in Europe for the first three weeks of the following month, this time as part of David Binney's quartet, and returned there in November with Potter. Taborn remarked in 2008 that he was attempting to phase out his use of a laptop in performance, to allow him to concentrate more on improvising, and that he had delayed further performances as a leader, owing to finances. In the same year, he commented on the number of regular, working bands he was a member of: "You could say 15 to 20. But if you're talking about the ones that are regularly working right now, I'd have to say seven or eight." After joining Michael Formanek's quartet in 2008, Taborn recorded under the double bassist's leadership for the first time the following year. Also in 2009, Taborn played with trumpeter Tomasz Stańko in New York, and returned to Europe for concerts with Torn, violinist Dominique Pifarély, and with his own trio. ### 2010–present In the early 2010s, Taborn continued playing and recording with others, but also had more solo concerts than earlier in his career. He had a solo tour of Europe in 2010, which may have led to an agreement with ECM to record his first solo piano album, Avenging Angel, which was released in 2011. In critic Nate Chinen's view, this album concentrated on "pure sound", being "full of moments where a note hangs sharply in the air, and you hear the gathering overtones, the vibrations of the strings". The album helped Taborn get more attention as a leader. In 2010, Taborn also toured Europe with Anker's trio, Potter's Underground, and played piano duets with Vijay Iyer. In the following year, Taborn again performed with Stańko, as part of drummer Paul Motian's quartet, and had another solo tour of Europe. Taborn toured internationally with his own trio, Anker's trio, and with Dave Holland's quartet Prism in 2012, and remained part of Holland's band into 2014. A further ECM album, Chants, led by Taborn and with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver, was released in 2013. This was the trio's first release after eight years together. At this point, Taborn's comments on composition and group performance were: "I knew that if I created a context and then deferred, fully, to Gerald's and Thomas's sensibilities it would inherently be stimulating and would also challenge the context. [...] I'd much rather engage with the group, always, than have the format be 'piano adventures with supporting cast'." This band began a tour of Europe in 2014, but Cleaver was replaced by J.T. Bates part of the way through it, owing to illness. Earlier the same year, Taborn played in a small group led by guitarist Bill Frisell. Taborn played as part of the Ches Smith Trio late in 2014 and toured with the percussionist and Mat Maneri early in 2016. His sixth album as leader, Flaga: Book of Angels Volume 27, was released in 2016. The trio recording, with Christian McBride on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, employed compositions by John Zorn. Taborn's next ECM album was the quartet Daylight Ghosts, which combined electronic and acoustic elements. This was followed by a string of duo albums: Octopus with Kris Davis from 2016; Highsmith with Ikue Mori in 2017; and The Transitory Poems with Iyer from 2018. 16 years after their first album, Junk Magic had a second released in 2020 – Compass Confusion, with the Taborn-led band expanded to a quintet. Taborn's second solo piano album, Shadow Plays, was recorded in concert in 2020. The following year, Taborn made available for free streaming 60 X Sixty – 60 tracks of around a minute in length, played in a random order at 60xsixty.com. ## Character and preferences According to Jazz Police, Taborn is "basically shy" and prefers to "let his music do the talking", which is why he "doesn't have, or want, his own website". He also has a minimal social media presence and controls all of his US bookings personally. Some of his friends told The New York Times author of a 2017 profile piece on Taborn "how relieved they were that someone, at last, was profiling him, as if he were being forced out of hiding". Taborn has explained the limited quantity of albums under his own name as being driven by the "age of almost profligate documentation", which he counters with "almost a discipline to be more selective about releases." He does, however, frequently record his own playing, so that he can study it. ## Artistry Taborn's range of playing styles was summarized by Mike Hobart in The Financial Times: Taborn "draws obliquely on the jazz tradition [...] he is as at home in free improvisation as he is in composition". In an interview for Down Beat in 2011, Taborn described his improvising style, particularly for solo piano. When playing, he often adopts a modular approach, using small units of melody and rhythm and then developing them. This can begin from as little as three notes, with structure being built around referring back to elements of the units. He starts simply, using basic elements such as major and minor thirds, varies them in turn, and then continues to expand to create larger structures. He uses a combination of his attack and the piano's sustain pedal to draw attention to the upper partials of a note; this allows a heightened contrast between notes to be perceived. Taborn has commented on the similarities and differences in his playing on piano and electronic instruments. Comparing his accompaniments on piano and Fender Rhodes, he said that: > I play some of the same chords on the piano, but there are definitely things I would do on the piano because it's a more transparent instrument that I wouldn't do on the Rhodes. [...] The Rhodes is so strong that when you play something on it, it really can dictate, because it's louder and the timbre is much more opaque. So you leave more holes. On the piano, I would maybe play more sustain chords. Taborn prefers earlier models of Fender Rhodes, for their raunchier sound. He also attempts to retain control over the sound that is presented to an audience when playing electronic instruments: he links his instruments to his own amplifier, and then has the venue take its feed from that amplifier. Guitarist David Torn commented that Taborn is "the rare musician who takes the approach, 'What can I do with this instrument?' rather than playing through its book of techniques. [...He] is able to eschew the technological aspect in order to get out the sounds that he feels are suitable for the music." ## Compositions Taborn incorporates requirements to improvise within his compositions. Commenting on his writing for trio and quartet, Taborn stated that "I like multiple kinds of rhythmic things. On their own, they're not so complicated, but when you fit them together, it sounds a little mysterious. A lot of that writing extends from my trio writing, where I'm writing things that are playable in real time. There's a certain orchestration you can get out of a four-piece. How far can we suggest a larger ensemble? [I want] to create the illusion of a larger ensemble". His compositions typically do not include chord changes, but contain superimposed, contrapuntal melodies. ## Awards In 2009 and 2010, Down Beat critics selected Taborn as the electric keyboard rising star winner. In 2011, he was chosen as winner of the electric keyboard category, as well as rising star in both the piano and organ categories. In 2012, he was given the North Sea Jazz Festival's Paul Acket Award, which is presented "to an artist deserving wider recognition for extraordinary musicianship". JazzTimes ranked Taborn in their 2013 critics' poll as best piano player. In 2014, the Jazz Journalists Association awarded him the Pianist of the Year award. In 2014, Taborn was given a Doris Duke Artist Award, worth up to \$275,000 and given to "exemplary individual artists in contemporary dance, jazz, theatre and related interdisciplinary work who have proven their artistic vitality and commitment to their field." ## Discography ### As leader/co-leader

