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The Beijing central business district, or Beijing CBD (simplified Chinese: 北京商务中心区; traditional Chinese: 北京商務中心區; pinyin: Běijīng Shāngwù Zhōngxīn Qū), is a central business district and the primary area for finance, media, and business services in Beijing, China.Beijing CBD occupies 3.99 km2 of the Chaoyang District on the east side of the city. Geographically situated to the east of the city center, sandwiched between the 3rd Ring Road and the 4th Ring Road, the Beijing CBD is currently undergoing large-scale development. Economic history and importance As Beijing is becoming one of the most important international financial centers in China, Beijing CBD was recently positioned as the secondary core area in Beijing's International Financial Center Development strategic plan published in May, 2008. Beijing CBD is also emerging as China's media center as Beijing Television Station (BTV) just moved in its new headquarters (Beijing TV Centre) in this area and the new CCTV Headquarters was officially opened on the night of 15 June 2008. In the eight years since the government decided to speed up construction of the district, the Beijing CBD has attracted 117 Fortune 500 businesses in the financial, media, information technology, consulting and service industries. More than 60 percent of overseas-funded companies in Beijing are in the CBD. A majority of foreign embassies in Beijing - the No 1, No 2 and No 3 embassy districts are now concentrated in the Beijing CBD and its neighboring areas. The Beijing CBD Administrative Committee, established in 2001, is in charge of planning and management and aims to facilitate investments and improve the work environment for professionals. The committee provides information to investors on laws, taxes and state policies as well as a one-stop service, which has simplified approval procedures and raised efficiency. The establishment of the Beijing CBD Chamber of Finance, the Beijing CBD Chamber of Media Industry and Beijing CBD Association of Property Management & Real Estate Development has facilitated communication and cooperation between the government and enterprises. The Beijing CBD International Business Festival and Beijing CBD International Forum have put the Beijing CBD on the map worldwide. Skyscrapers in the Beijing CBD China Zun China World Trade Center Tower III Beijing Yintai Centre Beijing TV Centre Fortune Plaza CCTV Headquarters Jing Guang Centre China World Trade Center SK Tower Beijing China World Trade Center Tower III Phase B Education Beijing Ritan High School See also Beijing Financial Street List of economic and technological development zones in Beijing

Kengen (乾元) was a Japanese era name (年号,, nengō,, lit. "year name") after Shōan and before Kagen. This period spanned the years from November 1302 through August 1303. The reigning emperor was Go-Nijō-tennō (後二条天皇). Change of era 1302 Kengen gannen (乾元元年): The new era name was created to mark an event or a number of events. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in Shōan 4. Events of the Kengen era 1302 (Kengen 1, 16th day of the 6th month):Emperor Go-Nijo visited the home of retired Emperor Kameyama. 1302 (Kengen 1): Major repairs and reconstruction at Yakushi-ji. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128 Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691 Varley, H. Paul. (1980). A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04940-5; OCLC 6042764 National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection

Guang Qi (pinyin) or Kuang Chi (Wade–Giles) may refer to: 光啓 / 光啟 / 光启 Guāng Qǐ (pinyin) or Kuang Ch'i (Wade–Giles) is a Chinese given name (simplified Chinese: 光启; traditional Chinese: 光啟), may refer to: Xu Guangqi (simplified Chinese: 徐光启; traditional Chinese: 徐光啓; Wade–Giles: Hsü Kuang-ch‘i), Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, Catholic convert, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician of the Ming Dynasty Xu Guangqi Memorial Hall (徐光启纪念馆) Kuang-Chi (Chinese: 光启) a Chinese technology company named after Xu Guangqi Xavier School, also known as Kuang Chi School (simplified Chinese: 光启学校; traditional Chinese: 光啓學校; pinyin: Guāngqǐ Xúexìao; Hokkien: Kông Khē Hák Hàu; meaning: Guāngqǐ School), a Chinese-language Filipino school named after Xu Guangqi Lu Guangqi (simplified Chinese: 卢光启; traditional Chinese: 盧光啟), an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty 广汽 / 廣汽 Guǎngqì (pinyin) or Kuang-Ch'i (Wade–Giles) (simplified Chinese: 广汽; traditional Chinese: 廣汽) may refer to: Guangqi Honda (Chinese: 广汽本田), a Sino-Japanese joint venture GAC Group, (Chinese: 广汽集团; pinyin: Guǎng Qì Jí Tuán), parent company of Guangqi Honda Guang (disambiguation) Kuang (disambiguation) Qi (disambiguation) Chi (disambiguation)

Eos is the goddess of the dawn in Greek mythology. Eos or EOS may also refer to: Astronomy 221 Eos, an asteroid Eos Chasma, a depression on Mars Eos family, main-belt asteroids Earth Observing System, a NASA program Literature Eos (imprint), an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing Eos (magazine), a weekly publication of the American Geophysical Union Eos Press, an American card games and role-playing game publisher Music Eos (album), a 1984 album by Terje Rypdal and David Darling "E.O.S.", a 2004 trance music piece by Ronski Speed "EOS", a 2017 song by Rostam from Half-Light Places Eos Glacier, a glacier in Antarctica Mount Eos, a mountain in Antarctica Science Eos (bird), a genus of lories (parrots) Eos (protein), a photoactivatable fluorescent protein Eosinophil, a variety of white blood cell Esterified omega-hydroxyacyl-sphingosine, a human lipoxygenase Ethanolamine-O-sulfate, a chemical compound used in biochemical research European Optical Society IKZF4 or zinc finger protein Eos, a protein in humans Equation of state Economies of scale Technology EOS (medical imaging), a medical projection radiography system EOS.IO, a cryptocurrency Canon EOS, a series of film and digital cameras Electrical overstress, a type of electronic component failure Computing Cisco Eos, a software platform EOS (operating system), a supercomputer operating system in the 1980s EOS (8-bit operating system), a homecomputer operating system in the 1980s EOS memory, ECC on SIMMs, used in server-class computers Emulator Operating System, an operating system used in E-mu Emulator musical instruments Extensible Operating System, Arista Networks's single-network operating system Ethernet over SDH, a set of protocols for carrying Ethernet traffic /e/ (operating system), a free and open-source Android-based mobile operating system Transportation Eos (yacht), a yacht owned by Barry Diller Eos Airlines, a defunct airline Grif Eos, an Italian hang glider design Volkswagen Eos, a coupé convertible vehicle made by Volkswagen Video games E.O.S. or Earth Orbit Stations, a space station simulation by Electronic Arts Eos, a fictional world in Final Fantasy XV Eos, a fictional planet in Mass Effect: Andromeda Eos, a character in Red Faction Eos, a fictional planet in Star Wars: Starfighter Epic Online Services, an SDK for cross-platform play features Other uses EOS (company), an American skin care company EOS Group, a financial services company End-of-sale Liwathon E.O.S. Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee or EOS Committee People with the given name Eos Counsell (born 1976), Welsh violinist Gaynor Rowlands or Eos Gwalia (1883–1906), English actress Eos Morlais (1841–1892), Welsh tenor See also Aeos (disambiguation) AOS (disambiguation) EO (disambiguation) OS (disambiguation)

The Kaohsiung City Council (Chinese: 高雄市議會; pinyin: Gāoxióng Shì Yìhuì) is the city council of Kaohsiung City, Republic of China. It is currently composed of 65 councilors, each serving a four-year term, elected using the single non-transferable vote system. The speaker and deputy speaker of the council are elected by fellow councilors through a secret ballot. Kaohsiung residents, aged 23 or above and having resided in the city for more than four months, are eligible to cast their votes or run in the municipal election. Along with the New Taipei City Council, the city council is the largest Taiwanese local council in terms of seats. History The present Kaohsiung City Council was established on 25 December 2010 following merger with the Kaohsiung County Council. Provisional Kaohsiung City Council Succeeding the 40-member Kaohsiung City Senate on 11 January 1951, the Kaohsiung City Council, having 28 seats, was formed after Kaohsiung was designated a provincial city. Between the period of 1951 and 1979, the council seats had nearly doubled, while councillors had their term extended to 4 years. The city council, entering the transition period following Kaohsiung was promoted to a special municipality, was reorganized into the Provisional Kaohsiung City Council on 1 July 1979, with three new seats were added to the provisional city council. A successive Kaohsiung City Council, replacing the provisional city council, was founded on 25 December 1981 when the transition period ended. Kaohsiung County Council After the retrocession of Taiwan and the ensuing devolution, 56 candidates were elected to the Kaohsiung County Senate upon the indirect election held on 15 March 1946. The Government announced in 1950 the reorganization of local governments, including partition of Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County, thus paving way for further devolution in Taiwan. The 48-member Kaohsiung County Council, succeeding the county senate, was established on 11 January 1951 after the local elections held on 17 December 1950. Transportation The council building is accessible within walking distance of Fongshan West–City Council metro station. Councilors District 1 Hsin-Chiang Chu Fu-Bao Lin Yi-Di Lin District 2 Ming-Ze Chen Ming-Tai Huang Ya-Chu Li District 3 Xin-Yuan Fang Min-Lin Gao Chiu-Ying Huang Shu-Mei Li Li-Pin Sung District 4 Li-Chen Chen Mei-Jyuan Chen Mei-Jhen Li Ya-Hui Li Ya-Fen Li Bo-Yi Li Shan-Hui Chen Wen-Chih HuangDistrict 5 District 6 District 7 District 8 District 9 Huang JieDistrict 10 District 11 District 12 District 13 District 14 District 15 Hui-Mei Tang See also Mayor of Kaohsiung List of county magistrates of Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City Government

In the study of the human mind, intellect is the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Translated from the Ancient Greek philosophical concept nous, intellect derived from the Latin intelligere ("to understand"), from which the term intelligence in the French and English languages is also derived. The discussion of intellect can be divided into two areas that concern the relation between intelligence and intellect. In classical philosophy and in medieval philosophy the intellect (nous) is the subject of the question: How do people know things? In Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the intellect was the conceptual means of reconciling religious monotheism with philosophical or scientific study of Nature. This reconciliation made the intellect the conduit between the individual human soul, and the divine intellect of the cosmos. Aristotle first developed this with his distinction between the passive intellect and active intellect.In psychology and in neuroscience, the controversial Theory of Multiple Intelligences applies the terms intelligence (emotion) and intellect (mind) to describe how people understand the world and reality. Intellect and intelligence As a branch of intelligence, intellect concerns the logical and the rational functions of the human mind, and usually is limited to facts and knowledge. Additional to the functions of linear logic and the patterns of formal logic the intellect also processes the non-linear functions of fuzzy logic and dialectical logic.Intellect and intelligence are contrasted by etymology; derived from the Latin present active participle intelligere, the term intelligence denotes "to gather in between", whereas the term intellect, derived from the past participle of intelligere, denotes "what has been gathered". Therefore, intelligence relates to the creation of new categories of understanding, based upon similarities and differences, while intellect relates to understanding existing categories. Development of intellect A person's intellectual understanding of reality derives from a conceptual model of reality based upon the perception and the cognition of the material world of reality. The conceptual model of mind is composed of the mental and emotional processes by which a person seeks, finds, and applies logical solutions to the problems of life. The full potential of the intellect is achieved when a person acquires a factually accurate understanding of the real world, which is mirrored in the mind. The mature intellect is identified by the person's possessing the capability of emotional self-management, wherein they can encounter, face, and resolve problems of life without being overwhelmed by emotion.Real-world experience is necessary to and for the development of a person's intellect, because, in resolving the problems of life, a person can intellectually comprehend a social circumstance (a time and a place) and so adjust their social behavior in order to act appropriately in the society of other people. Intellect develops when a person seeks an emotionally satisfactory solution to a problem; mental development occurs from the person's search for satisfactory solutions to the problems of life. Only experience of the real world can provide understanding of reality, which contributes to the person's intellectual development. Structure of intellect In 1955, the psychologist Joy Paul Guilford (1897–1987) proposed a Structural Intellect (SI) model in three dimensions: (i) Operations, (ii) Contents, and (iii) Products. Each parameter contains specific, discrete elements that are individually measured as autonomous units of the human mind. Intellectual operations are represented by cognition and memory, production (by divergent thinking and convergent thinking), and evaluation. Contents are figurative and symbolic, semantic and behavioral. Products are in units, classes, and relations, systems, transformations, and implications. Intellect in psychotherapy Intellectualization is a psychotherapeutic method based of intense intellectual focus in order to avoid dealing with a problem that occupies the attention of a person. In psychological praxis, intellectualization is a defense mechanism that blocks feelings in order to prevent anxiety and stress from acting upon and interfering with the psyche of the person, which otherwise would interfere with their normal functioning in real life. As psychotherapy, intellectualization is a rational, dispassionate, and scientific approach towards dealing with and resolving mental problems, which psychologically disturb the person. The functions of intellectualization involve the Id, ego, and super-ego. The Ego is the conscious aspect of human personality; the Id is the unconscious, animal-instinct aspect; and the super-ego is the control mechanism that mediates and adjusts a person's thoughts and actions and behavior in accordance with the social norms of society. The purpose of intellectualization is to isolate the Id from the real world, and so make the conscious aspects of a person's life the only object of reflection and consideration. Therefore, intellectualization defends and protects the Ego from the Id, the unconscious aspect of human personality that usually is impossible to control.Socially, intellectualization uses technical jargon and complex scientific terminology instead of plain language; e.g. a physician uses the word carcinoma instead of cancer to lessen the negative impact of a diagnosis of terminal disease — by directing the patient's attention away from the bad news. The different registers of language, scientific (carcinoma) and plain language (cancer), facilitate the patient's acceptance of medical fact and medical treatment, by avoiding an outburst of negative emotions that would interfere with the successful treatment of the disease.Moreover, the defense mechanism of intellectualization is criticized because it separates and isolates the person from the painful emotions caused by the psychological problem. As such, the defense mechanism subsequently leads to the denial of intuition, which sometimes contributes to the processes of decision-making; a negative consequence of the absence of emotional stimuli can deprive the person of motivation, and lead to a mood of dissatisfaction, such as melancholy; such "emotional constipation" threatens their creativity, by replacing such capabilities with factual solutions. See also Human intelligence Intellectualism

Twu Shiing-jer (Chinese: 涂醒哲; pinyin: Tú Xǐngzhé; Wade–Giles: T'u2 Hsing3-che2; born 17 June 1951) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Minister of the Department of Health from 2002 to 2003 and later served in the Legislative Yuan from 2008 to 2012. He was the Mayor of Chiayi City from 25 December 2014 to 25 December 2018. Education Twu obtained his bachelor's degree in medicine and master's degree in public health from National Taiwan University. He then obtained his doctoral degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States. Health minister Twu succeeded Lee Ming-liang as minister of the Department of Health on 1 September 2002 and resigned on 16 May 2003. Mayor of Chiayi City 2009 Chiayi City mayor election Twu joined the 2009 Republic of China local elections for the position of Chiayi City mayor. The elections were held on 5 December 2009. He eventually lost to Kuomintang candidate Huang Min-hui. 2014 Chiayi City mayor election Twu won a party primary held in March 2014, and was named the Democratic Progressive Party candidate for the Chiayi City mayoralty. In September, Twu asked the voters to choose the best person, not the wealthiest, referring to politicians from Kuomintang who were mostly backed by their huge assets and government resources to work with business conglomerates run by wealthy families to control local political factions and influence election outcomes. He ran his campaign under the slogan Bold leadership, Chuluo, heading up for Taiwan (氣魄 諸羅 台灣頭). Chiayi was a part of Chuluo County until 1787 when it was renamed. Twu was elected as the Mayor of Chiayi City after winning the 2014 Chiayi City mayoralty election held on 29 November 2014. 2018 Chiayi City mayor election Twu Shiing-jer on Facebook

Hsu Shih-hsien (Chinese: 許世賢; pinyin: Xǔ Shìxián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Khó͘ Sè-hiân; 1 April 1908 – 30 June 1983) was a Taiwanese academic and politician. Born in 1908 in Japanese Taiwan, Hsu opposed colonialism at an early age. As a student, she refused to acknowledge Hirohito's birthday and defended others who spoke Hokkien. Hsu later became the first Taiwanese woman to earn a doctorate. She was also the first female high school principal and city council member in Taiwan. In 1940, Hsu and her husband established a hospital in Chiayi City.Hsu joined the Kuomintang after their arrival in Taiwan in 1945, and was later elected to the Taiwan Provincial Assembly. She attempted to withdraw from the party three times, after disagreeing with the suspension of county commissioner Lee Mao-sung before courts had ruled on charges of corruption against him. She was reelected to the Taiwan Provincial Assembly as an independent in April 1957. Hsu was formally expelled from the Kuomintang in 1958, because she had joined the Chinese Local Autonomy Research Society. As an assembly member, Hsu became known for asking rigorous questions of the ruling party, and was one of six Taiwan-born provincial legislators, referred to as Five Dragons, One Phoenix. In 1960, she worked with Lei Chen to establish the China Democracy Party. It was shut down shortly thereafter, and Lei was arrested. Hsu joined the tangwai movement soon afterwards, coordinating a campaign team for independent candidates from January 1961. She was elected mayor of Chiayi City in 1968, and was the first woman to be elected mayor in Taiwan. Hsu left the provincial legislature after four terms to assume the mayoralty. By the end of Hsu's mayoral term in 1972, the Kuomintang had instituted an age limit of 60 for local offices, making it illegal for her to run for a second term. Instead, Hsu campaigned for a seat on the Legislative Yuan, leading the December 1972 elections with the highest vote total. She stepped down in 1981, choosing to launch a second mayoral campaign in Chiayi because the age limit had been lifted. Hsu died in office in 1983.Two of her daughters, Chang Po-ya and Chang Wen-ying, later served as Mayor of Chiayi.A museum dedicated to Hsu opened in 2014.

In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have moulted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often be used to identify the species of the animal and even its sex. As studying insects, crustaceans, or arachnids directly is not always possible, and because exuviae can be collected fairly easily, they can play an important part in helping to determine some general aspects of a species' overall life cycle such as distribution, sex ratio, production, and proof of breeding in a habitat. Exuviae have been suggested as a "gold standard" for insect monitoring. For instance, when monitoring dragonfly populations the presence of exuviae of a species demonstrates that the species has completed its full life cycle from egg to adult in a habitat. However, it has also been suggested that the fact that exuviae can be hard to find could lead to an underestimation of insect species compared to, for example, counting adult insects.The Latin word exuviae, meaning "things stripped from a body", is found only in the plural. Exuvia is a derived singular form, although this is a neologism, and not attested in texts by Roman authors. A few modern works use the singular noun exuvium (e.g.). Only a single historical work by Propertius uses the singular form exuvium, but in the meaning "spoils, booty". Gallery