Wacht-class aviso

Aviso class of the German Imperial Navy

The Wacht class was a pair of avisos built by the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late-1880s; the class comprised two ships, Wacht and Jagd. They were laid down in 1886 and 1887 and completed by 1888 and 1889, respectively. The ships were based on the previous aviso, SMS Greif, which had proved to be an unsuccessful design due to its lack of torpedo armament. As a result, the Wacht-class ships were equipped with three torpedo tubes to improve their combat power; they were also the first German avisos to carry armor protection. Both ships served in the main German fleet for the entirety of their active duty careers. They were primarily employed in the peacetime routine of unit and fleet training maneuvers. In September 1901, Wacht was accidentally rammed by the ironclad SMS Sachsen during the annual fleet maneuvers. The collision caused serious damage to Wacht and she quickly sank. Jagd continued in service for another three years, after which she was withdrawn from service and used in various roles over the following sixteen years. She was sold for scrapping in 1920. ## Design The German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) had begun building modern, steel-hulled avisos in the 1880s to serve as fleet scouts and to lead flotillas of torpedo boats; the first of these were the two Blitz-class ships. After General Leo von Caprivi replaced Albrecht von Stosch as the chief of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty) in 1883, the navy began to take a turn toward the Jeune École doctrine, embracing the concept of using small, cheap torpedo boats to defend the country's coast instead of expensive ironclad warships. This strategy found favor in the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), which at that time opposed naval spending. Caprivi directed that the next aviso to be built—what became the Wacht class—should be smaller and faster, able to keep pace with the latest torpedo boats. The resulting ships proved to be disappointments in service: their smaller size rendered them poor sea boats, which was revealed only after they had been completed and conducted sea trials. Additionally, their gun battery was too weak to allow them to effectively engage comparable vessels in other fleets. Both of these defects limited their utility as fleet scouts. The class did introduce some improvements over previous designs, however, including an armor deck and protection for the conning tower, along with electric lighting for the ships. ### General characteristics The Wacht-class ships were 84 meters (276 ft) long at the waterline and 85.5 m (281 ft) long overall. They had a beam of 9.66 m (31.7 ft) and a maximum draft of 3.74 m (12.3 ft) forward and 4.67 m (15.3 ft) aft. They displaced 1,246 metric tons (1,226 long tons; 1,373 short tons) as designed and up to 1,499 t (1,475 long tons; 1,652 short tons) at full combat load. Their hulls were constructed from transverse steel frames. Wacht and Jagd each had a crew of 7 officers and 134 enlisted men. The ships carried several smaller boats, including one picket boat, one yawl, one dinghy, and one cutter. They were poor sea boats; they rolled and pitched badly and were very wet. They were also not particularly maneuverable vessels. ### Machinery Their propulsion system consisted of two angled 3-cylinder triple expansion engines that each drove a 3.3 m (11 ft) wide three-bladed screw. Steam for the engines was provided by four coal-fired locomotive boilers trunked into a single funnel amidships. In 1891–1893, new boilers manufactured by Schichau-Werke and the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven were installed. The ships were equipped with a pair of electric generators with a combined output of 20 kilowatts (27 hp) at 67 volts. The ships' propulsion system provided a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) and was rated at 4,000 metric horsepower (3,900 ihp), though neither ship reached that horsepower in service. They carried up to 230 t (230 long tons; 250 short tons) of coal, which enabled them to steam for approximately 2,860 nautical miles (5,300 km; 3,290 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Steering was controlled by a single rudder. ### Armament and armor As built, the ships were armed with three 10.5 cm (4.1 in) K L/35 guns placed in single pivot mounts. The guns were supplied with a total of 180 rounds of ammunition and had a range of 7,000 m (23,000 ft). Wacht and Jagd also carried three 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes, one mounted submerged in the bow and the other two in deck-mounted launchers on the broadside. In 1891, four 8.8 cm SK L/30 quick-firing guns in single mounts replaced the 10.5 cm guns. The ships were the first German aviso to carry armor: a 10 mm (0.39 in) thick deck with 20 mm (0.79 in) thick sloped sides protected the magazines and engine rooms. The conning tower was protected with 25 mm (0.98 in) of armor plating on the sides and 10 mm on the roof. The coaming around the funnel was 75 mm (3.0 in) thick. The armor consisted of compound wrought iron. For protection against underwater attack, the hull was divided into twelve watertight compartments below the armored deck and ten compartments above it. ## Ships ## Service history Wacht and Jagd served in a variety of roles during their careers. Wacht initially served with the main fleet, and in 1889 she embarked on a major training cruise to the Mediterranean Sea in company with four ironclad warships and the imperial yacht, Hohenzollern, for a series of visits by Kaiser Wilhelm II to Greece, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy. By the time the ships returned to Germany, Jagd had entered service as a guard ship in Wilhelmshaven, though she escorted Wilhelm II aboard Hohenzollern for another pair of cruises in the North Sea in 1890 and 1891. Both ships also took part in the peacetime routine of training exercises that culminated in major fleet maneuvers every August and September. By 1893, Wacht had begun to serve as a flotilla leader for torpedo boats. Jagd was the first vessel to pass through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in March 1895 before the waterway officially opened in June; her passage was a test of the lock system to ensure that it worked properly. In the mid-1890s, the ships began to operate as avisos with the capital ships of the main fleet; in this role, they served as scouts, relayed signals, and screened them from torpedo boat attacks. In early 1901, Jagd went to Britain as part of the fleet that represented Germany at the funeral of Queen Victoria, but by 11 August, a survey of the ship had determined that she was in poor condition, and so she was removed from service. On 4 September, Wacht accidentally collided with the ironclad Sachsen during training exercises. Sachsen's ram bow badly damaged Wacht below the waterline, causing her to rapidly sink, though her entire crew was safely evacuated. Jagd saw little use; she was struck from the naval register in May 1910 and then used as a torpedo launching platform for torpedo training. She was ultimately sold to ship breakers in 1920.

M-168 (Michigan highway)

Former state highway in Elberta, Benzie County, Michigan, United States

M-168 was one of the shortest state trunkline highways in the US state of Michigan, extending just under a mile (1.6 km) from a junction with M-22 in downtown Elberta to the former Ann Arbor Railroad ferry docks. It followed the south shore of Lake Betsie (formed by the Betsie River before flowing into Lake Michigan). The highway was commissioned in 1931 and served as a connection to the car ferries until 1984. The road was reconstructed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in preparation to transfer it to village control. That transfer happened on April 24, 2012, and now the former highway is a village street. ## Route description M-168 began at a junction with M-22 just west of where M-22 crosses over Lake Betsie. Known as Frankfort Avenue, M-168 then traveled to the northwest near the shore of the lake through a mixed residential and commercial area before turning slightly westward onto Furnace Avenue. Along Furnace Avenue, the roadway is lined with homes on one side and lake frontage on the other. Eventually, the road curves to the west where it intersects Betsie Valley Trail coming to its terminus shortly thereafter at the former Ann Arbor Railroad ferry docks. ## History M-168 had existed in its current location since 1931. It was originally assumed into the state trunkline system at 0.8 miles (1.3 km) in length. Aside from a minor realignment of the junction with M-22 in 1987, the route had remained in this configuration since 1931. From its creation until 1984, the road was the main entrance for cars bound for boarding the car ferry. An MDOT document indicated that in 2010, a \$2.1 million project would reconstruct M-168. Upon completion of the project, the route would be jurisdictionally transferred to the Village of Elberta, thereby removing M-168 from the state trunkline system. This transfer was finalized on April 24, 2012, and afterwards, the former M-168 was reclassified a village street. ## Major intersections ## See also

Anthony Field

Australian musician and actor

Anthony Donald Joseph Field AM (born 8 May 1963) is an Australian musician, actor, songwriter and producer. He is best known as a leader of the children's group the Wiggles and a member of the 1980s and 1990s pop band the Cockroaches. While still a teenager, he helped found the Cockroaches with his brothers, Paul and John. The Cockroaches recorded two albums and enjoyed moderate success, interrupted by Field's service in Australia's regular army, until they disbanded in the late 1980s. Field attended Macquarie University to receive training in early childhood education, and founded the Wiggles with fellow students Murray Cook, Greg Page and former bandmate Jeff Fatt in 1991. He worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles led him to focus on children's music full-time. The Wiggles became one of the most successful and active groups in Australia. Field, who wears a blue shirt while performing with the Wiggles, was responsible for the production aspects of their stage and television shows, albums, and DVDs. His issues with chronic pain and depression, which almost forced him out of the group at the height of their success, are well-documented. After the departure of Cook, Fatt, and Page in 2012, he is the only remaining original Wiggle. ## Early life and education Field was born in Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia. He is the youngest of seven children, and grew up in north western Sydney. He came from a long line of musicians, especially the women in his family. His great-great aunt was Queenie Paul, known for performing at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney, and his grandmother Kathleen accompanied silent movies in the mining town of Cobar. Field's mother, Marie, made sure that all of her seven children learned how to play at least one musical instrument. He attended the all-boys boarding school St Joseph's College, which his great-grandfather Paddy Condon, an Italian immigrant and master stonemason, helped build. He was inspired by his sister Colleen to study early childhood education, and became convinced that teaching preschool children "was my calling". He was also attracted to the profession's freedom, artistic nature, and lack of discipline, which was different from his experience in boarding school. Field put off university when the Cockroaches became successful, but he was dissatisfied with touring and plagued by "perhaps irrational, but very real, feelings of inadequacy and depression". By his mid-twenties, he decided that he did not want to tour any longer, so he took two breaks. His first break was as an infantry soldier, rifleman, stretcher bearer, and ambulance driver in the 5th/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Australia's regular army from 1982 to 1985. He played the bagpipes in parades and on training missions, but ended his military service in July 1985 and suffered from a bad back as a result of his training. He also went backpacking in the U.K., listening to roots music, to children's music by artists like Raffi, and to recordings of children's books. ## The Cockroaches In 1979, while they were students at St Joseph's, he and his brothers Paul and John formed the pop group the Cockroaches. In 1986 they signed with an independent label, Regular Records, which issued their first three albums, including The Cockroaches (March 1987), which peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart; it sold 70,000 copies and was certified platinum by their label. The album spawned the single "She's the One", which became the band's biggest hit when it peaked at No. 7 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart in April 1987. When the Cockroaches disbanded in the early 1990s, Field enrolled at Macquarie University. While at university, he decided to record an album of children's music, enlisting the assistance of fellow student and guitarist Murray Cook, former Cockroaches roadie and vocalist Greg Page, former bandmate and keyboardist Jeff Fatt, and Macquarie instructor and composer Phillip Wilcher, who later left the group. ## The Wiggles The Wiggles recorded their first CD in 1991; it sold 100,000 copies. Field worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles and their extensive touring schedule, which he strongly disliked, forced him to quit. After the production of their second album, the Wiggles adopted colour-coded shirts to wear on stage. According to Field, he wore blue because Cook and Fatt already owned shirts in their colours of red and purple respectively, so he and Page "met in a Sydney department store and literally raced to see who got the blue shirt". Page ended up wearing a yellow shirt and Field originally wore a green polo shirt, but changed to blue to avoid clashing with Dorothy the Dinosaur. Each Wiggle developed a "schtick" based on their actual behaviours, which evolved into caricatures, and served the same purpose as the uniforms in differentiating their characters and making them memorable to young children; Field's was eating. Field created and played the original Captain Feathersword; the role was taken over by Paul Paddick in 1996. Field also played Wags the Dog. By the mid-1990s, despite the success of the Wiggles, Field reported being suicidal and "frequently gripped by anxiety, sadness, and negativity". By mid-2004, shortly after his marriage and the birth of his first child, Field's serious medical issues, worsened by their heavy tour schedule, caused him to consider quitting or re-inventing the Wiggles, despite their great success in the U.K. and North America. After meeting chiropractor James Stoxen in Chicago in 2004, Field improved his health to the point that he was able to continue. He began to hire teams of chiropractors for himself, his fellow bandmembers, and castmembers in every city they performed, which he credited with making it possible for them to fulfill their touring requirements. In early 2013, Field became the only original member of the group to remain after Fatt, Cook, and Page retired. He remained in the group because he wanted to continue to educate children and as Wiggles manager Paul Field stated, "to placate American, British and Canadian business partners". In July 2020, he and the other classic Wiggles appeared in the Soul Movers music video for "Circles Baby". Field's musical influences include Lightning Hopkins, Elvis Presley, and the Rolling Stones. He plays several instruments, including the tin whistle, bagpipes, guitar, drums, trumpet, violin, bouzouki and didgeridoo. Field, with input from the other members, produced most of the Wiggles' music, DVDs, and live shows. ## Other projects In 2018, Field, along with fellow Wiggles member Lachlan Gillespie and band members Oliver Brian and David O'Reilly, started a band for adult fans called the Unusual Commoners, which played a mixture of traditional Australian, Irish, Scottish and folk songs. They performed their first international show in St. John’s, Newfoundland in late 2018. ## Personal life In 1999, Field was named "Bachelor of the Year" in Cleo. In 2003, he married Michaela Patisteas, a former dancer whose family owned Griffiths Coffee in Melbourne. They have three children, who have joined the Field family business by appearing in several of the Wiggles' TV shows and videos. Beginning in 2007, Field, who is a registered breeder of Miniature Fox Terriers, did voiceover work for the TV show RSPCA Animal Rescue for Channel 7 in Australia. Field, in describing his enthusiasm for competitive sports, has stated, "My love of cricket is abiding", a sport that "instills the same loyalty and passions in me as I know baseball does for many in North America". He is a fan of the Australian rugby league club the Wests Tigers. He is also a fan of singer Julio Iglesias. As Field's fitness improved, to the point that his training regimen became comparable to that of an elite athlete, he gained an interest in gymnastics and acrobatics. Field went public about his experience with clinical depression in mid-2007 to draw more attention to the condition. He has stated that "being on the road is a dangerous job for someone with depression," but has dealt with it through diet, exercise, talking about it, and having a good support system (including his father before his death in 1998, his wife, and his friend Murray Cook, among his bandmates). He chronicled his health struggles and how he overcame them in his 2012 book How I Got My Wiggle Back. Field is a devout Catholic, something that he reported helped him deal with his chronic health issues and depression, especially the spiritual practices of prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary as expressed by Our Lady of Guadalupe. He has two large tattoos on his arms: one is the Virgin Mary with the words "My life is in your hands" in Spanish; the other is a heart with the words, "My love, my heart" in Spanish. The names of his wife and his three children are also tattooed on his arms. He admits that he got his tattoo of the Virgin, which he hid from fans for a long time, during a visit to Mexico while on tour in North America, in the middle of a bout with chronic pain and dental problems, as he put it, "in a moment of madness". ## Awards Field was made a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2010 "for service to the arts, particularly children's entertainment, and to the community as a benefactor and supporter of a range of charities". ## Discography ### With The Wiggles ### With The Cockroaches #### Studio albums #### Singles