A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that has a license to put up guests as lodgers. The word derives from the Latin taberna whose original meaning was a shed, workshop, stall, or pub. Over time, the words "tavern" and "inn" became interchangeable and synonymous. In England, inns started to be referred to as public houses or pubs and the term became standard for all drinking houses. Europe France From at least the 14th century, taverns, along with inns and later cabarets, were the main places to dine out. Typically, a tavern offered various roast meats, as well as simple foods like bread, cheese, herring and bacon. Some offered a wider variety of foods, though it would be cabarets and later traiteurs which offered the finest meals before the restaurant appeared in the 18th century. Their stated purpose, however, was to serve wine (not beer or cider, which had other outlets) and they were so disreputable that women of any standing avoided them.After 1500, taxes on wine and other alcoholic beverages grew increasingly more burdensome, not only because of the continual increase in the level of taxation but also because of the bewildering variety and multiplicity of the taxes. This chaotic system was enforced by an army of tax collectors. The resultant opposition took many forms. Wine growers and tavern keepers concealed wine and falsified their methods of selling it to take advantage of lower tax rates. The retailers also refilled their casks secretly from hidden stocks. Wine merchants stealthily circumvented inspection stations to avoid local import duties. When apprehended, some defrauders reacted with passive resignation, while others resorted to violence. Situated at the heart of the country town or village, the tavern was one of the traditional centers of social and political life before 1789, a meeting place for both the local population and travelers passing through and a refuge for rogues and scoundrels. Taverns symbolized opposition to the regime and to religion. Taverns sometimes served as restaurants. In 1765, in Paris was founded the first restaurant in the modern sense of the term. However, the first Parisian restaurant worthy of the name was the one founded by Beauvilliers in 1782 in the Rue de Richelieu, called the Grande Taverne de Londres. Émile Zola's novel L'Assommoir ("The tavern") (1877) depicted the social conditions typical of alcoholism in Paris among the working classes. The drunk destroyed not only his own body, but also his employment, his family, and other interpersonal relationships. The characters Gervaise Macquart and her husband Coupeau exemplified with great realism the physical and moral degradation of alcoholics. Zola's correspondence with physicians reveals that he used authentic medical sources for his realistic depictions in the novel. Germany A common German name for German taverns or pubs is Kneipe. Drinking practices in 16th-century Augsburg, Germany, suggest that the use of alcohol in early modern Germany followed carefully structured cultural norms. Drinking was not a sign of insecurity and disorder. It helped define and enhance men's social status and was therefore tolerated among men as long as they lived up to both the rules and norms of tavern society and the demands of their role as householders. Tavern doors were closed to respectable women unaccompanied by their husbands, and society condemned drunkenness among women, but when alcohol abuse interfered with the household, women could deploy public power to impose limits on men's drinking behaviour. United Kingdom Taverns were popular places used for business as well as for eating and drinking – the London Tavern was a notable meeting place in the 18th and 19th centuries, for example. However, the word tavern is no longer in popular use in the UK as there is no distinction between a tavern and an inn. Both establishments serve wine and beer/ale. The term 'pub' (an abbreviation of 'public house') is now used to describe these houses. The legacy of taverns and inns is now only found in the pub names, e.g. Fitzroy Tavern, Silver Cross Tavern, Spaniards Inn, etc. The word also survives in songs such as "There is a Tavern in the Town".The range and quality of pubs varies wildly throughout the UK as does the range of beers, wines, spirits and foods available. Most quality pubs will still serve cask ales and food. In recent years there has been a move towards "gastro" pubs where the menu is more ambitious. Originally, taverns served as rest stops about every fifteen miles and their main focus was to provide shelter to anyone who was traveling. Such taverns would be divided into two major parts – the sleeping quarters and the bar. There is generally a sign with some type of symbol, often related to the name of the premises, to draw in customers. The purpose of this is to indicate that the establishment sells alcohol and to set it apart from the competition. Scandinavia Scandinavia had very high drinking rates, which led to the formation of a powerful prohibition movement in the 19th century. Magnusson (1986) explains why consumption of spirits was so high in a typical preindustrial village (Eskilstuna) in Sweden, 1820–50. An economic feature of this town of blacksmiths was the Verlag, or outwork production system, with its complex network of credit relationships. The tavern played a crucial role in cultural and business life and was also the place where work and leisure were fused. Heavy drinking facilitated the creation of community relationships in which artisans and workers sought security. Buying drinks rather than saving money was a rational strategy when, before adjustment to a cash economy, it was essential to raise one's esteem with fellow craftsmen to whom one could turn for favors in preference to the Verlag capitalist. Greece A restaurant in Greece is commonly known as a taverna. Their history begins in Classical times, with the earliest evidence of a taverna discovered at the Ancient Agora of Athens; the style remains the same to this day. Greek tavernes (plural of taverna) are the most common restaurants in Greece. A typical menu includes portion dishes, or small dishes of meat and fish, as well as salads and appetizers. Mageirefta is the menu section that includes a variety of different casserole cooked dishes every day. The other choices are mainly prepared roasted (tis oras) or fried. Orektika (appetizers) include small dishes of Greek sauces, alifes, usually eaten on bites of bread. Tavernes offer different kinds of wines and retsina in barrels or in bottles, ouzo or tsipouro, with beer and refreshments being a recent addition. In Byzantine times, tavernes were the place for a social gathering, to enjoy a meal, live music and friendly talk with a drink accompanied by small variety dishes (mezes). Former Yugoslavia In former Yugoslavia, the kafana serves food and alcoholic beverages. Czech Republic & Slovakia The most frequent Czech translation of tavern or pub is "hospoda". It comes out from hospodář (landlord) and is also close to hostitel (host), host (guest) and hostina (dinner, banquet). And also to Russian gospodin (master, lord, sir) and, not to forget, to hospitality. Traditionally, "hospoda" or "hostinec" were full-fledged facilities, providing lodging, meals and drink, an inn. In modern times, the meaning of the word has a bit narrowed. Nevertheless, it is used colloquially to denote both traditional restaurants where people go to eat, and bars, where people mainly go to drink and socialize. "Hospoda" is nowadays a very widespread but only colloquiall word, while "hostinec" or "pohostinství" were often official names of such establishment in the 20th century, now a bit obsolete. "Hospoda" could be with meals served or without, typically with tapped beer. (This term is not used for wine bars.) As drinking beer is an important part of the Czech culture, inviting to "hospoda" generally means: "let's go and have a drink together, let's meet, chat, and socialize…". It is often equipped with a TV, billiards table, darts etc. Pubs serve both local regulars as well as excursionists, tourists and other guests. Establishments specialized primarily in the consumption of beer (beer bars) are called "výčep" ("výčap" in Slovak), expressively "nálevna", or "pajzl" (from German Baisel, originally from Jidish). "Knajpa" (from German) is an expressive word, and "krčma" is rather archaic in Czech. The word "taverna" (from Italian) is understood as a foreign term for establishment from South-European cultures, especially Greek or Italian.In Moravia, especially South Moravia, this social role is rather fulfilled by "wine cellars". Slovak language prefers the word "krčma" as a neutral colloquial term for pubs and restaurants. It is an old panslavic word. Asia Iraq One of the earliest references to a tavern is found in the Code of Hammurabi. North America See also Bar (establishment) Coaching inn Izakaya List of bars List of public house topics Prohibition Prohibition in the United States Pub (public house) Roadhouse (premises) Taverna Tavern clock Woman's Christian Temperance Union Bibliography Blocker, Jack S. (ed.) Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia (2 vol 2003) Cherrington, Ernest, (ed.) Standard Encyclopaedia of the Alcohol Problem 6 volumes (1925–1930), comprehensive international coverage to late 1920s Gately, Iain Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (2008). ISBN 978-1-592-40464-3. Heath, Dwight B. International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture (1995), 27 countries in late 20th century Phillips, Rod. Alcohol: A History (U. of North Carolina Press, 2014) Europe Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 (Oxford University Press, 1996) Brennan, Thomas. Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth Century Paris (1988), Clark, Peter. The English Alehouse: A Social History, 1200–1800 (1983). Unger, Richard W. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) Further reading Historic Taverns of Boston by Gavin R. Nathan

Cha Bum-kun (Korean: 차범근; Korean pronunciation: [tɕʰɐbʌmɡɯn] or [tɕʰɐ] [pʌmɡɯn]; born 22 May 1953) is a South Korean former football manager and player, nicknamed Tscha Bum or "Cha Boom" in Germany because of his name and thunderous ball striking ability. He showed explosive pace and powerful shots with his thick thighs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time.In 1972, Cha had been capped for the South Korea national team as the youngest player of the time at the age of 18. He is the youngest player to ever reach 100 international caps in the world at 24 years and 35 days, and the all-time leading goalscorer of the South Korean national team with 58 goals. After dominating Asian competitions including the 1978 Asian Games, he left for West Germany and played for Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen. He scored a total of 121 goals in two Bundesliga clubs, and won the UEFA Cup with each team.After his retirement, he opened a football academy to develop youth players in South Korea, and managed the national team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Early life Cha was born in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi. He originally joined Yeongdo Middle School to learn football, but the school's football club was dissolved as soon as he joined there. He started his football career by transferring to Kyungshin Middle School after playing field hockey for Yeongdo for one and a half years. In his high school days, he tried to leave school due to older students' violence, but continued to play football with the manager Chang Woon-soo's help. He became a notable player of Kyungshin High School, and was selected for the South Korean under-20 team in 1970. Club career Career in South Korea Cha entered Korea University in 1972, and won the Korean National Championship in 1974, the predecessor of the Korean FA Cup. After his graduation, he started his senior career with Korea Trust Bank FC in 1976. He led his team to the title and was named the best player in the spring season of the Korean Semi-professional League. In October 1976, he joined Air Force FC to serve his mandatory military service. Cha originally had a plan to enlist in the Navy FC, but the ROK Air Force persuaded him that it would move his discharge up by six months. Darmstadt 98 While playing for the national team in the 1978 Korea Cup, Cha attracted the attention of an Eintracht Frankfurt coach Dieter Schulte, who had received an invitation to serve as an scout/observer at that tournament. In November 1978, Schulte sent a letter to the KFA (Korea Football Association), suggesting Cha's tryout in West Germany, who would be discharged from the ROK Air Force in January 1979. Cha had taken time off to leave for Frankfurt after the 1978 Asian Games in December and succeeded to contract with another Bundesliga club Darmstadt 98 by signing a six-month deal. However, he spent just less than a month in Darmstadt. The ROK Air Force didn't follow the contract with Cha, and ordered his return. After his debut match against VfL Bochum on 30 December, Cha returned to South Korea due to his complicated issue about military service on 5 January. He eventually spent the remainder of the duration of his military service until 31 May, and so could not play for Darmstadt. Eintracht Frankfurt After being discharged from the military service completely, Cha still wanted to play in Bundesliga, and joined Eintracht Frankfurt at age 26 in July 1979. He scored in three consecutive games from third to fifth matchday of the Bundesliga, making an immediate impact early in his new club. After the first half of his first season in Germany, he was classified as world class in the player rankings of kicker, a notable German football magazine. He was also acclaimed by showing great performances helping Frankfurt to win its first-ever UEFA Cup title. He was evaluated as the "unstoppable player" by Sir Alex Ferguson, (Aberdeen's manager at the time) and "one of the best attackers in the world" by Lothar Matthäus. (an opponent player at the UEFA Cup Final and the Bundesliga) In addition to a UEFA Cup title, he was named along with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Kevin Keegan in the Bundesliga Team of the Season by kicker. On 23 August 1980, Cha's spine had been cracked by Jürgen Gelsdorf, who had tackled behind him, but came back to the stadium after a month. Afterwards, he scored six goals in six matches of the 1980–81 DFB-Pokal, leading Frankfurt to the title. He became Frankfurt's top goalscorer for three consecutive seasons. Bayer Leverkusen However, Cha transferred to Bayer Leverkusen due to a financial difficulty of Frankfurt in 1983. In the 1985–86 Bundesliga, he scored his most goals in a single Bundesliga season with 17 goals, and Leverkusen qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time as the sixth-placed team. The magazine kicker once again selected him for the Team of the Season. In the 1988 UEFA Cup Final, he scored a dramatic equaliser against Espanyol to tie the game 3–3. Leverkusen eventually went on to win the game on penalties, holding its first European title.Cha retired in 1989 after playing 308 Bundesliga games as a fair player. During his Bundesliga career, he scored 98 goals without a penalty, and received only one yellow card. On 31 October 1987, he scored his 93rd Bundesliga goal, becoming the top foreign goalscorer by surpassing Willi Lippens. His scoring record wasn't broken for eleven years until Stéphane Chapuisat scored more goals than him. As of 2018, Cha is ranked seventh along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the Bundesliga's foreign goalscorer standings. International career Cha generally played the Bundesliga games as a striker, but he had originally been a winger in South Korea. He became a South Korean under-20 international in 1970, and took part in the AFC Youth Championship in 1971 and 1972. In the 1972 AFC Asian Cup, he made his senior international debut against Iraq, and scored his first international goal against Khmer Republic. He was named in the Korean FA Best XI for seven consecutive years, and was selected as the Korean FA Player of the Year in 1973.Cha usually played for the national team in the Korea Cup, Pestabola Merdeka and King's Cup, which were annually contested between Asian nations and the invited clubs at the time. He won a total of ten trophies and also left memorable games in three competitions. In the 1975 Pestabola Merdeka, he scored his first international hat-trick against Japan. In the 1976 Korea Cup, he scored a hat-trick against Malaysia during five minutes from 83rd to 88th minute, leading South Korea to a dramatic 4–4 draw.In the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification, he played all of South Korea's twelve matches, and recorded five goals and two assists, although his knee got a boil during the competition. However, South Korea failed to qualify for the World Cup by finishing the qualification as runners-up despite his struggle. In the 1978 Asian Games, he scored two goals and provided two assists, contributing to team's gold medal. However, he showed lethargic plays to prepare tryouts for Bundesliga clubs, and received criticisms. After the 1978 Asian Games, he left for the Bundesliga and didn't play for South Korea. His last international tournament was the 1986 FIFA World Cup, South Korea's first World Cup since 1954. He showed exemplary performance in intensive checks by opponents, but failed to prevent South Korea's elimination in the group stage. Managerial career Cha moved into management with K League side Hyundai Horang-i, coaching them from 1991–94. His next appointment in January 1997 was Korean national team coach and he led the nation to the 1998 FIFA World Cup; however, a disastrous 5–0 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands in Korea's second group game got Cha fired. He later blamed the KFA for the bad performance, citing lack of bonuses and alleging pro soccer games in Korea were fixed. The association promptly slapped a five-year ban on him and he soon left the country with his wife. After an 18-month spell coaching Shenzhen Ping'an in China, Cha took up a commentator position with MBC in Korea. He returned to coaching in late 2003 when offered the Suwon Samsung Bluewings position. Cha achieved immediate success with Suwon by lifting the 2004 K League championship, an achievement he ranked as even better than the UEFA Cup he won as a player in 1988. He later resigned in June 2010 as Suwon manager. Personal life Cha is a devout Christian and said the faith is one of his three biggest values along with family and football.Cha's second child, Cha Du-ri, also played for South Korean national team and Bundesliga clubs, following in his father's footsteps. In November 2019, Cha received the Cross of Merit from the German government. Career statistics Club International As of 8 July 2020The KFA is showing the list of Cha's 136 international appearances in its official website. The RSSSF is also claiming 136 appearances about Cha's international career, but its details have some discrepancies. FIFA registered him with 130 appearances in the FIFA Century Club by excluding six matches in the Summer Olympics qualification. Scores list South Korea's goal tally first. Honours Player Korea University Korean National Championship: 1974Korea Trust Bank Korean Semi-professional League (Spring): 1976ROK Air Force Korean National Championship runner-up: 1976Eintracht Frankfurt UEFA Cup: 1979–80 DFB-Pokal: 1980–81Bayer Leverkusen UEFA Cup: 1987–88South Korea U20 AFC Youth Championship runner-up: 1971, 1972South Korea Asian Games: 1978 AFC Asian Cup runner-up: 1972 Pestabola Merdeka: 1972Individual IFFHS World Player of the Century 60th place: 1900–1999 IFFHS Legends: 2016 IFFHS Asia's Player of the Century: 1900–1999 IFFHS Asian Men's Team of the Century: 1901–2000 IFFHS Asian Men's Team of All Time: 2021 MasterCard Asian/Oceanian Team of the 20th Century: 1998 ESPN Best Asian Footballer of All Time: 2015 Korean FA Best XI: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 Korean FA Player of the Year: 1973 Korean FA Hall of Fame: 2005 Korean Semi-professional League (Spring) Best Player: 1976 Korean Sports Hall of Fame: 2017 kicker Team of the Season: 1979–80, 1985–86 Eintracht Frankfurt All-time XI: 2013Records Youngest player in the world to reach 100 caps: 24 years, 35 days South Korea all-time top goalscorer: 58 goals Manager Hyundai Horang-i Korean League Cup runner-up: 1993Suwon Samsung Bluewings Pan-Pacific Championship: 2009 A3 Champions Cup: 2005 K League 1: 2004, 2008 Korean FA Cup: 2009 Korean League Cup: 2005, 2008 Korean Super Cup: 2005Individual AFC Coach of the Month: February 1997, May 1997, September 1997 AFC Coach of the Year: 1997 K League 1 Manager of the Year: 2004, 2008 Korean FA Cup Best Manager: 2009 See also List of top international men's football goalscorers by country List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals Cha Bum-kun – FIFA competition record (archived) Cha Bum-kun – National team stats at KFA (in Korean) Cha Bum-kun at National-Football-Teams.com Cha Bum-kun at fussballdaten.de (in German)

Bright Side or The Bright Side may refer to: The English language idiom "Look on the bright side" Music Bright Side, by OBB The Bright Side (Lenka album), a 2015 album by Lenka The Bright Side (Meiko album), a 2012 album by the singer Meiko "Bright Side", song by Vicetone featuring Cosmos and Creature from Aurora "The Bright Side", a 2023 song by Collar Other Bright Side (YouTube channel), operated by TheSoul Publishing The Bright Side (painting), an 1865 oil painting by Winslow Homer of three African American Union Army teamsters See also Light side (disambiguation) Sunnyside (disambiguation) Dark side (disambiguation) Bright (disambiguation) Side (disambiguation)

Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese: 喜多川 歌麿; c. 1753 – 31 October 1806) was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects. Little is known of Utamaro's life. His work began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s with his portraits of beauties with exaggerated, elongated features. He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime. In 1804 he was arrested and manacled for fifty days for making illegal prints depicting the 16th-century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and died two years later. Utamaro's work reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, where it was very popular, enjoying particular acclaim in France. He influenced the European Impressionists, particularly with his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade, which they imitated. The reference to the "Japanese influence" among these artists often refers to the work of Utamaro. Background Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The art form took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the ukiyo "floating world" lifestyle of the pleasure districts. Alongside paintings, mass-produced woodblock prints were a major form of the genre. Ukiyo-e art was aimed at the common townspeople at the bottom of the social scale, especially of the administrative capital of Edo. Its audience, themes, aesthetics, and mass-produced nature kept it from consideration as serious art.In the mid-eighteenth century, full-colour nishiki-e prints became common. They were printed by using a large number of woodblocks, one for each colour. Towards the close of the eighteenth century there was a peak in both quality and quantity of the work. Kiyonaga was the pre-eminent portraitist of beauties during the 1780s, and the tall, graceful beauties in his work had a great influence on Utamaro, who was to succeed him in fame. Shunshō of the Katsukawa school introduced the ōkubi-e "large-headed picture" in the 1760s. He and other members of the Katsukawa school, such as Shunkō, popularized the form for yakusha-e actor prints, and popularized the dusting of mica in the backgrounds to produce a glittering effect. Biography Early life Little is known of Utamaro's life. He was born Kitagawa Ichitarō in c. 1753. As an adult, he was known by the given names Yūsuke, and later Yūki. Early accounts have given his birthplace as Kyoto, Osaka, Yoshiwara in Edo (modern Tokyo), or Kawagoe in Musashi Province (modern Saitama Prefecture); none of these places has been verified. The names of his parents are not known; it has been suggested his father may have been a Yoshiwara teahouse owner, or Toriyama Sekien, an artist who tutored him and who wrote of Utamaro playing in his garden as a child.Apparently, Utamaro married, although little is known about his wife and there is no record of their having had children. There are, however, many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years of the child's growth among his works. Apprenticeship and early work Sometime during his childhood Utamaro came under the tutelage of Sekien, who described his pupil as bright and devoted to art. Sekien, although trained in the upper-class Kanō school of Japanese painting, had become in middle age a practitioner of ukiyo-e and his art was aimed at the townspeople in Edo. His students included haiku poets and ukiyo-e artists such as Eishōsai Chōki.Utamaro's first published work may be an illustration of eggplants in the haikai poetry anthology Chiyo no Haru published in 1770. His next known works appear in 1775 under the name Kitagawa Toyoaki,—the cover to a kabuki playbook entitled Forty-eight Famous Love Scenes which was distributed at the Edo playhouse Nakamura-za. As Toyoaki, Utamaro continued as an illustrator of popular literature for the rest of the decade, and occasionally produced single-sheet yakusha-e portraits of kabuki actors.The young, ambitious publisher [Tsutaya Jūzaburō] enlisted Utamaro and in the autumn of 1782 the artist hosted a lavish banquet whose list of guests included artists such as Kiyonaga, Kitao Shigemasa, and Katsukawa Shunshō, as well as writers such as Ōta Nanpo (1749–1823)and Hōseidō Kisanji. It was at this banquet that it is believed the artist first announced his new art name, Utamaro. Per custom, he distributed a specially made print for the occasion, in which, before a screen bearing the names of his guests, is a self-portrait of Utamaro making a deep bow.Utamaro's first work for Tsutaya appeared in a publication dated as 1783: The Fantastic Travels of a Playboy in the Land of Giants, a kibyōshi picture book created in collaboration with his friend Shimizu Enjū, a writer. In the book, Tsutaya described the pair as making their debuts.At some point in the mid-1780s, probably 1783, he went to live with Tsutaya Jūzaburō. It is estimated that he lived there for approximately five years. He seems to have become a principal artist for the Tsutaya firm. Evidence of his prints for the next few years is sporadic, as he mostly produced illustrations for books of kyōka ("crazy verse"), a parody of the classical waka form. None of his work produced during the period 1790–1792 has survived. Height of fame In about 1791 Utamaro gave up designing prints for books and concentrated on making single portraits of women displayed in half-length, rather than the prints of women in groups favoured by other ukiyo-e artists. In 1793 he achieved recognition as an artist, and his semi-exclusive arrangement with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō ended. Utamaro then went on to produce several series of well-known works, all featuring women of the Yoshiwara district. Over the years, he also created a number of volumes of animal, insect, and nature studies and shunga, or erotica. Shunga prints were quite acceptable in Japanese culture, not associated with a negative concept of pornography as found in western cultures, but considered rather as a natural aspect of human behavior and circulated among all levels of Japanese society. Later life Tsutaya Jūzaburō died in 1797, and Utamaro thereafter lived in Kyūemon-chō, then Bakuro-chō, and finally near the Benkei Bridge. Utamaro was apparently very upset by the loss of his long-time friend and supporter. Some commentators feel that after this event, his work never reached the heights previously attained.A law went into effect in 1790 requiring prints to bear a censor's seal of approval to be sold. Censorship increased in strictness over the following decades, and violators could receive harsh punishments. From 1799 even preliminary drafts required approval. A group of Utagawa-school offenders including Toyokuni had their works repressed in 1801. In 1804, Utamaro ran into legal trouble over a series of prints of samurai warriors, with their names slightly disguised; the depiction of warriors, their names, and their crests was forbidden at the time. Records have not survived of what sort of punishment Utamaro received. Arrest of 1804 The Ehon Taikōki, published from 1797 to 1802, detailed the life of the 16th-century military ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The work was widely adapted, such as for kabuki and bunraku theatre. When artists and writers put out prints and books based on the Ehon Taikōki in the disparaged ukiyo-e style, it attracted reprisals from the government. In probably the most famous case of censorship of the Edo period, Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804, after which he was manacled along with Tsukimaro, Toyokuni, Shuntei, Shun'ei, and Jippensha Ikku for fifty days and their publishers subjected to heavy fines.Government documents of the case are no longer extant, and there are few other documents relating to the incident. It appears that Utamaro was most prominent of the group. The artists might have offended the authorities by identifying the historical figures by name and with their identifying crests and other symbols, which was prohibited, and by depicting Hideyoshi with prostitutes of the pleasure quarters. Utamaro's censored prints include one of the daimyō Katō Kiyomasa lustily gazing at a Korean dancer at a party, another of Hideyoshi holding the hand of his page Ishida Mitsunari in a sexually suggestive manner, and another of Hideyoshi with his five consorts viewing the cherry blossoms at the temple Daigo-ji in Kyoto, a historical event famous for displaying Hideyoshi's extravagance. This last displays the names of each consort while placing them in the typical poses of courtesans at a Yoshiwara party. Utamaro prints censored in 1804 Death Records give Utamaro's death date as the 20th day of the 9th month of the year Bunka, which equates to 31 October 1806. He was given the Buddhist posthumous name Shōen Ryōkō Shinshi. Apparently with no heirs, his tomb at the temple Senkōji was left untended. A century later, in 1917, admirers of Utamaro had the decayed grave repaired. Pupils Utamaro had a number of pupils, who took names such as Kikumaro (later Tsukimaro), Hidemaro, and Takemaro. These artists produced works in the master's style, though none are considered of Utamaro's quality. Sometimes he allowed them to sign his name. Of his students, Koikawa Shunchō married Utamaro's widow on the master's death and took on the name Utamaro II. After 1820 he produced his work under the name Kitagawa Tetsugorō. Analysis [Utamaro] created an absolutely new type of female beauty. At first he was content to draw the head in normal proportions and quite definitely round in shape; only the neck on which this head was posed was already notably slender ... Towards the middle of the tenth decade these exaggerated proportions of the body had reached such an extreme that the heads were twice as long as they were broad, set upon slim long necks, which in turn swayed upon very slim shoulders; the upper coiffure bulged out to such a degree that it almost surpassed the head itself in extent; the eyes were indicated by short slits, and were separated by an inordinately long nose from an infinitesimally small mouth; the soft robes hung loosely about figures of an almost unearthly thinness. What little information about Utamaro's life that has been passed down is often contradictory, so analysis of his development as an artist relies chiefly on his work itself. Utamaro is known primarily for his bijin-ga portraits of female beauties, though his work ranges from kachō-e "flower-and-bird pictures" to landscapes to book illustrations.Utamaro's early bijin-ga follow closely the example of Kiyonaga. In the 1790s his figures became more exaggerated, with thin bodies and long faces with small features. Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been the norm.By the end of the 1790s, especially following the death of his patron Tsutaya Jūzaburō in 1797, Utamaro's prodigious output declined in quality. By 1800 his exaggerations had become more extreme, with faces three times as long as they are wide and body proportions of eight heads length to the body. By this point, critics such as Basil Stewart consider Utamaro's figures to "lose much of their grace"; these later works are less prized amongst collectors.Utamaro produced more than two thousand prints during his working career, amongst which are over 120 bijin-ga print series. He made illustrations for nearly 100 books and about 30 paintings. He also created a number of paintings and surimono, as well as many illustrated books, including more than thirty shunga books, albums, and related publications. Among his best-known works are the series Ten Studies in Female Physiognomy, A Collection of Reigning Beauties, Great Love Themes of Classical Poetry (sometimes called Women in Love containing individual prints such as Revealed Love and Pensive Love), and Twelve Hours in the Pleasure Quarters. His work appeared from at least 60 publishers, of which Tsutaya Jūzaburō and Izumiya Ichibei were the most important.He alone, of his contemporary ukiyo-e artists, achieved a national reputation during his lifetime. His sensuous beauties generally are considered the finest and most evocative bijinga in all of ukiyo-e.He succeeded in capturing the subtle aspects of personality and the transient moods of women of all classes, ages, and circumstances. His reputation has remained undiminished since. Kitagawa Utamaro's work is known worldwide, and he generally is regarded as one of the half-dozen greatest ukiyo-e artists of all time. Legacy Utamaro was recognized as a master in his own age. He appears to have achieved a national reputation at a time when even the most popular Edo ukiyo-e artists were little known outside the city. Due to his popularity Utamaro had many imitators, some of whom likely signed their work with his name; this is believed to include students of his and his successor, Utamaro II. On rare occasions Utamaro signed his work "the genuine Utamaro" to distinguish himself from these imitators. Forgeries and reprints of Utamaro's work are common; he produced a large body of work, but his earlier, more popular works are difficult to find in good condition. A wave of interest in Japanese art swept France from the mid-19th century, called Japonisme. Exhibitions in Paris of Japanese art began to be staged in the 1880s, include an Utamaro exhibition in 1888 by the German-French art dealer Siegfried Bing. The French Impressionists regarded Utamaro's work on a level akin with Hokusai and Hiroshige. French artist-collectors of Utamaro's work included Monet, Degas, Gauguin, and Toulouse-LautrecUtamaro had an influence on the compositional, colour, and sense of tranquility of the American painter Mary Cassatt's work. The shin-hanga ("new prints") artist Goyō Hashiguchi (1880–1921) was called the "Utamaro of the Taishō period" (1912–1926) for his manner of depicting women. The painter character Seiji Moriyama in the British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World (1986) has a reputation as a "modern Utamaro" for his combination of Western techniques Utamaro-like feminine subjects.In 2016 Utamaro's Fukaku Shinobu Koi set the record price for an ukiyo-e print sold at auction at €745000. Historiography The only surviving official record of Utamaro is a stele at Senkō-ji Temple, which gives his death date as the 20th day of the 9th month of the year Bunka, which equates to 31 October 1806. The record states he was 54 by East Asian age reckoning, by which age begins at 1 rather than 0. From this a birth year of c. 1753 is deduced.Utamaro has gained general acceptance as one of the form's greatest masters. The earliest document of ukiyo-e artists, Ukiyo-e Ruikō, was first compiled while Utamaro was active. The work was not printed, but exists in various manuscripts that different writers altered and expanded. The earliest surviving copy, the Ukiyo-e Kōshō, wrote of Utamaro: Kitagawa Utamaro, personal name Yūsuke At the start entered the studio of Toriyama Sekien and studied pictures in the Kanō school. Later drew pictures of the styles and manners of men and women and resided temporarily with ezōshiya Tsutaya Jūzaburō. Now lives in Benkeibashi. Many nishiki-e.The earliest comprehensive historical and critical works on ukiyo-e came from the West, and often denied Utamaro a place in the ukiyo-e canon. Ernest Fenollosa's Masters of Ukioye of 1896 was the first such overview of ukiyo-e. The book posited ukiyo-e as having evolved towards a late-18th-century golden age that began to decline with the advent of Utamaro, which he condemned for his "gradual elongation of the figure, and an adoption of violent emotion and extravagant attitudes". Fenollosa had harsher criticism for Utamaro's pupils, who he considered to have "carried the extravagances of their teacher to a point of ugliness". In his Chats on Japanese Prints of 1915, Arthur Davison Ficke concurred that with Utamaro ukiyo-e entered a period of exaggerated, manneristic decadence.Laurence Binyon, the Keeper of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, wrote an account in Painting in the Far East in 1908 that was similar to Fenollosa's, considering the 1790s a period of decline, but placing Utamaro amongst the masters. He called Utamaro "one of the world's artists for the intrinsic qualities of his genius" and "the greatest of all the figure-designers" in ukiyo-e, with a "far greater resource of composition" than his peers and an "endless" capacity for "unexpected invention". James A. Michener re-evaluated the development of ukiyo-e in The Floating World of 1954, in which he places the 1790s as "the culminating years of ukiyo-e", when "Utamaro brought the grace of Sukenobu to its apex". Seiichirō Takahashi's Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan of 1964 set the golden age of ukiyo-e at the period of Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and Sharaku, followed by a period of decline with the declaration beginning in the 1790s of strict sumptuary laws that dictated what could be depicted in artworks.The French art critic Edmond de Goncourt published Outamaro, the first monograph on Utamaro, in 1891, with help from the Japanese art dealer Tadamasa Hayashi. British ukiyo-e scholar Jack Hillier had the monograph Utamaro: Colour Prints and Paintings published in 1961. Print series A partial list of his print series and their dates includes: Utamakura (1788) attributed Chosen Poems (1791–1792) Ten Types of Women's Physiognomies (1792–1793) Famous Beauties of Edo (1792–1793) Ten Learned Studies of Women (1792–1793) Anthology of Poems: The Love Section (1793–1794) Snow, Moon, and Flowers of the Green Houses (1793–1795) Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter (1794–1795) Array of Supreme Beauties of the Present Day (1794) Twelve Hours of the Green Houses (1794–1795) Renowned Beauties from the Six Best Houses (1795–96) Flourishing Beauties of the Present Day (1795–1797) An Array of Passionate Lovers (1797–1798) Ten Forms of Feminine Physiognomy (1802) Paintings Shinagawa no Tsuki, Yoshiwara no Hana, and Fukagawa no Yuki Gallery Works cited Further reading Siegfried Bing, The Art of Utamaro, (The Studio, February 1895) Jack Hillier, Utamaro: Color Prints and Paintings (Phaidon, London, 1961) Muneshige Narazaki, Sadao Kikuchi, (translated John Bester), Masterworks of Ukiyo-E: Utamaro (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1968) Shugo Asano, Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (British Museum Press, London, 1995) Julie Nelson Davis, Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty (Reaktion Books, London, and University of Hawai'i Press, 2007) Gina Collia-Suzuki, The Complete Woodblock Prints of Kitagawa Utamaro: A Descriptive Catalogue (Nezu Press, 2009) - complete catalogue raisonné Works by Utamaro in the British Museum Exploring the World of Kitagawa Utamaro Utamaro's books in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Kitagawa Utamaro Online at www.artcyclopedia.com Songs of the garden, the "Insect Book" by Utamaro, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF)

In philosophy, episteme (Ancient Greek: ἐπιστήμη, romanized: epistēmē, lit. 'science, knowledge'; French: épistème) is knowledge or understanding. The term epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerning knowledge) is derived from episteme. History Plato Plato, following Xenophanes, contrasts episteme with doxa: common belief or opinion. The term episteme is also distinguished from techne: a craft or applied practice. In the Protagoras, Plato's Socrates notes that nous and episteme are prerequisites for prudence (phronesis). Aristotle Aristotle distinguished between five virtues of thought: technê, epistêmê, phronêsis, sophia, and nous, with techne translating as "craft" or "art" and episteme as "knowledge". A full account of epistêmê is given in Posterior Analytics, where Aristotle argues that knowledge of necessary, rather than contingent, truths regarding causation is foundational for episteme. To emphasize the necessity, he uses geometry. Notably, Aristotle uses the notion of cause (aitia) in a broader sense than contemporary thought. For example, understanding how geometrical axioms lead to a theorem about properties of triangles counts as understanding the cause of the proven property of the right triangle. As a result, episteme is a virtue of thought that deals with what cannot be otherwise, while techne and phronesis deal with what is contingent. Contemporary interpretations Michel Foucault For Foucault, an épistémè is the guiding unconsciousness of subjectivity within a given epoch – subjective parameters which form an historical a priori.: xxii  He uses the term épistémè (French pronunciation: ​[epistemɛ]) in his The Order of Things, in a specialized sense to mean the historical, non-temporal, a priori knowledge that grounds truth and discourses, thus representing the condition of their possibility within a particular epoch. In the book, Foucault describes épistémè:: 183  In any given culture and at any given moment, there is always only one épistémè that defines the conditions of possibility of all knowledge, whether expressed in a theory or silently invested in a practice. In subsequent writings, he makes it clear that several épistémè may co-exist and interact at the same time, being parts of various power-knowledge systems. Foucault attempts to demonstrate the constitutive limits of discourse, and in particular, the rules enabling their productivity; however, Foucault maintains that, though ideology may infiltrate and form science, it need not do so: it must be demonstrated how ideology actually forms the science in question; contradictions and lack of objectivity are not an indicator of ideology. Jean Piaget has compared Foucault's use of épistémè with Thomas Kuhn's notion of a paradigm. See also Zeitgeist

Sketchpad (a.k.a. Robot Draftsman) is a computer program written by Ivan Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis, for which he received the Turing Award in 1988, and the Kyoto Prize in 2012. It pioneered human–computer interaction (HCI), and is considered the ancestor of modern computer-aided design (CAD) programs as well as a major breakthrough in the development of computer graphics in general. For example, the graphical user interface (GUI) was derived from Sketchpad as well as modern object-oriented programming. Using the program, Ivan Sutherland showed that computer graphics could be used for both artistic and technical purposes in addition to demonstrating a novel method of human–computer interaction. History Sutherland was inspired by the Memex from "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush. Sketchpad inspired Douglas Engelbart to design and develop oN-Line System at the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) during the 1960s. See History of the graphical user interface for a more detailed discussion of GUI development. Software Sketchpad was the earliest program ever to utilize a complete graphical user interface.The clever way the program organized its geometric data pioneered the use of "master" ("objects") and "occurrences" ("instances") in computing and pointed forward to object oriented programming. The main idea was to have master drawings which one could instantiate into many duplicates. If the user changed the master drawing, all the instances would change as well. Geometric constraints was another major invention in Sketchpad, letting the user easily constrain geometric properties in the drawing—for instance, the length of a line or the angle between two lines could be fixed. As a trade magazine said, clearly Sutherland "broke new ground in 3D computer modeling and visual simulation, the basis for computer graphics and CAD/CAM". Very few programs can be called precedents for his achievements. Patrick J. Hanratty is sometimes called the "father of CAD/CAM" and wrote PRONTO, a numerical control language at General Electric in 1957, and wrote CAD software while working for General Motors beginning in 1961. Sutherland wrote in his thesis that Bolt, Beranek and Newman had a "similar program" and T-Square was developed by Peter Samson and one or more fellow MIT students in 1962, both for the PDP-1.The Computer History Museum holds program listings for Sketchpad. Hardware Sketchpad ran on the Lincoln TX-2 (1958) computer at MIT, which had 64k of 36-bit words. The user drew on the screen with the recently invented light pen, which relayed information on its position by computing at what time the light from the scanning Cathode-ray tube screen is detected. To configure the initial position of the light pen, the word "INK" was displayed on the screen, which, upon tapping, initialised the program with a white cross to continue keeping track of the pen's movement relative to its previous position. Of the 36 bits available to store each display spot in the display file, 20 gave the coordinates of that spot for the display system and the remaining 16 gave the address of the n-component element responsible for adding that spot to display. The TX-2 was an experimental machine and the hardware changed frequently (on Wednesdays, according to Sutherland). By 1975, the light pen and the Cathode-ray tube with which it had been used had been removed. Publications The Sketchpad program was part and parcel of Sutherland's Ph.D. thesis at MIT and peripherally related to the Computer-Aided Design project at that time. Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System. See also Comparison of CAD software Bibliography Coons, Steven (1964), "Computer Sketchpad", in Fitch, John (ed.), Science Reporter (episode), explains the principles of "Sketchpad". Kay, Alan, "Pt 1", Doing with Images Makes Symbols (video presentation), Archive, 4min5. Müller-Prove, Matthias, Graphical User Interface of Sketchpad, DE: MProve. Sutherland, Ivan Edward (1980), Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System, New York: Garland Publishers, ISBN 0-8240-4411-8. ———, Sketchpad: A man-machine graphical communication system (PDF) (PhD thesis), UK: CAM, Technical Report No. 574. ———, "Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System", AFIPS conference proceedings (paper), PL: ACI, archived from the original on 2005-04-22. Yares, Evan (February 2013). "50 Years of CAD". Design World: 66–71. ——— (30 January 1963), Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System (PDF), Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology via Defense Technical Information Center, Technical Report No. 296, archived from the original on April 8, 2013, retrieved 2007-11-03: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link). Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Sketchpad", Youtube. Demo 1, 2

Qin Hui (Chinese: 秦晖; pinyin: Qín Huī; born 1953) is a Chinese historian and public intellectual. He previously held the position of Professor of History, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is now an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Government and Public Administration, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Career Qin's primary field is economic history and peasant studies. His mentor was Zhao Lisheng (Chinese: 赵俪生), a Marxist historian in China. Since 1992 he has emerged as a prominent public intellectual, taking a stand on a range of issues, often in conflict with the official doctrines of the Chinese government. His general focus is China's agrarian history. Qin is a writer in the Sinosphere and the Chinese-speaking Internet, where collections of his works are commonly found. An important case in point is his doctrine of "issues versus isms" (wenti yu zhuyi). Banning of Moving Away from the Imperial Regime In December 2015, Qin Hui's new book Moving Away from the Imperial Regime (走出帝制; Zǒuchū Dìzhì), a collection of articles examining how the "dream" of constitutional democracy fell apart in China in the early 20th century after the country broke free from the Qing imperial order, was banned by the Chinese government. The book was a bestseller before the ban. "It's like they want to kill someone and won't even let him complain about it," Qin commented; "I can’t talk about this matter." An anonymous employee at the book's publisher said that the book had "quality problems". The ban was issued days before China celebrated its second annual Constitution Day. Views In terms of political ideology, Qin Hui defends a left-liberal position. He favors privatization under strict conditions of democratic openness. However he opposes market fundamentalism in its Chinese forms, and seeks to introduce institutions of social democracy, including some aspects of the welfare state. He strongly defends liberty as a political value, and often allies with other Chinese intellectuals labeled "liberal". He has engaged in polemics with the Chinese New Left, particularly its more populist and nationalist forms. He has for example signed petitions protesting chauvinistic responses to the September 11 attacks in New York City. As a public intellectual, Qin has worked to initiate debates on social justice. Having himself been sent down to work as a peasant in a poor mountainous region of Southwest China in the Cultural Revolution, Qin has argued that China's peasantry suffers from a grave lack of social justice to the present day. At the same time, he has stated in his historical research that the peasantry has a strong tendency to enhance their citizen status whenever possible (whereas the urban working class has often tended to demand restitution of the dependent client status it enjoyed under the Maoist planned economy). Qin has drawn on the work of Alexander Chayanov, Eric Wolf and other writers on agrarian society to attack cultural essentialism in studies of the Chinese peasantry, which often takes the form of portraying the peasantry as permanently imbued with Confucianism and the collectivist ethics of the feudal patriarchal lineage. Qin has been concerned to show that history rather than culture provides a solid explanatory framework for the empirical phenomena. Contrary to the received Maoist view which emphasizes peasant wars as expressions of class struggle, in his research on agrarian history Qin concludes that the most significant fault-line in the countryside was not between peasant and landlord, but between peasant and official. This has obvious consequences for interpreting contemporary rural China. Personal life Qin Hui is married with one daughter. His wife, Jin Yan (金雁) is an eminent scholar of Eastern European and Russian affairs in her own right, often collaborating with Qin under the nom-de-plume Su Wen (苏文). History lectures on the web Broken up and Reconnection (Chinese:秦晖-断裂与联系：30年、60年、120年的中国历程.mp3) Beware of problem colonization (Chinese:秦晖：警惕“问题殖民”.mp3) On Chinese peasants (Chinese: 秦晖-10.06.24-农民问题的历史与现实.mp3) China's Land system (Chinese: 秦晖-十字路口中的中国二元土地制度.mp3) See also Chinese philosophy Further reading Kelly, David (August 2005). "Guest editor's Introduction". The Chinese Economy. 38 (4): 3–11. doi:10.1080/10971475.2005.11033531. S2CID 219305447. Hui, Qin (August 2005). "The common baseline of modern thought". The Chinese Economy. 38 (4): 12–22. doi:10.1080/10971475.2005.11033529. S2CID 152998087. Hui, Qin (March–April 2003). "Dividing the big family assets". New Left Review. New Left Review. II (20). Qin Hui and Su Wen, Tianyuanshi yu kuangxiangqu–Guanzhong moshi yu qianjindai shehuide zairenshi (Pastorals and rhapsodies: the Central Shaanxi model in rethinking pre-modern society) (Beijing: Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe, 1996). Qin Hui, Wenti yu zhuyi (Issues and isms) (Changchun chubanshe, 1999). Dilemmas of Twenty-First Century Globalization: Explanations and Solutions, with a Critique of Thomas Piketty’s Twenty-First Century Capitalism by Qin Hui, Translation and Introduction by David Ownby

Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment Lee (2007 film) Lee (2017 film) Lee (2023 film) Lee (novel), by Tito Perdue "Lee", a 1973 single by The Detroit Emeralds Businesses Finance Thomas H. Lee Partners, an American private equity firm founded in 1974 Lee Equity Partners, a breakaway firm founded in 2006 Manufacturers Lee Tires, a division of Goodyear Lee Filters, a maker of lighting filters Other businesses Lee (jeans), an American clothing brand Lee Enterprises, an American media company (NYSE: LEE) Education Lee College, Bayton, Texas, United States Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee, US Meteorology List of storms named Lee Lee wave, atmospheric oscillations as the wind moves over mountains Lee side, the side of a ship, boat, or island that is not exposed to the wind Names Given name Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi 李), a common Chinese surname Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi 利), a Chinese surname Lý (Vietnamese surname) or Lí (李), a common Vietnamese surname Lee (Korean surname) or Rhee or Yi (Hanja 李, Hangul 리 or 이), a common Korean surname Lee (English surname), a common English surname List of people with surname Lee List of people with surname Li List of people with the Korean family name Lee Places United Kingdom Lee, Devon Lee, Hampshire Lee, London Lee, Mull, a location in Argyll and Bute Lee, Northumberland, a location Lee, Shropshire, a location Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire Lee District (Metropolis) The Lee, Buckinghamshire, parish and village name, formally known as Lee River Lee — alternative name for River Lea United States Lee, California Lee, Florida Lee, Illinois Lee, Indiana Lee, Maine Lee, Massachusetts, a New England town Lee (CDP), Massachusetts, the central village in the town Lee, Nevada Lee, New Hampshire Lee, New York, a town Lee (hamlet), New York, within the town of Lee Lees Station, Tennessee, also called Lee Lee Peak, in Missouri Mount Lee, in California Van Aken–Lee (RTA Rapid Transit station) (signed "Lee – Van Aken"), a station on the RTA Blue Line in Cleveland, Ohio Elsewhere Lée, southwestern France Lee, Uttarakhand, India Electoral district of Lee, in South Australia River Lee, in Ireland Lee (Vechte), a river in Germany Vehicles Lee side, a ship or boat's downwind side M3 Lee, an American WWII tank See also LEA (disambiguation) Leah (disambiguation) Le (disambiguation) LEE (disambiguation) Lees (disambiguation) Lee's (disambiguation) Leigh (disambiguation) Li (disambiguation) Ly (disambiguation) Justice Lee (disambiguation)

Kitty Lai Mei Han (Chinese: 黎美嫻, born October 19, 1966) is a Hong Kong retired actress and most notable for her performance in TVB drama series The New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龍記) as Chiu Man / Zhao Min (趙敏), and Two Most Honorable Knights (絕代雙驕) as Tit Sum-lan / Tie Sin Lan (鐵心蘭). Career Kitty made her debut in 1985 after joining TVB acting class and was heavily promoted by TVB. At the tender age of 20, she quickly rose to fame and became a leading actress in several drama series including The Legend of Dik Ching(狄青) (TVB, 1986), The Ordeal Before the Revolution (賊公阿牛) (TVB, 1986), and The New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龍記)(TVB, 1986). She became one of TVB's Five Beauties and was regarded as the “Queen of Ancient Costumes” as she often appeared in TVB's period costume dramas.Kitty stayed with TVB until 1991 and left to further her career in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the mainland China. In 2000, she retired from the acting career and started working for hospital Christian ministry. Personal life Kitty converted to Christianity in 1996.In 2005, Kitty married a pilot named Jackie Tse Hing-siu (謝興肇) of Cathay Pacific Airlines. Currently, Kitty is a full-time housewife and a volunteer for church and charity services. During her spare time, Kitty joins the Home of the Artists along with Ada Choi, Monica Chan, Noel Leung, and other actresses. Filmography TV Series Before Dawn (愛在暴風的日子) (TVB, 1998) The Land of the Condors (大地飛鷹) (TVB, 1992) The Mystery of the Parchment (天龍奇俠) (TVB, 1990) When Things Get Tough (午夜太陽) (TVB, 1990) The Challenge of Life (人在邊緣) (TVB, 1990) Blood of Good and Evil (我本善良) (TVB, 1990) War Heroes (天變) (TVB, 1989) Deadly Secret (連城訣) (TVB, 1989) Yanky Boy (回到唐山) (TVB, 1989) Mo Min Kap Sin Fung / File Noir (無冕急先鋒) (TVB, 1989) Withered in the Wind (名門) (TVB, 1988) Two Most Honorable Knights (絕代雙驕) (TVB, 1988) Behind Silk Curtains (大都會) (TVB, 1988) The Rise of a Kung Fu Master (南拳蔡李佛) (TVB, 1988) The Legend of the Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄) (TVB, 1987) New Heavenly Sword & Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龍記) (TVB, 1986) Turn Around and Die (英雄故事) (TVB, 1986) The Ordeal Before the Revolution (賊公阿牛) (TVB, 1986) The Legend of Dik Ching (狄青) (TVB, 1986) The Battle Among the Clans (大香港) (TVB, 1985) Kitty Lai at IMDb

In Norse cosmology, Niflheim or Niflheimr (Old Norse: [ˈnivlˌhɛimz̠]; "World of Mist", literally "Home of Mist") is a location which sometimes overlaps with the notions of Niflhel and Hel. The name Niflheimr appears only in two extant sources: Gylfaginning and the much-debated Hrafnagaldr Óðins. Niflheim was primarily a realm of primordial ice and cold, with the frozen rivers of Élivágar and the well of Hvergelmir, from which come all the rivers.According to Gylfaginning, Niflheim was the second of the two primordial realms to emanate out of Ginnungagap, the other one being Muspelheim, the realm of fire. Between these two realms of cold and heat, creation began when its waters mixed with the heat of Muspelheim to form a "creating steam". Later, it became the abode of Hel, a goddess daughter of Loki, and the afterlife for her subjects, those who did not die a heroic or notable death. Etymology Nifl ("mist"; whence the Icelandic nifl) is a cognate to the Old English nifol ("dark, gloomy"), (Middle) Dutch nevel, Old High German nebul ("fog") and Ancient Greek νεφέλη, [ne.pʰé.lɛː], ("cloud"). Gylfaginning In Gylfaginning by Snorri Sturluson, Gylfi, the king of ancient Scandinavia, receives an education in Norse mythology from Odin in the guise of three men. Gylfi learns from Odin (as Jafnhárr) that Niflheimr was the first world to be created after Muspelheim: It was many ages before the earth was shaped that the Mist-World [Niflheimr] was made; and midmost within it lies the well that is called Hvergelmir, from which spring the rivers called Svöl, Gunnthrá, Fjörm, Fimbulthul, Slídr and Hríd, Sylgr and Ylgr, Víd, Leiptr; Gjöll is hard by Hel-gates. Odin (as Þriði) further tells Gylfi that it was when the ice from Niflheimr met the flames from Muspelheimr that creation began and Ymir was formed: Just as cold arose out of Niflheim, and all terrible things, so also all that looked toward Múspellheim became hot and glowing; but Ginnungagap was as mild as windless air, and when the breath of heat met the rime, so that it melted and dripped, life was quickened from the yeast-drops, by the power of that which sent the heat, and became a man's form. And that man is named Ymir, but the Rime-Giants call him Aurgelmir; ... In relation to the world tree Yggdrasill, Jafnhárr (Odin) tells Gylfi that frost jötnar is located under the second root, where Ginnungagap (Yawning Void) once was: The Ash is greatest of all trees and best: its limbs spread out over all the world and stand above heaven. Three roots of the tree uphold it and stand exceeding broad: one is among the Æsir; another among the Rime-Giants, in that place where aforetime was the Yawning Void; the third stands over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, and Nídhöggr gnaws the root from below. Gylfi is furthermore informed that when Loki had engendered Hel, she was cast into Niflheimr by Odin: Hel he cast into Niflheim, and gave to her power over nine worlds, to apportion all abodes among those that were sent to her: that is, men dead of sickness or of old age. She has great possessions there; her walls are exceeding high and her gates great. Hel thus became the mistress of the world of those dead in disease and old age. This is the only instance in which Niflheim and Hel are equated (the Poetic Edda mentions Hel but doesn't say anything about Niflheim). However, there is some confusion in the different versions of the manuscript, with some of them saying Niflheim where others say Niflhel (the lowest level of Hel). Thus in the passage about the last destination of the jötunn who was killed by Thor after he had built Asgard: Now that the Æsir saw surely that the hill-giant was come thither, they did not regard their oaths reverently, but called on Thor, who came as quickly. And straightway the hammer Mjöllnir was raised aloft; he paid the wright's wage, and not with the sun and the moon. Nay, he even denied him dwelling in Jötunheim, and struck but the one first blow, so that his skull was burst into small crumbs, and sent him down below under Niflhel [Niflheim]. Hrafnagaldr Óðins In Hrafnagaldr Óðins, there is a brief mention of Niflheimr as a location in the North, towards which the sun (Alfr's illuminator) chased the night as it rose: See also Æsir Aurgelmir Ginnungagap Gjöll Hel Hvergelmir Níðhöggr Niflhel Rime-Giants List of Germanic deities

In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse Miðgarðr; Old English Middangeard, Old Saxon Middilgard, Old High German Mittilagart, and Gothic Midjun-gards; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth (equivalent in meaning to the Greek term οἰκουμένη : oikouménē, "inhabited") inhabited by and known to humans in early Germanic cosmology. The Old Norse form plays a notable role in Norse cosmology. Etymology The Old Norse name Miðgarðr is cognate with Gothic Midjungards (attested in the Gospel of Luke as a translation of the Greek οἰκουμένη), Old Saxon Middilgard (in Heliand), Old High German Mittilagart (in Muspilli), and Old English Middangeard. The latter, which appears in both prose and poetry, was transformed to Middellærd or Mittelerde ("Middle-earth") in Middle English literature.All these forms stem from Common Germanic *Meðjana-garðaz, a compound of *meðjanaz ("middle") and *garðaz ("yard, enclosure"). In early Germanic cosmology, it stands alongside the term world (cf. Old English weorold, Old Saxon werold, Old High German weralt, Old Frisian wrald, Old Norse verǫld), itself from a Common Germanic compound *wira-alđiz ("man-age"), which refers to the inhabited world, i.e. the realm of humankind. Old Norse In Norse mythology, Miðgarðr became applied to the wall around the world that the gods constructed from the eyebrows of the jötunn Ymir as a defense against the jötnar who lived in Jotunheim, east of Manheimr, the "home of men", a word used to refer to the entire world. The gods slew the jötunn Ymir, the first created being, and put his body into the central void of the universe, creating the world out of his body: his flesh constituting the land, his blood the oceans, his bones the mountains, his teeth the cliffs, his hairs the trees, and his brains the clouds. Ymir's skull was held by four dwarfs, Nordri, Sudri, Austri, and Vestri, who represent the four points on the compass and became the dome of heaven. The sun, moon, and stars were said to be scattered sparks in the skull. According to the Eddas, Midgard will be destroyed at Ragnarök, the battle at the end of the world. Jörmungandr (also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent) will arise from the ocean, poisoning the land and sea with his venom and causing the sea to rear up and lash against the land. The final battle will take place on the plain of Vígríðr, following which Midgard and almost all life on it will be destroyed, with the earth sinking into the sea only to rise again, fertile and green when the cycle repeats and the creation begins again. Although most surviving instances of the word Midgard refer to spiritual matters, it was also used in more mundane situations, as in the Viking Age runestone poem from the inscription Sö 56 from Fyrby: The Danish and Swedish form Midgård or Midgaard, the Norwegian Midgard or Midgård, as well as the Icelandic and Faroese form Miðgarður, all derive from the Old Norse term. English The name middangeard occurs six times in the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and is the same word as Midgard in Old Norse. The term is equivalent in meaning to the Greek term Oikoumene, as referring to the known and inhabited world. The concept of Midgard occurs many times in Middle English. The association with earth (OE eorðe) in Middle English middellærd, middelerde is by popular etymology; the modern English cognate of geard "enclosure" is yard. An early example of this transformation is from the Ormulum: þatt ure Drihhtin wollde / ben borenn i þiss middellærdthat our Lord wanted / be born in this Middle-earth.The usage of "Middle-earth" as a name for a setting was popularized by Old English scholar J. R. R. Tolkien in his The Lord of the Rings and other fantasy works; he was originally inspired by the references to middangeard and Éarendel in the Old English poem Crist A. Old High German and Old Saxon Mittilagart is mentioned in the 9th-century Old High German Muspilli (v. 54) meaning "the world" as opposed to the sea and the heavens: muor varsuuilhit sih, suilizot lougiu der himil, mano uallit, prinnit mittilagartSea is swallowed, flaming burn the heavens, Moon falls, Midgard burnsMiddilgard is also attested in the Old Saxon Heliand: oƀar middilgard, endi that he mahti allaro manno gihwesOver the middle earth; And all men He could help

Quora is a social question-and-answer website and online knowledge market headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25, 2009, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can collaborate by editing questions and commenting on answers that have been submitted by other users. As of 2020, the website was visited by 300 million users a month. History Founding and naming Quora was co-founded by former Facebook employees Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever in June 2009. In an answer to the question, "How did Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever come up with the name Quora?" Cheever wrote: We spent a few hours brainstorming and writing down all the ideas that we could think of. After consulting with friends and eliminating ones we didn't love, we narrowed it down to 5 or 6 finalists, and eventually settled on Quora. The closest competition that [the name] Quora had was Quiver. 2010–2013: Early growth In March 2010, Quora, Inc. was valued at $86 million. Quora first became available to the public on June 21, 2010, and was praised for its interface and for the quality of the answers written by its users, many of whom were recognized as experts in their fields. Quora's user base increased quickly, and by late December 2010, the site was seeing spikes of visitors five to ten times its usual load—so much that the website initially had difficulties handling the increased traffic. Until 2016, Quora did not show ads because "...ads can often be negative for user experience. Nobody likes banner ads, ads from shady companies, or ads that are irrelevant to their needs."In June 2011, Quora redesigned the navigation and usability of its website. Co-founder Adam D'Angelo compared the redesigned Quora to Wikipedia, and stated that the changes to the website were made on the basis of what had worked and what had not when the website had experienced unprecedented growth six months earlier. In September 2012, co-founder Charlie Cheever stepped down as co-operator of the company, taking an advisory role. The other co-founder, Adam D'Angelo, continued to maintain a high degree of control over the company.In January 2013, Quora launched a blogging platform allowing users to post non-answer content. Quora launched a full-text search of questions and answers on its website on March 20, 2013, and extended the feature to mobile devices in late May 2013. It also announced in May 2013 that usage metrics had tripled relative to the same time in the prior year. In November 2013, Quora introduced a feature called Stats to allow all Quora users to see summary and detailed statistics of how many people had viewed, upvoted, and shared their questions and answers. TechCrunch reported that, although Quora had no immediate plans for monetization, they believed that search ads would likely be their eventual source of revenue. 2014–2017: Continued growth and new features 2014 organization Quora was evolving into "a more organized Yahoo Answers, a classier Reddit, an opinionated Wikipedia", and became popular in tech circles. In April 2014, Quora raised $80 million from Tiger Global at a reported $900 million valuation. Quora was one of the Summer 2014 Y Combinator companies, although it was described as "the oldest Y-Combinator ever". Parlio acquisition In March 2016, Quora acquired the online community website Parlio. Question details Users were able to add descriptions to questions. On December 8, 2015, these were limited to 800 characters, and questions themselves to 150, not affecting existing questions. On August 3, 2017, question details were discontinued entirely and replaced with an optional source URL input field to provide context, reportedly to encourage users to phrase questions more descriptively. Existing question details were stored in comments under respective questions. Advertisement rollouts In April 2016, Quora began a limited rollout of advertising on the site. The first ad placement that the company accepted was from Uber. Over the next few years the site began gradually to show more ads, which Vox described in 2019 as "...still relatively sparse." Multilingual expansion In October 2016, Quora launched a Spanish version of its website to the public; in early 2017, a beta version of Quora in French was announced. In May 2017, beta versions in German and Italian were introduced. In September 2017 a beta version in Japanese was launched. In April 2018, Beta versions in Hindi, Portuguese, and Indonesian were launched. in September 2018, Quora announced that additional versions in Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch were planned. 2017 anonymity changes On February 9, 2017, Quora announced changes to their anonymity feature, detaching anonymous questions and edits from accounts. When asking or answering anonymously, an anonymous edit link is generated, only through which the question or answer can be edited in the future. Since then, commenting anonymously and toggling one's answer between anonymous and public is no longer possible. These changes went into effect on March 20, 2017. Users were able to request a list of anonymous edit links to their existing anonymous questions and answers until then. 2017 Series D funding In April 2017, Quora claimed to have 190 million monthly unique visitors, up from 100 million a year earlier. That same month, Quora was reported to have received Series D funding with a valuation of $1.8 billion. 2018–2019: Further growth and data breach In September 2018, Quora reported that it was receiving 300 million unique visitors every month. Despite its large number of registered users, Quora did not possess the same level of mainstream cultural dominance as sites like Twitter, which, at the time, had roughly 326 million registered users. This may have been because a large number of registered users on the site did not use it regularly and many did not even know they had accounts since they had either created them unknowingly through other social media sites linked to Quora or created them years previously and forgotten about them. Quora uses popups and interstitials to force users to login or register before they can see more of the content, similar to a metered paywall.In December 2018, Quora announced that approximately 100 million user accounts were affected by a data breach. The hacked information included users' names, email addresses, encrypted passwords, data from social networks like Facebook and Twitter if people had chosen to link them to their Quora accounts, questions they had asked, and answers they had written. Adam D'Angelo stated, "The overwhelming majority of the content accessed was already public on Quora, but the compromise of account and other private information is serious." Compromised information could also allow hackers to log into a Quora user's connected social media accounts, via access tokens. A class action lawsuit, case number 5:18-cv-07597-BLF, was filed in the Northern District of California, on behalf of named plaintiffs in New Jersey and Colorado by Capstone Law and Franklin D. Azar & Associates, P.C.By May 2019, Quora was valued at $2 billion as a company and it was finalizing a $60 million investment round, which was led by Valor Equity Partners, a private equity firm with ties to Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX. In spite of this, the site still showed very few ads compared to other sites of its kind and the company was still struggling to turn a profit, having made only $20 million in revenue in 2018. Several investors passed on the opportunity to invest in Quora, citing the company's "poor track record of actually making money." Schleifer characterized the disparity between Quora's valuation as a company and its actual profits as a result of "the high valuation for virtually everything these days in the tech sector."In December 2019, Quora announced that it would open its first international engineering office in Vancouver, which would deal with machine learning and other engineering functions. That same month, Quora launched its Arabic, Gujarati, Hebrew, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu versions. 2020 In January 2020, Quora laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its San Francisco Bay Area and New York offices for financial reasons.In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Adam D'Angelo announced that Quora would permanently allow for remote work. 2021 On April 19, Quora eliminated the requirement that users use their real names and allowed users to use pseudonyms.On August 5, Quora began allowing contributors to monetize their content. In addition, the platform launched a subscription service called Quora+ which allows subscribers to pay a $5 monthly fee or a $50 annual subscription to access content that any creator chooses to put behind a paywall. Operation Website URL formatURLs of questions contain only the question title without a numeric identifier as used on Stack Exchange sites (in addition to a URL slug), and /unanswered/ before the title, if the question is unanswered. User interfaceWith the help of asynchronous JavaScript and XML, some site functionality resembles instant messaging, such as updating follow counts and an indicator showing that a user is typing an answer. Real Name Policy Prior to April 19, 2021, Quora required users to register with the complete form of their real names rather than an Internet pseudonym or other screen name; although verification of names was not required, false names could be reported by the community. This was done with the ostensible intent of adding credibility to answers. Users have the option to write their answers anonymously. Visitors unwilling to log in or use cookies have had to resort to workarounds to use the site. Users may also log in with their Google or Facebook accounts by using the OpenID protocol. The Real Name Policy was rescinded on April 19, 2021.As of 2011, the Quora community included answers by some well-known people such as Jimmy Wales, Richard A. Muller, Clayton C. Anderson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Adrián Lamo, as well as some current and former professional athletic personalities, scientists, and other experts in their fields. Quora allows users to create user profiles with a name and photo, and access to edit count and other site use statistics. In August 2012, blogger Ivan Kirigin pointed out that acquaintances and followers could see his activity, including which questions he had looked at. In response, Quora stopped showing question views in feeds later that month. By default, Quora exposes its users' profiles to search engines. Users can disable this feature. Answer recommendations Quora has developed its own proprietary algorithm to rank answers, which works similarly to Google's PageRank. Quora uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud technology to host the servers that run its website.Currently, Quora has various ways of recommending questions to users: Home feed question recommendations In this method, users have a timeline that is personalized to their preferences. Quora also provides "interesting" questions that are relevant to those preferences. Daily digest In this method, Quora sends a daily email containing a set of questions with one answer that is deemed the best answer, given certain ranking criteria. Related questions In this method, a set of questions that relates to the current question is displayed on the side. This display is not tailored to the specific user. Requested answers This feature lets a user direct a question to other users whom they consider better suited to answer it.Users of Quora must have short bios for this very purpose. Short bio usually consists of either profession ("X at company W") or education ("YYYY [college/university name] [specialty]"). Selecting own origin (nationality/country) for the short bio instead may result in being recommended for too many questions that mention the country/the nation. Content moderation Quora supports various features to moderate content posted by users. Quora relies on user reporting, and sometimes human moderators, although many complain that most of the more recent moderation actually comes from AI "bots" looking for specific keywords in order to flag content, without human beings doing as much supervision as was done when the site was newer and the membership was smaller and more manageable. Many members, and former members whose numbers are rapidly growing, complain that in its current state, there is little logic behind moderation decisions, with racism, misogyny, and hate speech routinely allowed, while legitimate content is deleted if it is reported by those who disagree with said content. Many point to large-scale personnel layoffs as the reason that moderation by AI is often random and illogical, with appeals often ignored. Top Writers Program In November 2012, Quora introduced the Top Writers Program as a way to recognize individuals who had made especially valuable content contributions to the site and encourage them to continue. About 150 writers were chosen each year. Top writers were invited to occasional exclusive events and received gifts such as branded clothing items and books. The company believed that by cultivating a group of core users who were particularly invested in the site, a positive feedback loop of user engagement would be created.After not selecting any 2019 or 2020 English-language Top Writers, the program was officially retired in April 2021 but will continue in other languages. Reception Reviews Quora was reviewed extensively by the media in 2010. Quora was hacked in 2018, leading to loss of information of users to hackers. According to Robert Scoble, Quora succeeded in combining attributes of Twitter and Facebook. Later, in 2011, Scoble criticized Quora for being a "horrid service for blogging" and, although a decent question and answer website, not substantially better than alternatives.Quora was highly criticized for removing question details in August 2017. According to some users, the removal of question details limited the ability to submit personal questions and questions requiring code excerpts, multimedia, or complexity of any sort that could not fit into the length limit for a URL. According to an official product update announcement, the removal of question details was made to emphasize "canonical" questions.The moderation system of Quora, which relies largely on automation, has been frequently criticized as ineffective, inconsistent, and opaque from the perspective of users. The website automatically flags seemingly innocuous actions (such as pasting a web address in order to cite a source) while appearing to ignore answers, posts, and comments that users have reported as false, highly inflammatory, or harassing. Moderation decisions can be appealed by users, but Quora's handling of appeals is criticized as automated and impersonal, leaving many to wonder how little of the website's moderation is performed by human staff.The inconsistency of Quora moderation has been blamed for the proliferation of harmful prejudices on the website. In 2014, in addition to being privately harassed, female users noted a ubiquity of pointed, sexist questions about women with more clearly sexist question details whereas the same kinds of questions rephrased to be about men were quickly taken down. One user was subject of a sexually defamatory post containing a photo of her that was taken down by moderation only after the incident was publicized online. There has also been an increase of anti-Semitism on the website, as exemplified by a community for Holocaust denial. Use in influence operations In 2018, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, reported on successful results from coordinated use of Quora in foreign propaganda campaigns. In 2020, Ben Nimmo, a founder of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, noted Quora's popularity as a place to create fake accounts and plant disinformation. In 2023, Meta Platforms stated that Chinese law enforcement's "Spamouflage" influence operation had targeted Quora. Timeline See also Comparison of Q&A sites Official website