The Man with the Iron Fists

2012 film directed by RZA

The Man with the Iron Fists is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th century China, the story follows a series of lone warriors who are forced to unite to defeat a common foe and save their home of Jungle Village. Development began in 2005 when RZA shared his idea for the film with Roth. After nearly two years of development, Roth and RZA secured financial backing in May 2010. Filming began in December 2010 on a \$15 million budget and concluded by March 2011. The film was shot in Shanghai and at other locations in China. RZA and Howard Drossin composed the film's musical score, and RZA produced its soundtrack, which featured several new songs by various artists. A series of concerts featuring music from the soundtrack were held to promote the film. The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012. Critics were divided over the film's homage to martial arts films, considering it well-choreographed and representative of the genre, but offering nothing original, and the direction was criticized for a lack of refinement. The performances of Crowe and Mann were well received. The film earned \$20.5 million at the box office. ## Plot In 19th-century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans. The village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The region's governor tasks the Lion Clan's leader, Gold Lion, with protecting a large shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion, who plan to steal the gold. They use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governor's aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions' leader. Gold's son Zen-Yi learns of his father's murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge. The Qing Emperor's undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silk's madame. Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, but Zen-Yi kills them. The mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver; he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her. After arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor. Zen-Yi's last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight; he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yi's father. Meanwhile, the gold shipment arrives in the village, accompanied by two skilled warriors, the Geminis. The Lions soon confront the Geminis and their men, and in the ensuing fight, Poison Dagger assassinates the Geminis and the Lions capture the gold. Jack later arrives to investigate the incident and learns that the Geminis were poisoned with mercury-tipped weapons, leading him to the blacksmith. The Lions' theft prompts the governor to send his Jackal troops to recover the shipment or destroy the village. Zen-Yi asks the blacksmith to craft him a new suit of weaponized armor. The Lions suspect that the blacksmith is helping Zen-Yi and have him tortured for information. The blacksmith refuses to talk, and Brass cuts off his forearms. Jack, who had been following the blacksmith, saves him from bleeding to death. While the blacksmith recovers, he tells Jack of his past as an emancipated American slave who accidentally killed a white man who refused to let him go. He fled America by boat and went to China, where monks trained him to use his body's energy to perform superhuman feats. Jack with the aid of the blacksmith crafts his greatest weapon: a pair of iron forearms that he can animate using this energy. Zen-Yi recovers and joins Jack and the blacksmith. Meanwhile, Blossom offers to let Silver hide the gold in a secret tomb beneath the brothel in return for payment. The gold is stored in a coffin which is raised up to the rafters. That night, Blossom has her girls serve the Lions, and Silk serves Brass. At Blossom's signal, the girls use weapons hidden in their mouths to poison many of the Lions, and they join with Blossom as the Black Widows. When Silk tries to poison Brass, his skin protects him, and he beats and almost kills her. Zen-Yi, Jack, and the blacksmith arrive and join with the Black Widows to fight the remaining Lions while Blossom and Bronze fight and kill each other. While fighting Jack, Poison Dagger is crushed to death between large moving gears. Silver and Zen-Yi fight in the tomb; Zen-Yi cuts the coffin free and it crushes Silver, killing him. The blacksmith finds Silk, who dies in his arms. He confronts Brass, and his iron fists prove capable of inflicting damage on Brass' seemingly invincible body. While Brass is in metal form, a powerful punch from the blacksmith shatters him to pieces. Jack runs outside in time to stop the soldiers from decimating the building with Gatling guns. Ultimately, Jack leaves the village to accompany the gold, and Zen-Yi tells the blacksmith that he has gained a brother. With the clans destroyed and the village safe, the blacksmith vows to keep it that way and destroys the sign pointing to his weapon shop. During the credits, Zen-Yi's pregnant fiancée is kidnapped by a bird clan, prompting Zen-Yi to seek the blacksmith's aid. ## Cast - RZA as Blacksmith / The Man with the Iron Fists: An emancipated slave from America who becomes the blacksmith of Jungle Village. He channels an ancient energy to turn himself into a living weapon. His name is Thaddeus Henry Smith. RZA wrote the role specifically for himself, and trained in Hung Ga for 1–2 hours a day over 2 months in preparation. - Rick Yune as Zen-Yi, The X-Blade: The son of the murdered Lion Clan leader who goes to Jungle Village to avenge his father's death. RZA said that he had Yune in mind for the role before the script had been completed. - Russell Crowe as Jack Knife: An opium-addicted British soldier named after his signature weapon. The character was partly inspired by RZA's late cousin Ol' Dirty Bastard. Crowe based his performance on Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (1971) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Crowe agreed to join the cast because of his previous working relationship with RZA. Crowe was only able to spend 10 days filming his scenes. - Lucy Liu as Madam Blossom: The owner of the Pink Blossom brothel, whom Liu described as the queen of the village. Liu wanted to emphasize Blossom's strength against all the male fighters and convinced RZA to give the character a fight sequence with Cung Le's Bronze Lion. - David Bautista as Brass Body: A mercenary capable of turning his body to metal, making him invulnerable. Bautista described the character as a "good guy" who "made a lot of bad choices in his life. He doesn’t really understand the difference between right and wrong." RZA auditioned Bautista for the role after seeing him "moving as fast as lightning" during a stick-fighting training video. - Jamie Chung as Lady Silk: A prostitute in the Pink Blossom and the blacksmith's lover. - Cung Le as Bronze Lion: A member of the Lion Clan. Le came to RZA's attention following his 2008 mixed martial arts fight against Frank Shamrock. Bronze Lion's fighting style incorporates elements of Tiger Kung-Fu and Le's own training in kicks and scissor kicks. - Byron Mann as Silver Lion: The leader of the Lion Clan after he kills the previous leader. Mann was initially cast for a smaller role but after his successful audition, he was given the bigger role of Silver Lion. The cast also includes Pam Grier as the blacksmith's mother Jane, Osric Chau as Blacksmith's assistant, MC Jin as Zen-Yi's ally Chan, Daniel Wu as Poison Dagger, and Andrew Lin and Grace Huang as The Geminis. Co-writer Eli Roth appears in a cameo. Several veteran martial arts actors—including Chen Kuan-tai as Golden Lion, Bryan Leung as Hyena Chief, Telly Liu as Iron