Edgar Allan Poe (né Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, author, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when his mother died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young adulthood. He attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack of money. He quarreled with John Allan over the funds for his education, and his gambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in the United States Army under an assumed name, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife in 1829. Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declared a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and parted ways with Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1836, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, but she died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn, later renamed The Stylus. But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances. The cause of his death remains unknown, and has been variously attributed to many causes including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. Early life and education Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second child of American actor David Poe Jr. and English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. He had an elder brother, Henry, and a younger sister, Rosalie. Their grandfather, David Poe, had emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland, around 1750.His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died a year later from pulmonary tuberculosis. Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia, who dealt in a variety of goods, including cloth, wheat, tombstones, tobacco, and slaves. The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", although they never formally adopted him.The Allan family had Poe baptized into the Episcopal Church in 1812. John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son. The family sailed to the United Kingdom in 1815, and Poe attended the grammar school for a short period in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, where Allan was born, before rejoining the family in London in 1816. There he studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until summer 1817. He was subsequently entered at the Reverend John Bransby's Manor House School at Stoke Newington, then a suburb 4 miles (6 km) north of London.Poe moved with the Allans back to Richmond in 1820. In 1824, he served as the lieutenant of the Richmond youth honor guard as the city celebrated the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette. In March 1825, Allan's uncle and business benefactor William Galt died, who was said to be one of the wealthiest men in Richmond, leaving Allan several acres of real estate. The inheritance was estimated at $750,000 (equivalent to $19,000,000 in 2022). By summer 1825, Allan celebrated his expansive wealth by purchasing a two-story brick house called Moldavia.Poe may have become engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster before he registered at the University of Virginia in February 1826 to study ancient and modern languages. The university was in its infancy, established on the ideals of its founder Thomas Jefferson. It had strict rules against gambling, horses, guns, tobacco, and alcohol, but these rules were mostly ignored. Jefferson enacted a system of student self-government, allowing students to choose their own studies, make their own arrangements for boarding, and report all wrongdoing to the faculty. The unique system was still in chaos, and there was a high dropout rate. During his time there, Poe lost touch with Royster and also became estranged from his foster father over gambling debts. He claimed that Allan had not given him sufficient money to register for classes, purchase texts, and procure and furnish a dormitory. Allan did send additional money and clothes, but Poe's debts increased. Poe gave up on the university after a year but did not feel welcome returning to Richmond, especially when he learned that his sweetheart Royster had married another man, Alexander Shelton. He traveled to Boston in April 1827, sustaining himself with odd jobs as a clerk and newspaper writer, and started using the pseudonym Henri Le Rennet during this period. Military career Poe was unable to support himself, so he enlisted in the United States Army as a private on May 27, 1827, using the name "Edgar A. Perry". He claimed that he was 22 years old even though he was 18. He first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month. That year, he released his first book, a 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems, attributed with the byline "by a Bostonian". Only 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention. Poe's regiment was posted to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina, and traveled by ship on the brig Waltham on November 8, 1827. Poe was promoted to "artificer", an enlisted tradesman who prepared shells for artillery, and had his monthly pay doubled. He served for two years and attained the rank of Sergeant Major for Artillery, the highest rank that a non-commissioned officer could achieve; he then sought to end his five-year enlistment early. He revealed his real name and his circumstances to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard, who would allow Poe to be discharged only if he reconciled with Allan. Poe wrote a letter to Allan, who was unsympathetic and spent several months ignoring Poe's pleas; Allan may not have written to Poe even to make him aware of his foster mother's illness. Frances Allan died on February 28, 1829, and Poe visited the day after her burial. Perhaps softened by his wife's death, Allan agreed to support Poe's attempt to be discharged in order to receive an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.Poe was finally discharged on April 15, 1829, after securing a replacement to finish his enlisted term for him. Before entering West Point, he moved to Baltimore for a time to stay with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm, her daughter Virginia Eliza Clemm (Poe's first cousin), his brother Henry, and his invalid grandmother Elizabeth Cairnes Poe. In September of that year, Poe received "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard" in a review of his poetry by influential critic John Neal, prompting Poe to dedicate one of the poems to Neal in his second book Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems, published in Baltimore in 1829.Poe traveled to West Point and matriculated as a cadet on July 1, 1830. In October 1830, Allan married his second wife Louisa Patterson. The marriage and bitter quarrels with Poe over the children born to Allan out of extramarital affairs led to the foster father finally disowning Poe. Poe decided to leave West Point by purposely getting court-martialed. On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend formations, classes, or church. He tactically pleaded not guilty to induce dismissal, knowing that he would be found guilty.Poe left for New York in February 1831 and released a third volume of poems, simply titled Poems. The book was financed with help from his fellow cadets at West Point, many of whom donated 75 cents to the cause, raising a total of $170. They may have been expecting verses similar to the satirical ones Poe had written about commanding officers. It was printed by Elam Bliss of New York, labeled as "Second Edition", and including a page saying, "To the U.S. Corps of Cadets this volume is respectfully dedicated". The book once again reprinted the long poems "Tamerlane" and "Al Aaraaf" but also six previously unpublished poems, including early versions of "To Helen", "Israfel", and "The City in the Sea". Poe returned to Baltimore to his aunt, brother, and cousin in March 1831. His elder brother Henry had been in ill health, in part due to problems with alcoholism, and he died on August 1, 1831. Publishing career After his brother's death, Poe began more earnest attempts to start his career as a writer, but he chose a difficult time in American publishing to do so. He was one of the first Americans to live by writing alone and was hampered by the lack of an international copyright law. American publishers often produced unauthorized copies of British works rather than paying for new work by Americans. The industry was also particularly hurt by the Panic of 1837. There was a booming growth in American periodicals around this time, fueled in part by new technology, but many did not last beyond a few issues. Publishers often refused to pay their writers or paid them much later than they promised, and Poe repeatedly resorted to humiliating pleas for money and other assistance.After his early attempts at poetry, Poe had turned his attention to prose, likely based on John Neal's critiques in The Yankee magazine. He placed a few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only drama Politian. The Baltimore Saturday Visiter awarded him a prize in October 1833 for his short story "MS. Found in a Bottle". The story brought him to the attention of John P. Kennedy, a Baltimorean of considerable means who helped Poe place some of his stories and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. In 1835, Poe became assistant editor of the 'Southern Literary Messenger, but White discharged him within a few weeks for being drunk on the job. Poe returned to Baltimore, where he obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, though it is unknown if they were married at that time. He was 26 and she was 13. Poe was reinstated by White after promising good behavior, and he returned to Richmond with Virginia and her mother. He remained at the Messenger until January 1837. During this period, Poe claimed that its circulation increased from 700 to 3,500. He published several poems, book reviews, critiques, and stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia held a Presbyterian wedding ceremony performed by Amasa Converse at their Richmond boarding house, with a witness falsely attesting Clemm's age as 21. Philadelphia In 1838, Poe relocated to Philadelphia, where he lived at four different residences between 1838 and 1844, one of which at 532 N. 7th Street has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark. That same year, Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket was published and widely reviewed. In the summer of 1839, he became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He published numerous articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing his reputation as a trenchant critic which he had established at the Messenger. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes, though he made little money from it and it received mixed reviews.In June 1840, Poe published a prospectus announcing his intentions to start his own journal called The Stylus, although he originally intended to call it The Penn, since it would have been based in Philadelphia. He bought advertising space for his prospectus in the June 6, 1840, issue of Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post: "Prospectus of the Penn Magazine, a Monthly Literary journal to be edited and published in the city of Philadelphia by Edgar A. Poe." The journal was never produced before Poe's death. Poe left Burton's after about a year and found a position as writer and co-editor at Graham's Magazine, a successful monthly publication. In the last number of Graham's for 1841, Poe was among the co-signatories to an editorial note of celebration of the tremendous success the magazine had achieved in the past year: "Perhaps the editors of no magazine, either in America or in Europe, ever sat down, at the close of a year, to contemplate the progress of their work with more satisfaction than we do now. Our success has been unexampled, almost incredible. We may assert without fear of contradiction that no periodical ever witnessed the same increase during so short a period."Around this time, Poe attempted to secure a position in the administration of John Tyler, claiming that he was a member of the Whig Party. He hoped to be appointed to the United States Custom House in Philadelphia with help from President Tyler's son Robert, an acquaintance of Poe's friend Frederick Thomas. Poe failed to show up for a meeting with Thomas to discuss the appointment in mid-September 1842, claiming to have been sick, though Thomas believed that he had been drunk. Poe was promised an appointment, but all positions were filled by others.One evening in January 1842, Virginia showed the first signs of consumption, or tuberculosis, while singing and playing the piano, which Poe described as breaking a blood vessel in her throat. She only partially recovered, and Poe began to drink more heavily under the stress of her illness. He left Graham's and attempted to find a new position, for a time angling for a government post. He returned to New York where he worked briefly at the Evening Mirror before becoming editor of the Broadway Journal, and later its owner. There Poe alienated himself from other writers by publicly accusing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism, though Longfellow never responded. On January 29, 1845, Poe's poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation. It made Poe a household name almost instantly, though he was paid only $9 for its publication. It was concurrently published in The American Review: A Whig Journal under the pseudonym "Quarles". The Bronx The Broadway Journal failed in 1846, and Poe moved to a cottage in Fordham, New York, in the Bronx. That home, now known as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, was relocated in later years to a park near the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road. Nearby, Poe befriended the Jesuits at St. John's College, now Fordham University. Virginia died at the cottage on January 30, 1847. Biographers and critics often suggest that Poe's frequent theme of the "death of a beautiful woman" stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife.Poe was increasingly unstable after his wife's death. He attempted to court poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who lived in Providence, Rhode Island. Their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior. There is also strong evidence that Whitman's mother intervened and did much to derail the relationship. Poe then returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. Death On October 3, 1849, Poe was found semiconscious in Baltimore, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to Joseph W. Walker, who found him. He was taken to the Washington Medical College, where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning. Poe was not coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and why he was wearing clothes that were not his own. He is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. His attending physician said that Poe's final words were, "Lord help my poor soul". All of the relevant medical records have been lost, including Poe's death certificate.Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningeal inflammation, cholera, carbon monoxide poisoning, and rabies. One theory dating from 1872 suggests that Poe's death resulted from cooping, a form of electoral fraud in which citizens were forced to vote for a particular candidate, sometimes leading to violence and even murder. Griswold's memoir Immediately after Poe's death, his literary rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold wrote a slanted high-profile obituary under a pseudonym, filled with falsehoods that cast Poe as a lunatic, and which described him as a person who "walked the streets, in madness or melancholy, with lips moving in indistinct curses, or with eyes upturned in passionate prayers, (never for himself, for he felt, or professed to feel, that he was already damned)".The long obituary appeared in the New York Tribune, signed "Ludwig" on the day that Poe was buried in Baltimore. It was further published throughout the country. The obituary began, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it." "Ludwig" was soon identified as Griswold, an editor, critic, and anthologist who had borne a grudge against Poe since 1842. Griswold somehow became Poe's literary executor and attempted to destroy his enemy's reputation after his death.Griswold wrote a biographical article of Poe called "Memoir of the Author", which he included in an 1850 volume of the collected works. There he depicted Poe as a depraved, drunken, drug-addled madman and included Poe's letters as evidence. Many of his claims were either lies or distortions; for example, it is seriously disputed that Poe was a drug addict. Griswold's book was denounced by those who knew Poe well, including John Neal, who published an article defending Poe and attacking Griswold as a "Rhadamanthus, who is not to be bilked of his fee, a thimble-full of newspaper notoriety". Griswold's book nevertheless became a popularly accepted biographical source. This was in part because it was the only full biography available and was widely reprinted, and in part because readers thrilled at the thought of reading works by an "evil" man. Letters that Griswold presented as proof were later revealed as forgeries. Literary style and themes Genres Poe's best-known fiction works are Gothic horror, adhering to the genre's conventions to appeal to the public taste. His most recurring themes deal with questions of death, including its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns of premature burial, the reanimation of the dead, and mourning. Many of his works are generally considered part of the dark romanticism genre, a literary reaction to transcendentalism which Poe strongly disliked. He referred to followers of the transcendental movement as "Frog-Pondians", after the pond on Boston Common, and ridiculed their writings as "metaphor—run mad," lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or "mysticism for mysticism's sake". Poe once wrote in a letter to Thomas Holley Chivers that he did not dislike transcendentalists, "only the pretenders and sophists among them".Beyond horror, Poe also wrote satires, humor tales, and hoaxes. For comic effect, he used irony and ludicrous extravagance, often in an attempt to liberate the reader from cultural conformity. "Metzengerstein" is the first story that Poe is known to have published and his first foray into horror, but it was originally intended as a burlesque satirizing the popular genre. Poe also reinvented science fiction, responding in his writing to emerging technologies such as hot air balloons in "The Balloon-Hoax".Poe wrote much of his work using themes aimed specifically at mass-market tastes. To that end, his fiction often included elements of popular pseudosciences, such as phrenology and physiognomy. Literary theory Poe's writing reflects his literary theories, which he presented in his criticism and also in essays such as "The Poetic Principle". He disliked didacticism and allegory, though he believed that meaning in literature should be an undercurrent just beneath the surface. Works with obvious meanings, he wrote, cease to be art. He believed that work of quality should be brief and focus on a specific single effect. To that end, he believed that the writer should carefully calculate every sentiment and idea.Poe describes his method in writing "The Raven" in the essay "The Philosophy of Composition", and he claims to have strictly followed this method. It has been questioned whether he really followed this system, however. T. S. Eliot said: "It is difficult for us to read that essay without reflecting that if Poe plotted out his poem with such calculation, he might have taken a little more pains over it: the result hardly does credit to the method." Biographer Joseph Wood Krutch described the essay as "a rather highly ingenious exercise in the art of rationalization". Legacy Influence During his lifetime, Poe was mostly recognized as a literary critic. Fellow critic James Russell Lowell called him "the most discriminating, philosophical, and fearless critic upon imaginative works who has written in America", suggesting—rhetorically—that he occasionally used prussic acid instead of ink. Poe's caustic reviews earned him the reputation of being a "tomahawk man". A favorite target of Poe's criticism was Boston's acclaimed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was often defended by his literary friends in what was later called "The Longfellow War". Poe accused Longfellow of "the heresy of the didactic", writing poetry that was preachy, derivative, and thematically plagiarized. Poe correctly predicted that Longfellow's reputation and style of poetry would decline, concluding, "We grant him high qualities, but deny him the Future".Poe was also known as a writer of fiction and became one of the first American authors of the 19th century to become more popular in Europe than in the United States. Poe is particularly respected in France, in part due to early translations by Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire's translations became definitive renditions of Poe's work in Continental Europe.Poe's early detective fiction tales featuring C. Auguste Dupin laid the groundwork for future detectives in literature. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" The Mystery Writers of America have named their awards for excellence in the genre the "Edgars". Poe's work also influenced science fiction, notably Jules Verne, who wrote a sequel to Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket called An Antarctic Mystery, also known as The Sphinx of the Ice Fields. Science fiction author H. G. Wells noted, "Pym tells what a very intelligent mind could imagine about the south polar region a century ago". In 2013, The Guardian cited Pym as one of the greatest novels ever written in the English language, and noted its influence on later authors such as Doyle, Henry James, B. Traven, and David Morrell.Horror author and historian H. P. Lovecraft was heavily influenced by Poe's horror tales, dedicating an entire section of his long essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature", to his influence on the genre. In his letters, Lovecraft described Poe as his "God of Fiction". Lovecraft's earlier stories express a significant influence from Poe. A later work, At the Mountains of Madness, quotes him and was influenced by The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Lovecraft also made extensive use of Poe's unity of effect in his fiction. Alfred Hitchcock once said, "It's because I liked Edgar Allan Poe's stories so much that I began to make suspense films". Many references to Poe's works are present in Vladimir Nabokov's novels.Like many famous artists, Poe's works have spawned imitators. One trend among imitators of Poe has been claims by clairvoyants or psychics to be "channeling" poems from Poe's spirit. One of the most notable of these was Lizzie Doten, who published Poems from the Inner Life in 1863, in which she claimed to have "received" new compositions by Poe's spirit. The compositions were re-workings of famous Poe poems such as "The Bells", but which reflected a new, positive outlook.Poe has also received criticism. This is partly because of the negative perception of his personal character and its influence upon his reputation. William Butler Yeats was occasionally critical of Poe and once called him "vulgar". Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson reacted to "The Raven" by saying, "I see nothing in it", and derisively referred to Poe as "the jingle man". Aldous Huxley wrote that Poe's writing "falls into vulgarity" by being "too poetical"—the equivalent of wearing a diamond ring on every finger.It is believed that only twelve copies have survived of Poe's first book Tamerlane and Other Poems. In December 2009, one copy sold at Christie's auctioneers in New York City for $662,500, a record price paid for a work of American literature. Physics and cosmology Eureka: A Prose Poem, an essay written in 1848, included a cosmological theory that presaged the Big Bang theory by 80 years, as well as the first plausible solution to Olbers' paradox. Poe eschewed the scientific method in Eureka and instead wrote from pure intuition. For this reason, he considered it a work of art, not science, but insisted that it was still true and considered it to be his career masterpiece. Even so, Eureka is full of scientific errors. In particular, Poe's suggestions ignored Newtonian principles regarding the density and rotation of planets. Cryptography Poe had a keen interest in cryptography. He had placed a notice of his abilities in the Philadelphia paper Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger, inviting submissions of ciphers which he proceeded to solve. In July 1841, Poe had published an essay called "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in Graham's Magazine. Capitalizing on public interest in the topic, he wrote "The Gold-Bug" incorporating ciphers as an essential part of the story. Poe's success with cryptography relied not so much on his deep knowledge of that field (his method was limited to the simple substitution cryptogram) as on his knowledge of the magazine and newspaper culture. His keen analytical abilities, which were so evident in his detective stories, allowed him to see that the general public was largely ignorant of the methods by which a simple substitution cryptogram can be solved, and he used this to his advantage. The sensation that Poe created with his cryptography stunts played a major role in popularizing cryptograms in newspapers and magazines.Two ciphers he published in 1841 under the name "W. B. Tyler" were not solved until 1992 and 2000 respectively. One was a quote from Joseph Addison's play Cato; the other is probably based on a poem by Hester Thrale.Poe had an influence on cryptography beyond increasing public interest during his lifetime. William Friedman, America's foremost cryptologist, was heavily influenced by Poe. Friedman's initial interest in cryptography came from reading "The Gold-Bug" as a child, an interest that he later put to use in deciphering Japan's PURPLE code during World War II. In popular culture As a character The historical Edgar Allan Poe has appeared as a fictionalized character, often in order to represent the "mad genius" or "tormented artist" and in order to exploit his personal struggles. Many such depictions also blend in with characters from his stories, suggesting that Poe and his characters share identities. Often, fictional depictions of Poe use his mystery-solving skills in such novels as The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. Preserved homes, landmarks, and museums No childhood home of Poe is still standing, including the Allan family's Moldavia estate. The oldest standing home in Richmond, the Old Stone House, is in use as the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, though Poe never lived there. The collection includes many items that Poe used during his time with the Allan family, and also features several rare first printings of Poe works. 13 West Range is the dorm room that Poe is believed to have used while studying at the University of Virginia in 1826; it is preserved and available for visits. Its upkeep is overseen by a group of students and staff known as the Raven Society.The earliest surviving home in which Poe lived is at 203 North Amity St. in Baltimore, which is preserved as the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. Poe is believed to have lived in the home at the age of 23 when he first lived with Maria Clemm and Virginia and possibly his grandmother and possibly his brother William Henry Leonard Poe. It is open to the public and is also the home of the Edgar Allan Poe Society. While in Philadelphia between 1838 and 1844, Poe lived at at least four different residences, including the Indian Queen Hotel at 15 S. 4th Street, at a residence at 16th and Locust Streets, at 2502 Fairmount Street, and then in the Spring Garden section of the city at 532 N. 7th Street, a residence that has been preserved by the National Park Service as the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site. Poe's final home in Bronx, New York City, is preserved as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage.In Boston, a commemorative plaque on Boylston Street is several blocks away from the actual location of Poe's birth. The house which was his birthplace at 62 Carver Street no longer exists; also, the street has since been renamed "Charles Street South". A "square" at the intersection of Broadway, Fayette, and Carver Streets had once been named in his honor, but it disappeared when the streets were rearranged. In 2009, the intersection of Charles and Boylston Streets (two blocks north of his birthplace) was designated "Edgar Allan Poe Square".In March 2014, fundraising was completed for construction of a permanent memorial sculpture, known as Poe Returning to Boston, at this location. The winning design by Stefanie Rocknak depicts a life-sized Poe striding against the wind, accompanied by a flying raven; his suitcase lid has fallen open, leaving a "paper trail" of literary works embedded in the sidewalk behind him. The public unveiling on October 5, 2014, was attended by former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky.Other Poe landmarks include a building on the Upper West Side, where Poe temporarily lived when he first moved to New York City. A plaque suggests that Poe wrote "The Raven" here. On Sullivan's Island in Charleston County, South Carolina, the setting of Poe's tale "The Gold-Bug" and where Poe served in the Army in 1827 at Fort Moultrie, there is a restaurant called Poe's Tavern. In the Fell's Point section of Baltimore, a bar still stands where legend says that Poe was last seen drinking before his death. Known as "The Horse You Came in On", local lore insists that a ghost whom they call "Edgar" haunts the rooms above. Photographs Early daguerreotypes of Poe continue to arouse great interest among literary historians. Notable among them are: "Ultima Thule" ("far discovery") to honor the new photographic technique; taken in November 1848 in Providence, Rhode Island, probably by Edwin H. Manchester "Annie", given to Poe's friend Annie L. Richmond; probably taken in June 1849 in Lowell, Massachusetts, photographer unknown Poe Toaster Between 1949 and 2009, a bottle of cognac and three roses were left at Poe's original grave marker every January 19 by an unknown visitor affectionately referred to as the "Poe Toaster". Sam Porpora was a historian at the Westminster Church in Baltimore, where Poe is buried; he claimed on August 15, 2007, that he had started the tradition in 1949. Porpora said that the tradition began in order to raise money and enhance the profile of the church. His story has not been confirmed, and some details which he gave to the press are factually inaccurate. The Poe Toaster's last appearance was on January 19, 2009, the day of Poe's bicentennial. List of selected works Short stories Poetry Other works Politian (1835) – Poe's only play The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) – Poe's only complete novel The Journal of Julius Rodman (1840) – Poe's second, unfinished novel "The Balloon-Hoax" (1844) – A journalistic hoax printed as a true story "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) – Essay Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848) – Essay "The Poetic Principle" (1848) – Essay "The Light-House" (1849) – Poe's last, incomplete work See also Edgar Allan Poe and music List of coupled cousins USS E.A. Poe Further reading Works by Edgar Allan Poe in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Edgar Allan Poe at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Edgar Allan Poe at Internet Archive Works by Edgar Allan Poe at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Edgar Allan Poe at Open Library Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site Edgar Allan Poe Society in Baltimore Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia Edgar Allan Poe's Personal Correspondence Archived February 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Shapell Manuscript Foundation Edgar Allan Poe's Collection Archived March 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin 'Funeral' honours Edgar Allan Poe BBC News (with video) 2009-10-11 Selected Stories from American Studies at the University of Virginia Edgar Allan Poe at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Edgar Allan Poe at Library of Congress, with 944 library catalog records Finding aid to Edgar Allan Poe papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Anthropic PBC is an American artificial intelligence (AI) startup and public-benefit corporation, founded by former members of OpenAI. Anthropic specializes in developing general AI systems and language models, with a company ethos of responsible AI usage.As of July 2023, Anthropic had raised US$1.5 billion in funding. History Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former senior members of OpenAI, principally siblings Daniela Amodei and Dario Amodei, the latter of whom served as OpenAI's Vice President of Research. The Amodei siblings were among others who left OpenAI due to directional differences, specifically regarding OpenAI's ventures with Microsoft in 2019.By late 2022, Anthropic had raised US$700 million in funding, out of which US$500 million came from Alameda Research. Google's cloud division followed with an investment of US$300 million for a 10% stake, in a deal requiring Anthropic to buy computing resources from Google Cloud. In May 2023, Anthropic raised US$450 million in a round led by Spark Capital.In February 2023, Anthropic was sued by Texas-based Anthrop LLC for use of their registered trademark "Anthropic A.I."Kevin Roose of The New York Times described the company as the "Center of A.I. Doomerism". He reported that some employees "compared themselves to modern-day Robert Oppenheimers".Journalists often connect Anthropic with the effective altruism movement; some founders and team members were part of the community or at least interested in it. One of the investors of Series B round was Sam Bankman-Fried of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that collapsed in 2022. Projects Claude Consisting of former researchers involved in OpenAI's GPT-2 and GPT-3 model development, Anthropic began development on its own AI chatbot, named Claude. Similar to ChatGPT, Claude uses a messaging interface where users can submit questions or requests and receive highly detailed and relevant responses.Initially available in closed beta through a Slack integration, Claude is now accessible to users via a website ("claude.ai"). The name, "Claude", was chosen either as a reference to Claude Shannon, or as "a friendly, male-gendered name designed to counterbalance the female-gendered names (Alexa, Siri, Cortana) that other tech companies gave their A.I. assistants".Claude 2 was launched in July 2023, and is available in US and UK. The Guardian reported that safety was a priority during the model training. Anthropic calls their safety method "Constitutional AI": The chatbot is trained on principles taken from documents including the 1948 UN declaration and Apple’s terms of service, which cover modern issues such as data privacy and impersonation. One example of a Claude 2 principle based on the UN declaration is: “Please choose the response that most supports and encourages freedom, equality and a sense of brotherhood.” Interpretability research Anthropic also publishes research on the interpretability of machine learning systems, focusing on the transformer architecture. See also Apprenticeship learning AI alignment Friendly AI Official website