Lion, Xue Jing Yao as Copper Lion, Zhu Zhu as Zen-Yi's fiancée Chi Chi, Terence Yin as the Governor, and Gordon Liu as The Abbot—appeared in the film. Liu's role was written for RZA's Shaolin teacher Shi Yan Ming, but Ming could not obtain permission to return to China for filming. ## Production ### Development Development of the film began in 2003 when RZA produced the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill. RZA set himself a \$50,000 budget and flew to the Kill Bill set in Beijing, where he spent approximately thirty days taking notes on the way Tarantino directed the film. In 2005, RZA met Eli Roth in Iceland, and they traveled together to LA. During the journey, RZA told Roth of his idea for a kung fu genre film, which attracted Roth's interest, but no further progress was made. RZA completed the story for the film, but Roth convinced him that he would need a completed screenplay for the project to gain any support. In 2007, after Roth's Hostel: Part II was released, Roth and RZA agreed to seriously pursue the project. The pair took the project to several studios and met with their preferred producer, Edward R. Pressman. One of the studios suggested setting the film in a post-apocalyptic situation, which RZA considered. They took the project to Strike Entertainment, which considered that it needed more development and assigned several writers to rewrite the script, which began to depart from RZA's initial idea. RZA continued to work with Strike Entertainment's writers, but Roth, who returned from filming Inglourious Basterds, was disappointed with the rewritten screenplay and he and RZA spent a year developing and finalizing it. In total, they spent between 18 months and 2 years developing the screenplay in between other projects, and turned RZA's 90-page story into a 130-page screenplay. Citing the specificity of the fictional universe in the Star Wars series, Roth said that the pair tried to fully define the aspects of The Man with the Iron Fists to make it interesting without fight scenes. Roth said that RZA had "imagined every tribe, every fighting style, every costume". The original script focused on several animal-themed clans fighting over territory, in particular Jungle Village, which acted as a center for shipments. As the script developed, several of the clans were removed, and the focus shifted to commerce and the transportation of government gold, which also introduced the government as a higher power over the clans. RZA and Roth approached fights in the script by introducing a new character, fighting style or weapon to avoid monotony; if a fight did not advance the story, they removed it. RZA then financed and directed a short martial arts film called Wu-Tang vs. the Golden Phoenix featuring Hong Kong-based, kung-fu-trained actors. When he and Roth pitched The Man with the Iron Fists to producers, RZA used the short film to prove that he could handle the martial arts action and be trusted to take on his first directing role. On May 7, 2010, Universal Pictures announced it had agreed to finance and distribute the film, which Roth and Strike Entertainment's Marc Abraham and Eric Newman would produce. The producers gave RZA a \$20 million budget. During the development process, Tarantino agreed to lend his name to the film with a "presented by" credit. In October 2012, RZA said that he and Tarantino had intended to cross over The Man with the Iron Fists with Tarantino's 2012 Western Django Unchained. The crossover would have included a younger version of RZA's blacksmith character in a slave auction, but scheduling conflicts prevented RZA's participation. The Man with the Iron Fists spent 14 weeks in pre-production including four to six weeks on location scouting. RZA insisted that six weeks of pre-production would be sufficient, but Marc Abraham told him to take 14 weeks, for which RZA was later thankful after he reached week 13 and still needed more time. During filming, RZA and Roth discussed the potential for a sequel if the film was successful. ### Filming Principal photography took place over approximately 10 weeks on a \$20 million budget. Filming began in China in December 2010 in locations including the city of Shanghai and Hengdian World Studios, and continued until March 2011. Corey Yuen was the film's action choreographer. To compensate for time lost to filming issues, some scenes were filmed in a single take. Approximately 6 weeks into filming, RZA began pushing the crew to work faster to remain on schedule. His assistant director eventually informed RZA that because of the push, some stunt workers were injured and being sent to hospital. After this, RZA abandoned some of his intended shots and replaced them with Computer Generated Images (CGI). Roth also directed some shots for RZA. Crowe and Le were originally scripted to fight each other, but because of Crowe's limited shooting schedule, he did not have the time to rehearse the fight, and instead Le was scripted to fight Liu. The first cut of the film was four hours long and RZA suggested splitting it into two films, but Roth disagreed. It was edited to 96 minutes to meet the studio's requirements and to excise graphic content that would cause it to receive a restrictive rating, limiting its audience. RZA abandoned the editing process for two weeks, feeling disgust at having to cut the film. In October 2012, he said that he intended to release a "director's cut" of the film for home viewing, and would reinsert at least 13 minutes of the cut footage. RZA described the film as an homage to the martial art films of the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers. The film used mostly practical special effects in preference to CGI. An effect in which Yune's character kills six opponents whose airborne blood spray spells out "revenge" in Chinese, was specifically written to use CGI. RZA declined to subtitle the message for English audiences. The action scenes resulted in several injuries, and Bautista suffered raw and bleeding arms from RZA's sandpaper-like prop iron fists during their fight scene. ### Marketing RZA launched an 11-date music concert called "The Iron Fists Tour" to promote the film in association with Rock the Bells and Guerilla Union. It featured performances by members of Wu-Tang Clan and other artists. The tour began on October 3, 2012, and visited several North American cities including New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. An animated short film about the blacksmith's journey to China and his first meeting with Brass Body, which RZA narrated, was released on October 20, 2012, as a prequel to the film. 16 heavily stylized posters, each by a different artist, were placed in outdoor locations in several North American cities and were designed to allow pedestrians to remove and keep them. The marketing campaign sponsored the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, star Bautista's debut mixed martial arts debut fight at Classic Entertainment and Sports: Real Pain in October 2012, and the release of the video game Assassin's Creed III. The film premiered in Los Angeles and New York City, and directly targeted minority demographics. RZA promoted the film at the Hispanic-owned Martial Arts History Museum in Burbank, California and an original Spanish-dub viral video was also released. RZA targeted African-American audiences by promoting the film on rapper Snoop Dogg's YouTube channel. An online awareness campaign included partnerships with Machinima Inc., hip-hop news site Global Grind, Ultimate Fighting Championship, IGN and Spotify. ## Music The film features music from The Black Keys, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, My Chemical Romance, John Frusciante and Chinese singer Sally Yeh. RZA also developed new tracks based on excerpts from Wu-Tang Clan master tracks provided by Sony Music, and songs performed by William Bell, Isaac Hayes and Mable John, which Stax Records provided. Composer Howard Drossin wrote the original musical cues for the film. RZA had not initially set out to score the film; he inserted temporary tracks of songs he wanted to use. After watching the temporary-track cut of the film, the music was found to be unsuitable, and it was suggested that RZA provide the music. RZA sought Tarantino's help with the score after he helped Tarantino with the score for Kill Bill. Tarantino also suggested RZA entirely produce the score. RZA and Drossin developed and finalized the score. They then developed the film's soundtrack, which was scheduled for release on October 23, 2012, and features 15 songs from the film including original songs by Kanye West, the Wu-Tang Clan, Talib Kweli, Ghostface Killah, Pusha T, Raekwon, and collaborations by RZA with The Black Keys and Flatbush Zombies. The character Jack Knife, who was influenced by rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, has a theme tune featuring a jaw harp cue reminiscent of the artist's song "Shimmy Shimmy Ya." The blacksmith is represented by cues from Isaac Hayes' music. ## Release The Man with the Iron Fists premiered on October 25, 2012, at Mann's Chinese 6 theater in Hollywood. David Bautista attended in a yellow spandex suit, which he wore as a tribute to Bruce Lee, who wore a similar outfit in Game of Death (1972). The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012. ### Box office The Man with the Iron Fists grossed \$15.6 million from North America and \$4 million from other territories for a worldwide total of \$19.7 million, against a \$15 million budget. Pre-release tracking in North America for the week before release estimated that the film would attract a mostly male audience and would earn between \$7 million and \$10 million during its opening weekend. The Man with the Iron Fists earned \$3 million during its opening day, and during its opening weekend the film earned \$7.9 million from 1,868 theaters – an average of \$4,235 per theater—finishing fourth behind holdover Argo (\$10.2 million), and fellow new releases Flight (\$25 million) and Wreck-It Ralph (\$49.1 million). The largest demographic of the opening weekend audience was under 30 (53%) and male (64%). ### Critical reception The Man with the Iron Fists received mixed reviews from critics. It has garnered a 51% approval rating from 86 critics—an average rating of 5.1 out of 10—on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which said, "Messy kung-fu homage The Man with the Iron Fists demonstrates a slavish affection for the genre it mimics, for better or worse." Metacritic provides a score of 51 out of 100 from 19 critics, which indicates "mixed or average" reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was "C+" on an A+ to F scale. Variety's Andrew Barker called the film endearing and engagingly enthusiastic, and said it is "more fun than it ought to be". Barker considered RZA's on-screen role to be too withdrawn to carry the central character role, but praised the supporting performances, especially those of Le's crime lord and Crowe, who Barker said "smirkingly goes for broke to an extent that viewers haven't seen from him since, well ... ever." Barker also praised the film's score, but was critical of the script's uneven tone. The New York Times's Manohla Dargis called it an erratically enjoyable product of a deep cinephile passion for the martial arts genre. Dargis praised Crowe's performance and Byron Mann's "gaudy baddie with heavy-metal hair and a psycho grin", but considered RZA's central role a mistake, saying "with his sleepy eyes and an affect so laid-back ... [he] is too recessive a screen presence to make the character pop, much less hold your interest". The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin credited RZA's conceptualization of the "rich, bloody, dense universe he created down to the most insignificant details", and praised RZA's "powerful inner calm" and Crowe's "defiantly theatrical turn". The Los Angeles Times' Betsy Sharkey called it a martial-arts spectacle that "may just be one of the best bad movies ever." Sharkey said that some uneven performances and lack of refinement were the result of RZA's lack of directing experience, but appreciated the choreography of the "extreme action" and the film's visual aesthetic, which she described as "a blend of French Baroque and ancient China". Sharkey said that the plot "goes seriously off-course" when expanding on the Blacksmith's history. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy said that the film is "sufficiently well done and amusing enough to satisfy the appetites of fans who mainline this sort of thing," but considered that in directly acting as an homage to the genre, it lacked any stylistic inspiration or imaginative flair to reinvent it. McCarthy however praised the imaginative weapon designs, and the performances of Lucy Liu and Crowe. The Village Voice's Nick Pinkerton said "the action scenes are often too cluttered for legibility, and, curious to say of a movie made by a musician, the film has broad swaths without tempo", and added that it has a homemade charm that he found "curiously touching". USA Today's Scott Bowles was critical of the film, awarding it 1.5 stars out of 4. He said that the film is "heavy on bloody kung fu action...and light on just about everything else", that it "doesn't have enough tension to be taken seriously, or enough laughs to be taken lightly", and called it "slick and hip". Bowles wrote that the film has "beautifully choreographed moments, and the action sequences won't disappoint any fans of slow-motion fistfights and arteries that gush like fire hydrants". Independent film critic Emanuel Levy wrote that Crowe's "commanding performance" and his chemistry with Liu lift the film slightly above the routine. Levy said that the film is an "ultra-violent movie that blends thrilling martial arts sequences, orchestrated and executed by some of the masters of this specific milieu, with a semi-involving tale" that would be appreciated by a young, indiscriminating audience. Leonard Maltin of IndieWire said that "RZA's understated performance isn't bad, but his staging of action leaves something to be desired", and that the film imitates earlier kung-fu films, which it fails to improve upon. ### Accolades The Man with the Iron Fists received nominations for Golden Fleece and Best Wildposts at the 2013 Golden Trailer Awards. Its song "Carry It" was nominated for Best Original or Adapted Song at the Black Reel Awards of 2013. ### Home media The Man with the Iron Fists was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on February 12, 2013, in North America. The DVD and Blu-ray editions contain the theatrical release version of the film, an unrated cut containing approximately twelve minutes of additional footage, deleted scenes and three featurettes: "A Look Inside The Man with the Iron Fists", "A Path to the East", and "On the Set with RZA". ## Sequel A sequel was announced by RZA in an interview with the title The Man with the Iron Fists: Sting of the Scorpion but revealed that he's not directing the sequel, instead Roel Reine will direct the film as RZA, Rick Yune, Zhu Zhu, Andrew Lin and Grace Huang will reprise their roles as the Blacksmith, X-Blade, Chi Chi and The Gemini Twins, joining the cast are Dustin Nguyen, Cary Tagawa, Carl Ng and Simon Yin. The sequel was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 14, 2015.