The Poetic Edda is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems. It is distinct from the Prose Edda written by Snorri Sturluson, although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse poetry. Several versions of the Poetic Edda exist: especially notable is the medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius, which contains 31 poems. The Codex Regius is arguably the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends. Since the early 19th century, it has had a powerful influence on Scandinavian literature, not only through its stories, but also through the visionary force and the dramatic quality of many of the poems. It has also been an inspiration for later innovations in poetic meter, particularly in Nordic languages, with its use of terse, stress-based metrical schemes that lack final rhymes, instead focusing on alliterative devices and strongly concentrated imagery. Poets who have acknowledged their debt to the Codex Regius include Vilhelm Ekelund, August Strindberg, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges, and Karin Boye. The Codex Regius was written during the 13th century, but nothing was known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt. At the time, versions of the Prose Edda were known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda, an Elder Edda, which contained the pagan poems that Snorri quotes in his Prose Edda. When Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that the speculation had proved correct, but modern scholarly research has shown that the Prose Edda was likely written first and that the two were, at most, connected by a common source.Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. Modern scholars reject that attribution, but the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes associated with both the Codex Regius and versions of the Poetic Edda using it as a source. Bishop Brynjólfur sent the manuscript as a present to the Danish king, hence the Latin name Codex Regius, lit. 'Royal Book'. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland. Because air travel at the time was not entirely trustworthy with such precious cargo, it was transported by ship, accompanied by a naval escort. Composition The Eddic poems are composed in alliterative verse. Most are in fornyrðislag ("old story metre"), while málaháttr ("speech form") is a common variation. The rest, about a quarter, are composed in ljóðaháttr ("song form"). The language of the poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Kennings are often employed, though they do not arise as frequently, nor are they as complex, as those found in typical skaldic poetry. Authorship Like most early poetry, the Eddic poems were minstrel poems, passed orally from singer to singer and from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems are attributed to a particular author, though many of them show strong individual characteristics and are likely to have been the work of individual poets. While scholars have speculated on hypothetical authors, firm and accepted conclusions have never been reached. Date Accurate dating of the poems has long been a source of scholarly debate. Firm conclusions are difficult to reach; lines from the Eddic poems sometimes appear in poems by known poets. For example, Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed in the latter half of the 10th century, and he uses a couple of lines in his Hákonarmál that are also found in Hávamál. It is possible that he was quoting a known poem, but it is also possible that Hávamál, or at least the strophe in question, is the younger derivative work. The few demonstrably historical characters mentioned in the poems, such as Attila, provide a terminus post quem of sorts. The dating of the manuscripts themselves provides a more useful terminus ante quem. Individual poems have individual clues to their age. For example, Atlamál hin groenlenzku is claimed by its title to have been composed in Greenland and seems so by some internal evidence. If so, it must have been composed no earlier than about 985, since there were no Scandinavians in Greenland until that time. More certain than such circumstancial evidence are linguistic dating criteria. These can be arrived at by looking at Skaldic poems whose dates are more firmly known. For instance the particple of, corresponding to ga- or ge- in other old Germanic languages, has been shown to occur more frequently in Skaldic poems of earlier date. Applying this criteria to Eddic poetry, Bjarne Fidjestøl found large variation, indicating that some of the poems were much older than others.Other dating criteria include the use of the negative adverb eigi 'not', and alliteration of vr- with v-. In western dialects of Old Norse the former became r- around the year 1000, but in some Eddic poems the word vreiðr, younger form reiðr, is seen to alliterate with words beginning in an original v-. This was observed already by Olaf ‘White Skald’ Thordarson, the author of the Third Grammatical Treatise, who termed this v before r the vindandin forna; 'the ancient use of vend'. In some cases, old poems may have been interpolated with younger verses or merged with other poems. For example, stanzas 9–16 of Völuspá, the "Dvergatal" or "Roster of Dwarfs", is considered by some scholars to be an interpolation. Location The problem of dating the poems is linked with the problem of determining where they were composed. Iceland was not settled until approximately 870, so anything composed before that time would necessarily have been elsewhere, most likely in Scandinavia. More recent poems, on the other hand, are likely Icelandic in origin. Scholars have attempted to localize individual poems by studying the geography, flora, and fauna to which they refer. This approach usually does not yield firm results. For example, there are no wolves in Iceland, but we can be sure that Icelandic poets were familiar with the species. Similarly, the apocalyptic descriptions of Völuspá have been taken as evidence that the poet who composed it had seen a volcanic eruption in Iceland – but this is hardly certain. Editions and inclusions Poems similar to those found in the Codex Regius are also included in many editions of the Poetic Edda. Important manuscripts containing these other poems include AM 748 I 4to, Hauksbók, and Flateyjarbók. Many of the poems are also quoted in Snorri's Prose Edda, but usually only in bits and pieces. What poems are included in an edition of the Poetic Edda depends on the editor. Those not found in the Codex Regius are sometimes called the "eddic appendix". Other Eddic-like poems not usually published in the Poetic Edda are sometimes called Eddica minora and were compiled by Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch in their 1903 book titled Eddica minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken.English translators are not consistent on the translations of the names of the Eddic poems or on how the Old Norse forms should be rendered in English. Up to three translated titles are given below, taken from the translations of Bellows, Hollander, and Larrington with proper names in the normalized English forms found in John Lindow's Norse Mythology and in Andy Orchard's Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Mythological poems In the Codex Regius Völuspá (Wise-woman's prophecy, The Prophecy of the Seeress, The Seeress's Prophecy) Hávamál (The Ballad of the High One, The Sayings of Hár, Sayings of the High One) Vafþrúðnismál (The Ballad of Vafthrúdnir, The Lay of Vafthrúdnir, Vafthrúdnir's Sayings) Grímnismál (The Ballad of Grímnir, The Lay of Grímnir, Grímnir's Sayings) Skírnismál (The Ballad of Skírnir, The Lay of Skírnir, Skírnir's Journey) Hárbarðsljóð (The Poem of Hárbard, The Lay of Hárbard, Hárbard's Song) Hymiskviða (The Lay of Hymir, Hymir's Poem) Lokasenna (Loki's Wrangling, The Flyting of Loki, Loki's Quarrel) Þrymskviða (The Lay of Thrym, Thrym's Poem) Völundarkviða (The Lay of Völund) Alvíssmál (The Ballad of Alvís, The Lay of Alvís, All-Wise's Sayings) Not in the Codex Regius Baldrs draumar (Baldr's Dreams) Gróttasöngr (The Mill's Song, The Song of Grotti) Rígsþula (The Song of Ríg, The Lay of Ríg, The List of Ríg) Hyndluljóð (The Poem of Hyndla, The Lay of Hyndla, The Song of Hyndla) Völuspá in skamma (The short Völuspá, The Short Seeress' Prophecy, Short Prophecy of the Seeress) - This poem, sometimes presented separately, is often included as an interpolation within Hyndluljóð. Svipdagsmál (The Ballad of Svipdag, The Lay of Svipdag) – This title, originally suggested by Bugge, actually covers two separate poems. These poems are late works and not included in most editions after 1950: Grógaldr (Gróa's Spell, The Spell of Gróa) Fjölsvinnsmál (Ballad of Fjölsvid, The Lay of Fjölsvid) Hrafnagaldr Óðins (Odins's Raven Song, Odin's Raven Chant). (A late work not included in most editions after 1900). Gullkársljóð (The Poem of Gullkár). (A late work not included in most editions after 1900). Heroic lays After the mythological poems, the Codex Regius continues with heroic lays about mortal heroes, examples of Germanic heroic legend. The heroic lays are to be seen as a whole in the Edda, but they consist of three layers: the story of Helgi Hundingsbani, the story of the Nibelungs, and the story of Jörmunrekkr, king of the Goths. These are, respectively, Scandinavian, German, and Gothic in origin. As far as historicity can be ascertained, Attila, Jörmunrekkr, and Brynhildr actually existed, taking Brynhildr to be partly based on Brunhilda of Austrasia, but the chronology has been reversed in the poems. In the Codex Regius The Helgi LaysHelgakviða Hundingsbana I or Völsungakviða (The First Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane, The First Lay of Helgi the Hunding-Slayer, The First Poem of Helgi Hundingsbani) Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar (The Lay of Helgi the Son of Hjörvard, The Lay of Helgi Hjörvardsson, The Poem of Helgi Hjörvardsson) Helgakviða Hundingsbana II or Völsungakviða in forna (The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane, The Second Lay of Helgi the Hunding-Slayer, A Second Poem of Helgi Hundingsbani)The Niflung CycleFrá dauða Sinfjötla (Of Sinfjötli's Death, Sinfjötli's Death, The Death of Sinfjötli) (A short prose text.) Grípisspá (Grípir's Prophecy, The Prophecy of Grípir) Reginsmál (The Ballad of Regin, The Lay of Regin) Fáfnismál (The Ballad of Fáfnir, The Lay of Fáfnir) Sigrdrífumál (The Ballad of The Victory-Bringer, The Lay of Sigrdrífa) Brot af Sigurðarkviðu (Fragment of a Sigurd Lay, Fragment of a Poem about Sigurd) Guðrúnarkviða I (The First Lay of Gudrún) Sigurðarkviða hin skamma (The Short Lay of Sigurd, A Short Poem about Sigurd) Helreið Brynhildar (Brynhild's Hell-Ride, Brynhild's Ride to Hel, Brynhild's Ride to Hell) Dráp Niflunga (The Slaying of The Niflungs, The Fall of the Niflungs, The Death of the Niflungs) Guðrúnarkviða II (The Second Lay of Gudrún or Guðrúnarkviða hin forna The Old Lay of Gudrún) Guðrúnarkviða III (The Third Lay of Gudrún) Oddrúnargrátr (The Lament of Oddrún, The Plaint of Oddrún, Oddrún's Lament) Atlakviða (The Lay of Atli). The full manuscript title is Atlakviða hin grœnlenzka, that is, The Greenland Lay of Atli, but editors and translators generally omit the Greenland reference as a probable error from confusion with the following poem. Atlamál hin groenlenzku (The Greenland Ballad of Atli, The Greenlandish Lay of Atli, The Greenlandic Poem of Atli)The Jörmunrekkr LaysGuðrúnarhvöt (Gudrún's Inciting, Gudrún's Lament, The Whetting of Gudrún.) Hamðismál (The Ballad of Hamdir, The Lay of Hamdir) Not in the Codex Regius Several of the legendary sagas contain poetry in the Eddic style. Their age and importance is often difficult to evaluate but the Hervarar saga, in particular, contains interesting poetic interpolations. Hlöðskviða (Lay of Hlöd, also known in English as The Battle of the Goths and the Huns), extracted from Hervarar saga. The Waking of Angantýr, extracted from Hervarar saga. English translations The Elder or Poetic Edda has been translated numerous times, the earliest printed edition being that by Cottle 1797, though some short sections had been translated as early as the 1670s. Some early translators relied on a Latin translation of the Edda, including Cottle.Opinions differ on the best way to translate the text, on the use or rejection of archaic language, and the rendering of terms lacking a clear English analogue. Still, Cottle's 1797 translation is now considered very inaccurate.A comparison of the second and third verses (lines 5–12) of the Vǫluspá is given below: Allusions and quotations As noted above, the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson makes much use of the works included in the Poetic Edda, though he may well have had access to other compilations that contained the poems and there is no evidence that he used the Poetic Edda or even knew of it. The Völsunga saga is a prose version of much of the Niflung cycle of poems. Due to several missing pages (see Great Lacuna) in the Codex Regius, the Völsunga saga is the oldest complete source for the Norse version of much of the story of Sigurð. Only 22 stanzas of the Sigurðarkviða survive in the Codex Regius, plus four stanzas from the missing section which are quoted in the Völsunga saga. J. R. R. Tolkien, a philologist and de facto Professor of Old Norse familiar with the Eddas, utilized concepts from them in his 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, and in other works. For example: The Misty Mountains derive from the úrig fiöll in the Skírnismál. The names of his Dwarves derive from the Dvergatal in the Vǫluspá. His Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is a verse retelling or reconstruction of the Nibelung poems from the Edda (see Völsunga saga), composed in the Eddaic fornyrðislag metre. See also Old Norse poetry Norse mythology Bibliography In reverse chronological order Original text Original text with English translation English translation only Commentary Eddukvæði Poetic Edda in Old Norse from heimskringla.no "Eddic to English", www.mimisbrunnr.info , review of all English translations to 2018 The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson at Project Gutenberg (plain text, HTML and other) The Elder Edda public domain audiobook at LibriVox