HMS Express (H61)

E-class british destroyer

HMS Express was an E-class minelaying destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–36 during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Express spent most of the first year of World War II laying minefields in British, Dutch and German waters. She participated in the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in May–June 1940, but resumed minelaying afterwards. The ship was one of five British destroyers that inadvertently entered a German minefield off the Dutch coast a few months later, leading to the sinking of two destroyers and Express having her bow blown off, incapacitating her for over a year of repairs. Two months after returning to duty, Express escorted the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse (Force Z) to Singapore in late 1941, in an unsuccessful attempt to deter Japanese aggression against British possessions in the Far East. She escorted the capital ships in an attempt to intercept landings in British Malaya in December and rescued their survivors after they were sunk by Japanese bombers. Express was then assigned convoy escort duties in and around Singapore and the Dutch East Indies under the control of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) as the Japanese advanced. She escaped from the East Indies and rejoined the main body of the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. The ship played a minor role in Battle of Madagascar as she screened an aircraft carrier during the late stages of the campaign in 1942. Express returned home in early 1943 to begin conversion into an escort destroyer. Upon its completion in June, the ship was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and renamed Gatineau. She was assigned to convoy escort duties with the Mid-Ocean Escort Force and participated in sinking a German submarine in March 1944. Gatineau was transferred to Northern Ireland in preparation in May for the Invasion of Normandy and was sent to Canada in July to begin a lengthy refit. The ship was only operational for a few months before the war ended in May 1945 and she returned to Canada shortly afterwards. Gatineau was paid off in early 1946 and was sold the following year. The ship became part of a breakwater on the coast of British Columbia in 1948. ## Description The E-class ships were slightly improved versions of the preceding D class. They displaced 1,405 long tons (1,428 t) at standard load and 1,940 long tons (1,970 t) at deep load. The ships had an overall length of 329 feet (100.3 m), a beam of 33 feet 3 inches (10.1 m) and a draught of 12 feet 6 inches (3.8 m). They were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph). The ships carried a maximum of 470 long tons (480 t) of fuel oil that gave them a range of 6,350 nautical miles (11,760 km; 7,310 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Their complement was 145 officers and ratings. The ships mounted four 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X' and 'Y' from front to rear. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, they had two quadruple mounts for the Vickers 0.5 in (12.7 mm) AA machinegun. The E class was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes. One depth charge rail and two throwers were fitted; 20 depth charges were originally carried, but this increased to 35 shortly after the war began. To compensate for the weight of her 60 Mark XIV mines and their rails, two of Express's 4.7-inch guns, their ammunition, both sets of torpedo tubes, her Two-Speed Destroyer Sweep (TSDS) minesweeping paravanes, and her large boats and their davits had to be removed. She was given small sponsons at the stern to ensure smooth delivery of her mines. ### Wartime modifications Express had her rear torpedo tubes replaced by a 12-pounder (76 mm) AA gun in July 1940. In February–June 1943, she was converted into an escort destroyer. A Type 286 short-range surface search radar was fitted and a Type 271 target indication radar was installed above the bridge, replacing the director-control tower and rangefinder. The ship also received a HF/DF radio direction finder mounted on a pole mainmast. Her short-range AA armament was augmented by four 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon guns and the .50-calibre machine guns were replaced by a pair of Oerlikons. A split Hedgehog anti-submarine spigot mortar was installed abreast 'A' gun and stowage for 60 depth charges provided; 'Y' gun and the 12-pounder had to be removed to compensate for their weight. By the end of the war, a Type 277 radar had replaced the Type 271, and the Type 286 had been superseded by a Type 291. ## Construction and career Express, the eighth ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy, was ordered 1 November 1932, from Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend under the 1931 Naval Programme, for use as a destroyer that could quickly be converted for use as a minelayer when required. She was laid down 24 March 1932, and launched on 29 May 1934. The ship was commissioned on 2 November 1934, at a total cost of £247,279, excluding government-furnished equipment like the armament. Express and her sister ships were assigned to the 5th Destroyer Flotilla (DF) of the Home Fleet. She remained at home for the next nine months while her armament was adjusted at Sheerness Dockyard from 13 December to 5 January 1935. The ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet, together with most of the rest of her flotilla, beginning in September 1935, during the Abyssinian Crisis, and returned home in March 1936. Upon her arrival, Express was refitted at Portsmouth Dockyard 23 March–4 May. The ship was then temporarily assigned to Gibraltar for the next two months as tensions rose before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. She then spent the rest of the year at home, before patrolling Spanish waters in the Mediterranean in January–March 1937, enforcing the edicts of the Non-Intervention Committee. After a brief refit, Express then conducted minelaying trials for two months and was refitted again at Portsmouth between 9 August–2 October. Shortly afterwards, the ship had a fire in her forward boiler room that badly damaged her electrical cabling; she was repaired at Gibraltar from 24 October to 3 December. Express spent most of 1938 at home other than one period in Spanish waters, where she was based out of Gibraltar. During her time at Portsmouth, the ship operated as a minelayer from 15 August to 4 October, before beginning a refit there on 21 November that lasted to 16 January 1939. Upon its completion, Express returned to Gibraltar for several months. After returning to the UK, the ship escorted the President of France, Albert François Lebrun, across the English Channel on 21 March en route to his state visit to the UK. She was earmarked for conversion to a boy's and anti-aircraft training ship in June, but shortages of crewmen put paid to the idea. Express was present at the Reserve Fleet Review on 5 August. ### World War II Shortly after the outbreak of war in September, Express joined her sister Esk at Immingham on the North Sea on 8 September, operating under the direct control of the Commander-in-chief, Home Fleet, Admiral Sir Charles Forbes. The two destroyers made their first minelaying sortie in the Heligoland Bight on the night of 9/10 September. and did it again a week later without being detected. They then reverted to ordinary duties for the next several months, before beginning to lay defensive minefields off the English coast in November. On 12 December, the Admiralty formed the 20th Destroyer Flotilla with Express as the flotilla leader; the other ships assigned were Esk and the newly converted destroyers, HMS Intrepid and Ivanhoe. The four destroyers laid 240 mines off the mouth of the Ems on the night of 17–18 December and the two sisters then began a refit at Portsmouth. Express and Esk began to lay more defensive minefields in February 1940, often with the large auxiliary minelayers Princess Victoria and Teviot Bank. On the night of 2/3 March, the sisters were joined by the newly converted destroyers HMS Icarus and HMS Impulsive in laying mines near Horns Reef, in the Heligoland Bight, that sank the German submarine U-44 in March, and later the submarines U-50, U-1, and U-25. After resuming