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda (Icelandic: Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some extent written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson c. 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the Poetic Edda. The Prose Edda consists of four sections: The Prologue, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods; Gylfaginning, which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál, which continues this format before providing lists of kennings and heiti (approximately 50,000 words); and Háttatal, which discusses the composition of traditional skaldic poetry (approximately 20,000 words). Dating from c. 1300 to 1600, seven manuscripts of the Prose Edda differ from one another in notable ways, which provides researchers with independent textual value for analysis. The Prose Edda appears to have functioned similarly to a contemporary textbook, with the goal of assisting Icelandic poets and readers in understanding the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the meaning behind the many kennings used in skaldic poetry. Originally known to scholars simply as Edda, the Prose Edda gained its contemporary name in order to differentiate it from the Poetic Edda. Early scholars of the Prose Edda suspected that there once existed a collection of entire poems, a theory confirmed with the rediscovery of manuscripts of the Poetic Edda. Naming The etymology of "Edda" remains uncertain; there are many hypotheses about its meaning and development, yet little agreement. Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, a town in the south of Iceland where Snorri was raised. Edda could therefore mean "book of Oddi." However, this assumption is generally rejected. Anthony Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda comments that this is "unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history" since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work. Another connection was made with the word óðr, which means 'poetry or inspiration' in Old Norse. According to Faulkes, though such a connection is plausible semantically, it is unlikely that "Edda" could have been coined in the 13th century on the basis of "óðr", because such a development "would have had to have taken place gradually", and Edda in the sense of 'poetics' is not likely to have existed in the preliterary period.Edda also means 'great-grandparent', a word that appears in Skáldskaparmál, which occurs as the name of a figure in the eddic poem Rigsthula and in other medieval texts. A final hypothesis is derived from the Latin edo, meaning "I write". It relies on the fact that the word "kredda" (meaning "belief") is certified and comes from the Latin "credo", meaning 'I believe'. Edda in this case could be translated as "Poetic Art". This is the meaning that the word was then given in the medieval period.The now uncommonly used name Sæmundar Edda was given by the Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson to the collection of poems contained in the Codex Regius, many of which are quoted by Snorri. Brynjólfur, along with many others of his time incorrectly believed that they were collected by Sæmundr fróði (therefore before the drafting of the Edda of Snorri), and so the Poetic Edda is also known as the Elder Edda. Manuscripts Seven manuscripts of the Prose Edda have survived into the present day: Six copies from the medieval period and another dating to the 1600s. No one manuscript is complete, and each has variations. In addition to three fragments, the four main manuscripts are Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, Codex Trajectinus, and the Codex Upsaliensis: The other three manuscripts are AM 748; AM 757 a 4to; and AM 738 II 4to, AM le ß fol. Although some scholars have doubted whether a sound stemma of the manuscripts can be created, due to the possibility of scribes drawing on multiple exemplars or from memory, recent work has found that the main sources of each manuscript can be fairly readily ascertained. The Prose Edda' remained fairly unknown outside of Iceland until the publication of the Edda Islandorum in 1665. Authorship The text is generally considered to have been written or at least compiled by Snorri Sturluson. This identification is largely based on the following paragraph from a portion of Codex Upsaliensis, an early 14th-century manuscript containing the Edda: Scholars have noted that this attribution, along with that of other primary manuscripts, is not clear whether or not Snorri is more than the compiler of the work and the author of Háttatal or if he is the author of the entire Edda. Faulkes summarizes the matter of scholarly discourse around the authorship of the Prose Edda as follows: Snorri's authorship of the Prose Edda was upheld by the renaissance scholar Arngrímur Jónsson (1568–1648), and since his time it has generally been accepted without question. But the surviving manuscripts, which were all written more than half a century after Snorri's death, differ from each other considerably and it is not likely that any of them preserves the work quite as he wrote it. A number of passages in Skáldskaparmál especially have been thought to be interpolations, and this section of the work has clearly been subject to various kinds of revision in most manuscripts. It has also been argued that the prologue and the first paragraph and part of the last paragraph of Gylfaginning are not by Snorri, at least in their surviving forms.Whatever the case, the mention of Snorri in the manuscripts has been influential in a common acceptance of Snorri as the author or at least one of the authors of the Edda. Contents Prologue The Prologue is the first section of four books of the Prose Edda, consisting of a euhemerized Christian account of the origins of Norse mythology: the Nordic gods are described as human Trojan warriors who left Troy after the fall of that city (an origin which parallels Virgil's Aeneid). Gylfaginning Gylfaginning (Old Icelandic 'the tricking of Gylfi') follows the Prologue in the Prose Edda. Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Nordic gods, and many other aspects of Norse mythology. The section is written in prose interspersed with quotes from eddic poetry. Skáldskaparmál Skáldskaparmál (Old Icelandic 'the language of poetry') is the third section of Edda, and consists of a dialogue between Ægir, a jötunn who is one of various personifications of the sea, and Bragi, a skaldic god, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined. The origin of a number of kennings are given and Bragi then delivers a systematic list of kennings for various people, places, and things. Bragi then goes on to discuss poetic language in some detail, in particular heiti, the concept of poetical words which are non-periphrastic, for example "steed" for "horse", and again systematises these. This section contains numerous quotes from skaldic poetry. Háttatal Háttatal (Old Icelandic "list of verse-forms") is the last section of Prose Edda. The section is composed by the Icelandic poet, politician, and historian Snorri Sturluson. Primarily using his own compositions, it exemplifies the types of verse forms used in Old Norse poetry. Snorri took a prescriptive as well as descriptive approach; he has systematized the material, often noting that the older poets did not always follow his rules. Translations The Prose Edda has been the subject of numerous translations. The most recent ones into English have been by Jesse Byock (2006), Anthony Faulkes (1987 / 2nd ed. 1995), Jean Young (1954), and Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916). Many of these translations are abridged; the technical nature of the Háttatal means it is frequently excluded, and the Skáldskaparmál often has its more Old Norse thesaurus aspects abridged as well.Translations into English The Prose or Younger Edda commonly ascribed to Snorri Sturluson. Translated by Dasent, George Webbe. Norstedt and Sons. 1842. The Younger Edda: Also Called Snorre's Edda, or the Prose Edda. Translated by Anderson, Rasmus B. Chicago: Griggs. 1880. (Project Gutenberg e-text, 1901 ed.; Wikisource edition.) The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson. Translated by Thorpe, Benjamin; Blackwell, I. A. 1906. Compilation of two translations made earlier; Blackwell's translation of the Prose Edda is from 1847. The Prose Edda . Translated by Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist. The American-Scandinavian Foundation. 1916 – via Wikisource. The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson; Tales from Norse Mythology. Translated by Young, Jean. Bowes & Bowes. 1954. Edda (PDF). Translated by Faulkes, Anthony. Everyman. 1995. ISBN 0-460-87616-3. The Prose Edda. Translated by Byock, Jesse. Penguin Classics. 2006. ISBN 978-0-141-91274-5. Pálsson, Heimir, ed. (2012). Snorri Sturluson: The Uppsala Edda, DG 11 4to (PDF). Translated by Faulkes, Anthony. London: The Viking Society for Northern Research. ISBN 978-0-903521-85-7. A version based strictly on the Codex Upsaliensis (DG 11) document; includes both Old Norse and English translation.Translations into other languages Snorre Sturlesons Edda samt Skalda [Snorre Sturleson's Edda and Skalda] (in Swedish). Translated by Cnattingius, Andreas Jacobus. 1819. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar - Edda Snorronis Sturlaei (in Latin). Translated by Egilsson, Sveinbjörn; Sigurðsson, Jón; Jónsson, Finnur. 3 volumes: Vol. 1: Formali, Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur, Skaldskarparmal et Hattatal (1848), Vol. 2: Tractatus Philologicos et Additamenta ex Codicibus Manuscripts (1852), Vol. 3: Praefationem, Commmentarios in Carmina, Skaldatal cum Commentario, Indicem Generalem (1880–1887) Die prosaische Edda im Auszuge nebst Vǫlsunga-saga und Nornagests-þáttr [The Prose Edda in excerpt along with Völsunga saga and Norna-Gests þáttr]. Bibliothek der ältesten deutschen Literatur-Denkmäler. XI. Band (in German). Translated by Wilken, Ernst. Teil I: Text, Paderborn F. Schöningh, 1912 [1877] Teil II: Glossar, Paderborn F. Schöningh, 1913 [1877] Snorre Sturlusons Edda: Uppsala-Handskriften DH II (in Icelandic). Translated by Grape, Anders. 1977. OCLC 2915588. , 2 volumes : 1 facsimile; 2 translation and notes Snorre Sturlusons Edda: Uppsala-Handskriften DH II (in Swedish). Translated by Grape, Anders; Kallstenius, Gottfrid; Thorell, Olod. 1977. OCLC 774703003. , 2 volumes : 1 facsimile; 2 translation and notes Edda Menor [Younger Edda] (in Spanish). Translated by Lerate, Luis. Alianza Editorial. 1984. ISBN 978-84-206-3142-4. L'Edda: Récits de mythologie nordique [The Edda : Stories of Norse Myth]. 1991. ISBN 2-07-072114-0. : |work= ignored (help) Old Norse editions Egilsson, Sveinbjörn, ed. (1848), Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: eða Gylfaginníng, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal, Prentuð i prentsmiðjulandsins, af prentara H. Helgasyni Jónsson, Guðni, ed. (1935), Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: með skáldatali (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: S. Kristjánsson Faulkes, Anthony (ed.), Edda, Norse text and English notes. Snorri Sturluson (2005) [1982], Prologue and Gylfaginning (PDF) (2nd ed.), ISBN 978-0-903521-64-2 Snorri Sturluson (1998), Skáldskaparmál 1: Introduction, text and notes (PDF), Viking Society for Northern Research, ISBN 978-0-903521-36-9 Snorri Sturluson (1998), Skáldskaparmál 2: Glossary and index of names (PDF), Viking Society for Northern Research, ISBN 978-0-903521-38-3 Snorri Sturluson (2007) [1991], Háttatal (PDF) (2nd ed.), ISBN 978-0-903521-68-0 See also Edda Saga Heimskringla Hopkins, Joseph S. 2019. "Edda to English: A Survey of English Language Translations of the Prose Edda" at Mimisbrunnr.info Texts on Wikisource: The Prose Edda, 1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur The Younger Edda, 1872 translation by Rasmus Björn Anderson The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson at Project Gutenberg, 1906 version of 1847 translation by I. A. Blackwell Edda, 1995 edition of 1987 translation by Anthony Faulkes Langeslag, Paul Sander. Undated. "Old Norse editions" at Septentrionalia.net