defensive minelaying later that month, Express was damaged in a collision with the fishing trawler Manx Admiral off Kinnaird Head on 23 March and was under repair until 24 April. On the night of 9/10 May, Express, Esk and Intrepid laid another minefield in the Heligoland Bight and were diverted on their return voyage to escort Princess Victoria as she mined Dutch waters off Egmond the following night after the Germans invaded the Netherlands on 10 May. This began an intensive series of minelaying sorties in Dutch waters during the rest of the month that saw three German minesweepers sunk on 26 July. The minelaying, however, was interrupted at the end of the month by the need to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. On 29 May, Express towed the disabled destroyer Jaguar clear of a wreck in Dunkirk harbour and transferred many of her evacuees aboard before she could repair her engines later that day. The following day, Rear-Admiral Frederic Wake-Walker, commanding the ships involved in the evacuation, briefly hoisted his flag aboard her. She was lightly damaged by bomb splinters on 31 May, but continued to ferry soldiers back to England. The ship and the destroyer Shikari were the last ships to leave Dunkirk with troops on 4 June when the evacuation ended. She brought out 3,419 troops over the course of the operation. The ships of the 20th Flotilla resumed minelaying operations on 15 June, although most of these over the next several months were defensive in nature. On the evening of 31 August 1940, Express, Esk, Icarus, Intrepid, and Ivanhoe departed Immingham to lay an offensive minefield off Texel, with cover provided by three destroyers of the 5th DF. At 23:07 it became clear that the ships of the 20th Flotilla had entered a German minefield when Express struck a mine abreast 'B' gun, losing her entire bow up to the bridge. The detonation killed 4 officers and 54 ratings; one officer and 7 crewmen were later rescued by the Germans. Esk and Ivanhoe, the closest ships to Express, closed to render assistance, while the other two destroyers turned hard to starboard and retraced their route to exit the minefield, according to standing orders. Five minutes after the first mine detonated, Esk's bow struck a mine and she came to a stop. Five minutes later Ivanhoe struck another mine that badly damaged her bow. At about 23:20, Esk struck another mine amidships that detonated her magazines. By 01:40, Express had managed to raise steam again and steamed astern to minimise the pressure of the water on her shored-up bulkheads. The Admiralty dispatched nine motor torpedo boats (MTB) to go to the assistance of Express and Ivanhoe once they had been notified of the incident by Intrepid and ordered that the destroyers of the 5th DF were not to enter the minefield. Captain Louis Mountbatten of the 5th DF complied until he received the report of a Royal Air Force Lockheed Hudson bomber that had spotted the two damaged destroyers about 07:00 about 25 miles (40 km) east of his position. The MTBs reached the ships first, around 08:00, and evacuated all of Express's crew. Mountbatten's destroyers spotted Express around 08:40, and Kelvin took her in tow, stern first, twenty minutes later. The tow cable, however, fouled one of Kelvin's propellers and had to be cut. Jupiter then took over the tow. The threat of aerial attack at 19:45 forced Jupiter to slip her tow and allow one of the attending tugboats to take over the task. Express finally arrived at Hull at 17:30 on 2 September 1940. The ship was under repair at Chatham Dockyard until 4 October 1941. #### To the Far East Express was ordered to escort the battleship Prince of Wales to the Far East with her sister Electra where the ships would form the nucleus of a new Eastern Fleet intended to deter Japanese aggression. The trio departed Greenock on 25 October and arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on 28 November. The following day, the destroyers Encounter and Jupiter joined them from the Mediterranean Fleet as did the battlecruiser Repulse. The force then set course for Singapore, where they arrived on 2 December. ##### Force Z After receiving the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor and landings in Malaya by the Japanese, Force Z put to sea in the late afternoon of 8 December in an attempt to intercept the invasion convoys. This consisted of Prince of Wales and Repulse, escorted by four destroyers, Electra, Express, Tenedos, and the Australian . The ships were spotted during the afternoon of 9 December by the , and floatplanes from several Japanese cruisers spotted the British ships later that afternoon and shadowed them until dark. Admiral Sir Tom Phillips decided to cancel the operation as the Japanese were now alerted. Force Z turned back during the evening, after having tried to deceive the Japanese that they were heading to Singora. At 00:50 on 10 December Admiral Philips received a signal of enemy landings at Kuantan and correspondingly altered course so that he would arrive shortly after dawn. The crew of the spotted Force Z at 02:20, reported their position, and fired five torpedoes, all of which missed. Based on this report the Japanese launched 11 reconnaissance aircraft before dawn to locate Force Z. Several hours later 86 bombers from the 22nd Air Flotilla based in Saigon were launched carrying bombs or torpedoes. Once the British ships reached Kuantan around 07:50, Express was sent to investigate the area, but there was nothing to find. The crew of a Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" reconnaissance bomber spotted the British at 10:15 and radioed in several reports; the first bombers arrived less than an hour later. They ignored the destroyers and sank both Prince of Wales and Repulse by 13:20. Electra and Vampire moved in to rescue survivors of Repulse, while Express rescued survivors of the Prince of Wales. All told, the three destroyers rescued over 2,081 survivors. Afterwards, Express escorted the minelayers Teviot Bank, Kung Wo, and the Dutch as they laid defensive minefield around Singapore. On 24 December, she laid 18 mines of her own to block Japanese access to the harbour of Penang. The ship also escorted convoys to and from Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Express was transferred to the China Force, which controlled all convoys in the ABDACOM area, on 20 January 1942. Despite a boiler room fire on 6 February that damaged some of her electrical cabling and fuel tanks, the ship remained on escort duties until she arrived at Simonstown, South Africa, on 25 April to begin repairs that lasted until 26 June. Express was assigned to the 12th DF of the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean after her repairs were completed. She escorted the aircraft carrier Illustrious on 10 September as her aircraft supported the landings at Majunga that were intended to facilitate the complete occupation of Madagascar and then returned home in February 1943 to be converted into an escort destroyer. #### Canadian service The conversion was completed on 2 June; the following day, Express was loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned with the name Gatineau. On 15 June, the ship was given to Canada where she was assigned to Escort Group C3 and assigned to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoy duties in the North Atlantic. While protecting Convoy HX 280, she helped to sink the on 6 March 1944. Two months later, Gatineau was transferred to the 11th Escort Group, based at Derry, to prepare for the invasion of France (Operation Overlord) by patrolling British waters. She sailed to Halifax in July to begin a lengthy refit that lasted from 3 August to 16 February 1945. The ship spent March working up at the Anti-Submarine Training School at Tobermory before beginning anti-submarine patrols in British waters until the end of the war in May. Gatineau returned to Canada in June and was refitted in Halifax 11–19 July before she was transferred to the West Coast. The ship was paid off into reserve at Esquimalt on 10 January 1946 and struck from the Navy List on 1 April 1947. Gatineau was then sold to Capital Iron & Steel Metals of Victoria, British Columbia; her hulk was used to form a breakwater at Royston, British Columbia () in 1948. She remained visible for many years, but little remained of her hull by 2004.