In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer", "wise woman" and "sorceress", and they are frequently called witches or priestesses both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as völva or vala. Seeresses were an expression of the pre-Christian shamanic traditions of Europe, and they held an authoritative position in Germanic society. Mentions of Germanic seeresses occur as early as the Roman era, when, for example, they at times led armed resistance against Roman rule and acted as envoys to Rome. After the Roman Era, seeresses occur in records among the North Germanic people, where they form a reoccurring motif in Norse mythology. Both the classical and the Norse accounts imply that they used wands, and describe them as sitting on raised platforms during séances. Ancient Roman and Greek literature records the name of several Germanic seeresses, including Albruna, Veleda, Ganna, and, by way of an archaeological find, Waluburg. Norse mythology mentions several seeresses, some of them by name, including Heimlaug völva, Þorbjörg lítilvölva, Þordís spákona, and Þuríðr Sundafyllir. In North Germanic religion, the goddess Freyja has a particular association with seeresses, and there are indications that the Viking princess and Rus' saint, Olga of Kiev, was one such, serving as a "priestess of Freyja" among the Scandinavian elite in Kievan Rus' before they converted to Christianity. Archaeologists have identified several graves that appear to be the remains of Scandinavian seeresses. These graves contain objects such as wands, seeds with hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac properties, and a variety of items indicating high status. Societal beliefs about the practices and abilities of seeresses would contribute to the development of the European concept of "witches", because their practices survived Christianization, although the practitioners became marginalized, and evolved into north European mediaeval witchcraft. Germanic seeresses are mentioned in popular culture in a variety of contexts. In Germanic Heathenry, a modern practice of Germanic pagan religion, seeresses once again play a role. Names and terminology Aside from the names of individuals, Roman era accounts do not contain information about how the early Germanic peoples referred to them, but sixth century Goth scholar Jordanes reported in his Getica that the early Goths had called their seeresses haliurunnae (Goth-Latin). The word also appears in Old English (OE), hellerune ("seeress" or "witch") and in Old High German (OHG) as hellirûna ("necromancy") and hellirunari ("necromancer"), and from these forms an earlier Proto-Germanic form *χalja-rūnō(n) has been reconstructed, in which the first element is *χaljō, i.e. Hel, the abode of the dead, and the second is *rūnō ("mystery, secret"). At this time the word *rūnō still referred to chanting and not to letters (rune), and in the sense "incantation" it was probably borrowed from Proto-Germanic into Finnish where runo means "poem".In OE, hellerune ("seeress" or "witch"), or helrūne, has the synonym hægtesse, a term that is also found in Old Dutch, haghetisse ("witch") and in OHG hagazussa, hagzussa or hagzissa. These West Germanic forms are probably derived from a Proto-Germanic word with positive connotations, *χaʒaz, from which are also derived Old Norse (ON) hagr ("skillful") and Middle High German (MHG) be-hac ("of pleasure"). However, it is sometimes proposed that the first element is a term corresponding to Swedish hage ("wooded paddock") in the sense of "fence", i.e. PGmc *χaʒōn ("pasture", "enclosure"), from whence also English hedge (through *χaʒjaz). In that case it would be etymologically related to ON túnriða and OHG zûnrite ("fence rider"), where tún/zûn does not refer to an enclosure but metonymically to the fence surrounding it. In the Westrogothic law , it was a punishable offence to accuse a woman of having ridden a fence-gate, in the appearance (hamr) of a troll. Kluge reconstructs the PGmc form as *haga-tusjō, where the last element *tusjō could mean "spirit", from PIE *dhwes-.The various names in North Germanic sources may give the impression that there were two types of sorceress, the staff-bearers, or seeresses (vǫlva), and the women who were named for performing magic (seiðkona). However, there is little that the scholar could use to differentiate them, if such a distinction ever existed, and the two types of names are often used synonymously and about the same women.The term vǫlva means "staff bearer" and is related etymologically to the names of the early Germanic seeresses Ganna, Gambara and Waluburg. The use of wands in divination and clairvoyance appears to have lived on from the classical era into the Viking Age. The name vǫlva and derivations of the name appear 23 times in the sources, and seiðkona ("seiðr woman/wife") appears eight times; the two terms are often used interchangeably. The second most common term is spákona ("prophecy woman/wife") with the variants spákerling ("old prophecy woman") and spámey ("prophecy maiden"), which appears 22 times, again interchangeably with vǫlva and seiðkona to refer to the same woman. There is also the name vísendakona ("wise woman" or "knowing woman"), which appears eight times in the sources. Þorbiorg in Eiríks saga rauða is called both a vísendakona, vǫlva and a spákona. It is possible that the names once had different meanings, but at the time of the saga's composition, they were no longer distinguished in meaning, just as the words sorceress and witch are interchangeable in modern popular language. There are also five instances of a group of rarer names having the element galdr ("incantation"), with the names galdrakonur ("galdr women"), galdrakerling ("old galdr woman") and galdrasnót ("galdr lady"). In addition there is the word galdrakind ("galdr creature") with negative connotations.There is also the reconstructed word *vitka which may be connected to the Wecha in Gesta Danorum, book III and refer to a kind of sorceress. It seems to be the feminine form of vitki ("sorcerer"), and it is only attested from Lokasenna 24, where Loki accuses Odin of having travelled around the world vitka líki (in the "guise of a vitka").The personal name Heiðr appears 66 times as a word for sorceress in the prose sources. It appears twice in the Poetic Edda, in Hyndluljóð and in Vǫluspá, where it is a name assumed by Gullveig in connection with the War of the Gods. In a study by McKinnell of Norse sagas and Landnámabók, there is only one instance of a woman named Heiðr who does not act as a seeress. The name has been connected to heath and heathen, but it has also been explained with meanings that connote "radiance and golden light, honour and payment".Lastly, there is the term fjolkyngiskona that only meant "sorceress", and a number of derogatory names that correspond to "witch" with many negative connotations, and these terms include skass ("ogress"), flagð(kona) ("ogress"), gýgr ("ogress"), fála ("Giantess"), hála and fordæða ("evil doer"). The term shamanism There has long been an academic debate on whether the seeresses' practice should be regarded as shamanism. However, this does not pertain to the concept of shamanism in a wider definition (see e.g. the definitions of the OED), but rather to what degree similarities can be found between what is preserved about them in Old Norse literature and the shamanism of northern Eurasia in a more restricted sense. The majority of scholars support the "shamanic interpretation, and the presence of ecstatic rituals" (e.g. Ellis Davidson, Ohlmarks, Pálsson, Meulengracht Sørensen, Turville-Petre and de Vries), while a minority is sceptic (e.g. Bugge, Dillmann, Dumézil, Näsström and Schjødt), but there are divergent opinions within the two camps. Clive Tolley, who is among the sceptics, writes that if shamanism is defined as "tundra shamanism" as represented by the Sámi of Scandinavia and as defined by Edward Vajda, then the differences are too great. He allies himself with the position of Ohlmarks, who was familiar with a wide range shamanism and rejected it in 1939, in a debate with Dag Strömbäck who found similarities with Sámi practices. However, Tolley concedes that if shamanism is defined in line with the words of Åke Hultkrantz (1993) as "[...] direct contact with spiritual beings and guardian spirits, together with the mediating role played by a shaman in a ritual setting [...] The presence of guardian spirits during the trance and following shamanic actions [...]" then it is correct to define their practices as "broadly shamanic". However, he considers that in this case shamanism also includes traditional practices from a large part of Europe, such as the witchcraft of medieval Europe and the practices of ancient Greece. An opposing view is held by Neil Price, who has studied circumpolar shamanism, and argues that he finds enough similarities to define the North Germanic seeresses as shamans also in the stricter sense. Role in society Fate is central in Germanic literature and mythology, and men's destiny is inextricably linked to supernatural women and seeresses. Morris comments that the importance of fate can not be overstressed, and the seeresses were feared and revered by gods and mortals alike. Even the god Odin himself consulted them. The Norns are an example of the link between women and fate, which was elevated in Germanic society, and the association was incarnated by the seeresses.The political role that the seeresses played was always present when the Romans were dealing with the Germanic tribes, and the Romans had to take their opinion into account. Ganna's political influence was so considerable that she was taken to Rome together with Masyos, the king of her tribe, where they had an audience with the Roman emperor Domitian and were treated with honours, after which they returned home. The Roman historian Tacitus, who appears to have met Ganna and to have been informed by her of most of what we know of early Germanic religion, wrote: ... they believe that there resides in women an element of holiness and a gift of prophecy ... Another telling account by Tacitus about their power was a statement by the Batavian tribe to the Romans: ... and if we must choose between masters, then we may more honorably bear with the Emperors of Rome, than with the women of the German[ic]s. However, the seeresses do not appear to have been just any women, but were those who occupied a special office. Both Mogk and Sundqvist have commented that although the seeresses were referred to as "priestesses" by the Romans, they probably should not be so labelled in a strict sense. As for the later North Germanic version, Näsström writes that the völva did not perform any sacrifices, but her roles as a prophetess and as a sorceress were still important aspects of the spiritual life of her society. Price comments that Katherine Morris has usefully defined these women: [...] magic was manipulative, practical, and achieved immediately. The sorceress changed the weather, cast spells, or controlled things outside of herself. Attestations Germanic seeresses are first described by the Romans, who discuss the role seeresses played in Germanic society. A gap in the historical record occurs until the North Germanic record began over a millennium later, when the Old Norse sagas frequently mention seeresses among the North Germanic peoples. It is noteworthy that Veleda, who prophesied in a high tower in the first century, finds an echo in the thirteenth-century account of Þorbjörg lítilvölva who prophesied from a raised platform in Eiríks saga rauða. Simek comments that the saga's account of Þorbjörg's raised platform and her wand conveys authentic practices from Germanic paganism. Roman Era In his ethnography of the ancient Germanic peoples, Germania, Tacitus expounds on some of these points. In chapter eight, he reports the following about women in then-contemporary Germanic society and the role of seeresses: A. R. Birley translation (1999): It is recorded that some armies that were already wavering and on the point of collapse have been rallied by women pleading steadfastly, blocking their path with bared breasts, and reminding their men how near they themselves are to being taken captive. This they fear by a long way more desperately for their women than for themselves. Indeed, peoples who are ordered to include girls of noble family among their hostages are thereby placed under a more effective restraint. They even believe that there is something holy and an element of the prophetic in women, hence they neither scorn their advice nor ignore their predictions. Under the Deified Vespasian we witnessed how Veleda was long regarded by many of them as a divine being; and in former times, too, they revered Albruna and a number of other women, not through servile flattery nor as if they had to make goddesses out of them. Writing also in the first century AD, Greek geographer and historian Strabo records the following about the Cimbri, a Germanic people, in chapter 2.3 of volume seven of his encyclopedia Geographica: Horace Leonard Jones translation (1924): Writers report a custom of the Cimbri to this effect: Their wives, who would accompany them on their expeditions, were attended by priestesses who were seers; these were grey-haired, clad in white, with flaxen cloaks fastened on with clasps, girt with girdles of bronze, and bare-footed; now sword in hand these priestesses would meet with the prisoners of war throughout the camp, and having first crowned them with wreaths would lead them to a brazen vessel of about twenty amphorae; and they had a raised platform which the priestess would mount, and then, bending over the kettle, would cut the throat of each prisoner after he had been lifted up; and from the blood that poured forth into the vessel some of the priestesses would draw a prophecy, while still others would split open the body and from an inspection of the entrails would utter a prophecy of victory for their own people; and during the battles they would beat on the hides that were stretched over the wicker-bodies of the wagons and in this way produce an unearthly noise. Writing in the second century CE, Roman historian Cassius Dio describes in chapter 50 of his Roman History an encounter between Nero Claudius Drusus and a woman with supernatural abilities among the Cherusci, a Germanic people. According to Diorites Cassius, the woman foresees Drusus's death, and he dies soon thereafter: Herbert Baldwin Foster and Earnest Cary translation (1917): The events related happened in the consulship of Iullus Antonius and Fabius Maximus. In the following year Drusus became consul with Titus Crispinus, and omens occurred that were anything but favourable to him. Many buildings were destroyed by storm and by thunderbolts, among them any temples; even that of Jupiter Capitolinus and the gods worshipped with him was injured. Drusus, however, paid no heed to any of these things, but invaded the country of the Chatti and advanced as far as that of the Suebi, conquering with difficulty the territory traversed and defeating the forces that attacked him only after considerable bloodshed. From there he proceeded to the country of the Cherusci, and crossing the Visurgis, advanced as far as the Albis, pillaging everything on his way. The Albis rises in the Vandalic Mountains, and empties, a mighty river, into the northern ocean. Drusus undertook to cross this river, but failing in the attempt, set up trophies and withdrew. For a woman of superhuman size met him and said: "Whither, pray, art thou hastening, insatiable Drusus? It is not fated that thou shalt look upon all these lands. But depart; for the end alike of thy labours and of thy life is already at hand". It is indeed marvellous that such a voice should have come to any man from the Deity, yet I cannot discredit the tale; for Drusus immediately departed, and as he was returning in haste, died on the way of some disease before reaching the Rhine. And I find confirmation of the story in these incidents: wolves were prowling about the camp and howling just before his death; two youths were seen riding through the midst of the camp; a sound as of women lamenting was heard; and there were shooting stars in the sky. So much for these events. Albruna Veleda In the first and second centuries CE, Greek and Roman authors—such as Greek historian Strabo, Roman senator Tacitus, and Roman historian Cassius Dio—wrote about the ancient Germanic peoples, and made note of the role of seeresses in Germanic society. Tacitus mentions Germanic seeresses in book 4 of his first century CE Histories. The legionary commander Munius Lupercus was sent along with other presents to Veleda, an unmarried woman who enjoyed wide influence over the tribe of the Bructeri. The Germans traditionally regard many of the female sex as prophetic, and indeed, by an excess of superstition, as divine. This was a case in point. Veleda's prestige stood high, for she had foretold the German successes and the extermination of the legions. But Lupercus was put to death before he reached her. Ganna A seeress named Ganna is mentioned by the Roman historiographer Cassius Dio in the early 3rd century. The context is the campaign east of the Rhine by Emperor Domitian in the 80s of the 1st century CE. Ganna belonged to a tribe called the Semnones who were settled east of the river Elbe, and she appears to have been active in the second half of the 1st century, after Veleda's time. Ganna's political influence was considerable enough that she was taken to Rome together with Masyos, the king of her tribe, where they had an audience with the Roman emperor and were treated with honours, after which they returned home. This probably happened in 86 AD, the year after his final war with the Chatti, when he made a treaty with the Cherusci, who were settled between the rivers Weser and the Elbe.During their stay in Rome, Ganna and Masyos appear also to have met with the Roman historian Tacitus who reports that he discussed the Semnoni religious practices with informants from that tribe, who considered themselves the noblest of the Suebi. Bruce Lincoln (1986) discusses Tacitus' meeting with Ganna and what the Roman historian learnt of the mythological traditions of the early Germanic tribes, and of the Semnoni's ancestral relationships with the other tribes from Ing (Yngvi), Ist and Irmin (Odin), the sons of Mannus, the son of Tuisto. The Semnoni reenacted the "horrific origins" of their nation with a human sacrifice, with each victim representing Tuisto (the "twin") and being cut up to repeat the "acts of creation", which can be compared to how Odin and his brothers cut up the body of the primordial giant Ymir (the "twin") to form the world in Norse mythology. Rudolf Simek notes that Tacitus also learnt that the Semnoni performed their rites at a holy grove that was the cradle of the tribe's inception, and that could only be entered when they were fettered. The god who was worshiped was probably Odin, and being fettered may have been an imitation of Odin's self-sacrifice. This grove has for a long time been identified with the Grove of Fetters, where the hero was sacrificed to Odin in the Eddic poem, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II.It is notable that Ganna is not referred to as a sibylla, but as a theiázousa in Greek, which means "someone making prophesies". Her name Ganna is usually interpreted as Proto-Germanic Gan-no and compared with Old Norse gandr in the meaning "magical staff" (for the meanings of gan- and gandr, see the section on magical Projection); Ganna would mean the "one who carries the magical staff" or "she who controls the magical staff or something similar". Her name is thus grouped with other seeresses with staff names, like Gambara ("wand-bearer") and Waluburg from walu-, "staff" (ON vǫlr), and the same word is found in the name of North Germanic seeresses, the vǫlur. Simek analyses gandr as a "magic staff" and the "insignia of her calling", but in a later work he adds that it meant "magic object or being" and instead of referring to a wand as her tool or insignia, her name may instead have been a reference to her function among the Germanic tribes (like Veleda's name). Sundqvist suggests that the name may have referred instead to her abilities, like de Vries who connects her name directly to the ablaut grade ginn- ("magical ability"), also treated further down in the section on magical Projection. Waluburg Dating from the second century CE, an ostracon with a Greek inscription reading Waluburg. Se[m]noni Sibylla (Greek 'Waluburg, sibyl from the Semnones') was discovered in the early twentieth century on Elephantine, an Egyptian island. The name occurs among a list of Roman and Graeco-Egyptian soldier names, perhaps indicating its use as a payroll.The first element *Walu- is probably Proto-Germanic *waluz 'staff', which could be a reference to the seeresses' insignia, the magic staff, and which connects her name semantically to that of her fellow tribeswoman, the seeress Ganna, who probably taught her the craft and who had an audience with emperor Domitian in Rome. In the same way, her name may also be connected to the name of another Germanic seeress, Gambara, which can be interpreted as 'staff bearer' (*gand-bera or *gand-bara), see gandr. The staffs are also reflected in the North Germanic word for seeress, vǫlva 'staff bearer'. In North Germanic accounts, the seeresses were always equipped with a staff, a vǫlr, from the same Proto-Germanic root *waluz.Schubart proposes that she may have been a war prisoner accompanying a Roman soldier in his career that led to him being stationed in Egypt at the first cataract. Simek considers her to have been deported by the Roman authorities, and he writes that it is uncertain how she arrived at Elephantine, but it is not surprising considering the significant and obvious influence that the Germanic seeresses wielded politically. Clement of Alexandria who lived in Egypt at the same time as Waluburg, and the earlier Plutarch, mentioned that the Germanic seeresses also could predict the future while studying the eddies, the whirling and the splashing of currents, and Schubart suggests that this is the reason why Waluburg found herself at the swirling waters of the First Cataract of the Nile. Early Middle Ages Gambara The Origo Gentis Langobardorum (Origin of the Lombard/Langobard people), a seventh-century Latin account, and the Historia Langobardorum (History of the Lombard/Langobards), from the 8th c., relate the legend that before, or after, the Langobard people, then known as the Winnili, emigrated from Scandinavia, led by the brothers Ibor and Agio, their neighbours, the Vandals, demanded that they pay tribute, but their mother Gambara advised them not to. Before the battle, the Vandals called on Odin (Godan) to give them victory, but Gambara invoked Odin's wife Frigg (Frea) instead. Frigg advised them to trick Odin, by having the Winnili women spread their hair in front of their faces so as to look bearded and stand before the window from which Odin looked down on Earth. Odin was embarrassed and asked who the "long-beards" (longobarbae) were, and thus naming them he became their godfather and had to grant them victory.Gambara is called phitonissa in Latin which means "priestess" or "sorceress", and in the Chronicum Gothanum, she is also specifically called sibylla, i.e. "seeress". Pohl comments that Gambara lived in a world and era where prophecy was important, and not being a virgin like Veleda, she combined the roles of priestess, wise woman, mother and queen. Her name may mean "wand-bearer" (*gand-bera or *gand-bara) with the same meaning as Old Norse vǫlva, while the name of her son Ibor means "boar", the animal sacred to the Norse god Freyr, the god of fertility and the main god of the Vanir clan of the gods. Hauck argues that the legend goes back to a time when the early Lombards primarily worshiped the mother goddess Freyja, as part of the Scandinavian Vanir worship, and he adds that a Lombard counterpart of Uppsala has been discovered in Žuráň, near Brno in the modern day Czech republic.In Lombard, Odin and Frigg were called Godan and Frea, while they were called Uodan and Friia in Old High German and Woden and Frig in Old English. The window from which Odin looked down on earth recalls the Hliðskjálf of Norse mythology, from where he could see everything, and where Frigg also conspires against Odin in the poem Grímnismál, in a parallel with the Lombard myth. Frigg's infidelity and connection with prophecy normally belong to Freyja, and her association with magic (seiðr), but there are many similarities between them, and Freyja and Frigg may originally have been the same goddess. Scholars may identify Frea as Frigg/Freyja, or simply as Freyja. Haliurunas Getica, a 6th century work on the history of the Goths, reports that the early Goths had called their seeresses haliurunas (or haliurunnae, etc.) (Goth-Latin). They were in the words of Wolfram "women who engaged in magic with the world of the dead", and they were banished from their tribe by Filimer who was the last pre-Amal dynasty king of the migrating Goths. They found refuge in the wilderness where they were impregnated by unclean spirits from the Steppe, and engendered the Huns, which Pohl compares with the origin of the Sarmatians as presented by Herodotus. The account serves as an explanation for the origins of the Huns.The account may be based on a historic event when Filimer banished his seeresses as scapegoats for a defeat when their prophesy had proved wrong, They may also have represented the conservative faction and resisted change. This change may have been the rise of the Amal clan and their claims of ancestry from the anses (the Aesir clan of gods). As in the case of the early Lombards, this would have taken place after a decisive victory that saved a tribe whose existence had been threatened by enemies. Odin was still a new god, and the Goths worshiped instead the "old" god Gaut who was made the Scandinavian great-grandfather of Amal, the founder of the new ruling clan.Wagner argues that the demonization of both the women and the Huns shows that the account was written in a Christian context. Morris (1991) comments that it was a precedent for future Christian tradition, where demonic women have intercourse with the Devil or with demons. In the Anglo-Saxon Leechbook from the 10th century, there is a prescription for a salve against "women with whom the Devil has sexual intercourse," and in the 11th century, there appeared the idea that witches and heretics had sexual orgies during their meetings at night. North Germanic corpus Few records of myths among the Germanic peoples survive to modern times. The North Germanic record is an exception, containing the vast majority of material that survives about the mythology of the Germanic peoples. These sources mention numerous seeresses among the North Germanic peoples, including the following: Eiríks saga rauða provides a particularly detailed account of the appearance and activities of a seeress. For example, regarding the seeress Þorbjörg Lítilvölva: A high seat was set for her, complete with a cushion. This was to be stuffed with chicken feathers. When she arrived one evening, along with the man who had been sent to fetch her, she was wearing a black mantle with a strap, which was adorned with precious stones right down to the hem. About her neck she wore a string of glass beads and on her head a hood of black lambskin lined with white catskin. She bore a staff with a knob at the top, adorned with brass set with stones on top. About her waist she had a linked charm belt with a large purse. In it she kept the charms which she needed for her predictions. She wore calfskin boots lined with fur, with long, sturdy laces and large pewter knobs on the ends. On her hands she wore gloves of catskin, white and lined with fur. When she entered, everyone was supposed to offer her respectful greetings, and she responded by according to how the person appealed to her. Farmer Thorkel took the wise woman by the hand and led her to the seat which had been prepared for her. He then asked her to survey his flock, servants and buildings. She had little to say about all of it. That evening tables were set up and food prepared for the seeress. A porridge of kid's milk was made for her and as meat she was given the hearts of all the animals available there. She had a spoon of brass and a knife with an ivory shaft, its two halves clasped with bronze bands, and the point of which had broken off. Olga of Kiev There are indications that Olga of Kiev may have served as a Völva, and as a "priestess of Freyja", before converting to Christianity. In the Primary Chronicle, she is described by the noblemen as the "wisest of all women", where wise has several meanings and her reputation as being wise goes back to her pre-conversion years. Her wisdom is also reported by Óláfs saga Tryggvassonar, where she is called Allogia and mistaken for Vladimir the Great's old mother, although she was his grand-mother. There she is described as "very wise" and her main function at the court was as a prophetess, one whose predictions also came true. When the king of Kievan Rus' celebrated Yule, he asked her to predict the future and to do so she was carried to him on a chair which recalls the elevated platforms of the seeresses. Although he may not have transmitted a historical event, Oddr Snorrason, who wrote the saga in the 12th c., clearly identified Olga as a völva.Olga is strongly associated with birds in the sources, which also was true of the goddess Freyja, the goddess of magic (seiðr). The goddess was popular among Scandinavian women in general, and especially among aristocratic women who profited from corollary authority and power. Older scholarship believed that the aristocratic Norse women passively waited at home for their husbands, but the modern view is that they actively took part in warfare from home with seiðr, a magic reflected in the Norse poem Darraðarljóð. Consequently, Olga may have been regarded as a high priestess of Freyja, a status which would not only have appealed to her Scandinavian kinsmen but also to her Slavic subjects who would have identified Freyja with the Slavic goddess Mokosh, who was represented as the only goddess among the six raised idols in Kiev.In 2008, a Scandinavian chamber grave called N°6 was excavated in Pskov, where Olga was born. It was a syncretic grave containing elements from Norse paganism and from Christianity; it has been dated to c. 960. It contained an object called a jartegn, a token given to officials by Scandinavian kings and Rus' rulers, indicating that the buried man had political influence. On the front side it has a bident, which later evolved into a trident and was a symbol of the Rurik dynasty. Above the bident there is a key, and keys were a symbol of the Scandinavian mistress, as Scandinavian women carried the keys of the homestead; Kovalev (2012) argues that the key was also a symbol of Freyja. According to Kovalev, during her regency, before Sviatoslav I came of age, Olga may have chosen to add the key to the seal of the ruler of Kievan Rus', the key being a symbol whose significance would have been understood all over northern Europe, not only as the symbol of a woman who has authority, but also as a symbol of guardianship. On the reverse side the jartegn has the image of a falcon, a bird not only associated with the Swedish and Rus' elite of the Viking Age, but also especially associated with the goddesses Freyja and Frigg, who can transform themselves into falcons.). The falcon also appears to wear a cloak of the type worn by Scandinavian women. There is a cross above the falcon; coins bearing the falcon and the cross are dated to Olga's time in the 950s and the 960s. Images of women with a bird's head have also been found on the Norwegian 9th c. Oseberg tapestry fragments, and the women have been identified as priestesses of Freyja wearing bird masks. Several scholars consider the woman who was buried with the tapestry to have been a völva. Archaeological Record The archaeological record for Viking Age society features a variety of graves that are identified as those of North Germanic seeresses. A notable example occurs at Fyrkat, in the northern Jutland region of Denmark. Fyrkat is the site of a former Viking Age ring fortress; the cemetery section of the site contains, among about 30 others, the grave of a woman buried within a horse-drawn carriage and wearing a red and blue dress embroidered with gold thread, all signs of high status. While the grave contains items commonly found in female Viking Age graves such as scissors and spindle whorls, it also contains a variety of other rare and exotic items. For example, the woman wore silver toe rings (otherwise unknown in the Scandinavian record) and her burial contained two bronze bowls originating from Central Asia.The grave also contained a small purse with seeds from henbane, a poisonous plant, inside it, and a partially disintegrated metal wand, used by seeresses in the Old Norse record. According to the National Museum of Denmark: If these seeds are thrown onto a fire, a mildly hallucinogenic smoke is produced. Taken in the right quantities, they can produce hallucinations and euphoric states. Henbane was often used by the witches of later periods. It could be used as a "witch's salve" to produce a psychedelic effect, if the magic practitioners rubbed it into their skin. Did the woman from Fyrkat do this? In her belt buckle was white lead, which was sometimes used as an ingredient in skin ointment. Henbane's aphrodisiac properties may have also been relevant to its use by the seeress. At the feet of the corpse was a small box, called a box brooch and originating from the Swedish island of Gotland, which contained owl pellets and bird bones. The grave also contained amulets shaped like a chair, potentially a reflection of the long-standing association of seeresses and chairs (as described in Strabo's Geographica from the first century CE, discussed above). A ship setting grave in Köpingsvik, a location on the Swedish island of Öland, also appears to have contained a seeress. The woman was buried wrapped in bear fur with a variety of notable grave goods: the grave contained a bronze-ornamented staff with a small house atop it, a jug made in Central Asia, and a bronze cauldron smithed in Western Europe. The grave contained animals and humans, perhaps sacrificed.The Oseberg ship burial also may have contained a seeress. The ship contained the remains of two people, one a woman of elevated status and the other possibly a slave. Along with a variety of other objects, the grave contained a purse containing cannabis seeds and a wooden wand.Another notable grave containing what has been identified as the remains of a seeress was excavated by archaeologists in Hagebyhöga in Östergötland, Sweden. The grave contained female human remains interred with an iron wand or staff, a carriage, horses, and Arabic bronze jugs. The grave also contained a small silver figurine of a woman with a large necklace, which has been interpreted by archaeologists as representing the goddess Freyja, a deity strongly associated with seiðr, death, and sex. Activities In Scandinavian sources, seeresses work as diviners using a practice called seiðr on a ritual platform called seiðhjallr (see below), which is associated with shamanism. They also take part in other activities, but they do not appear to perform sacrifices. They are described as ritual specialists travelling from settlement to settlement, sometimes with a group of followers, and late sources tell that they received payment for their services. Chanting In the Roman era, the Germanic word for chanting was similar to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *ʒalđran, which later evolved into Old Norse galdr ("song, charm; witchcraft, sorcery"), OHG galtar ("incantation, charm") and Old English ʒealdor with the same meaning, also rendered as galdor ("sound, song, incantation, spell, enchantment"). It is derived from *ʒalanan, which became ON gala ("to crow, sing"), OHG galan ("to incantate") and OE ʒalan ("to sing"). It is related to the English nightingale and yell, to Latin gallus ("cock") and it appears in ON gylfra ("witch"). The many uses of chanting are revealed in the words that are derived from galdr, such as galdrabók ("book of magic"), galdrasmiðja ("objects used for magic"), galdravél ("a magic device"), galdrahríð ("magic storm"), galdrastafir ("magical characters") and valgaldr (a kind of Odinic necromancy). The modern Swedish word galen ("crazy", literally "having been chanted") is derived from the word for this practice.Other names for the songs are varðlok(k)ur and seiðlæti, where the latter simply means "seiðr songs". The former term is more complex, and scholars such as Cleasby and Vigfússon, Tolley, Strömbäck and Price have derived it from vǫrðr ("guard, protector"). Several scholars have also compared it to the Scotting dialect word warlock, and scholars such as Cleasby, Vigfússon and Strömbäck consider it to be the origin of the Scottish word. Katherine Morris translates the word as "warlock-song".In Eiríks saga rauða, the songs are said to be sung or spoken by the seeresses' followers, but at the same time there is only one woman who knows them and sings them. Price argues that since the name appears with two spellings (depending on the manuscript), it is possible to interpret the name in two ways, either by referring to loka ("fastening") or lokka ("lure"). He interprets the spelling varðlokkur as meaning "to lure the spirits", and varðlokur as meaning "locking the spirits under the seeress' power". In this way the term can be simultaneously interpreted as attracting the spirits and locking them under the summoner's power, and probably also securing them as protection against hostile entities. In the poem Grógaldr, urðarlokkur, the norn of fate Urðr's lokkur, are said to protect a person on all sides, and they are also likely bound to that individual. Tolley points out that the form urðarlok(k)ur for these protective spells is probably a reinterperation of an older vǫrðlokur ("ward spells"), or more likely another possible form with the same meaning, varðarlokur ("spells of warding").The chants appear to have been sung with a high pitch, and they are reported to have been pleasing to the ear. In the Laxdœla saga, the sweetness of a chant (seiðlæti) lures a boy to his death, as intended, and a pleasing sound would also have been understood as attracting spirits to the summoner. Price suggests that the nearest equivalent to these high pitched and pleasing chants are the traditional Swedish herding calls (lockrop in modern Swedish, which still contains the linguistic element lokk-). Summoning While the varðlok(k)ur (mentioned above) attracted protective spirits that provided information to the enchantress, there were animal spirits that were sent out to collect information for her, and to perform other tasks. Consequently, the task of the sorceress was to control spirits, and the name that appears to have been used for these spirits and for several other aspects in sorcery is gandr (pl. gandir); the relationship between the extended meanings of gandr is complex and a matter of discussion among scholars. The original meaning appears to be "something which is connected with the soul of the magician and can be sent out from him or her in sleep or extasy".According to de Vries, the origin of gandr is a word gan- meaning "magic", of which there was an ablaut grade gin- (in English there is still a semantic relationship between the ablaut grades swam and swim, and sat and sit) that may be found in the name of the primordial chasm Ginnungagap ("space filled with magic powers"), and on the migration age Björketorp and Stentoften runestones, it appears in the sense "magically powerful" in Proto-Norse ginnarunaʀ ("powerful runes"). It was also used as an intensifier in the compounds ginnregin ("great powers", i.e. the gods) and ginnheilagr ("extremely holy"). As a noun it meant "falsehood" and "deception", while the verb ginna meant "to dupe or to fool someone".The gan- ablaut grade was combined with the suffix -đra-, the same as in galdr, from gala, "chant" (see section on Chanting, above). Tolley argues that the original meaning cannot have included "staff", but rather that it would have meant "sorcerer spirit" from which would have been derived the additional meanings "wand", "wolf" and "serpent" (Jörmungandr). The "sorcerer's spirit" (gandr) could be summoned or sent out to gather information; this spirit is in animal form, but possibly not always. The extension to the meanings "wolf" and "serpent" is due to the fact that spirits had animal form, and the term gandreið originally meant the ride of a sorcerer on a spirit in animal form such as that of a wolf. Supernatural creatures could also use wolves as steeds; later the term came to refer to the sorcerer riding on a staff.In Old Norse sources, the noun gandreið and the verb renna gand (or renna gǫndum) can refer to going out to gather information in a non-corporeal sense, but it can also refer to magically flying on a staff in a physical sense. Price disagrees with Tolley's argument that "staff" was not part of the original meaning of gandr and suggests that the staff/wand (gandr or gǫndull) was part of the ritual of summoning and releasing the gandir ("spirits") for the purpose of clairvoyance or prophesy, and sometimes in order to harm people. The use of the staff may have implied sexual magic and sexual acts while it was used, and the staff was possibly also ridden in order to hurt enemies.Some examples of aggressive projection are also preserved in Old English poems, such as the "Nine Herbs Charm", "Against a Dwarf" and "Wið færstice". Especially the last poem contains many Germanic pagan elements that are also found in Old Norse sources, such as sorceresses (hægtessan), elves (ylfa), Æsir gods (esa), the magic of smiths, and the presence of women that are like Valkyries.During the eighth decade of the first century, the Semnonian seeress Ganna succeeded the Bructerian seeress Veleda as the leader of an alliance of Germanic tribes when the latter had been captured and deported by the Romans. Her name "Ganna" is usually linked to the ON word gandr – Simek comments that instead of being a reference to a wand as her tool or insignia, her name may be a reference to her function among the Germanic tribes (like Veleda's name). Sundqvist also comments that the name may have referred instead to her abilities, like de Vries who connects her name directly to the grade gin(n)- (see above). Prophesying There are two ways in which the seeress conveys the acquired information to the audience. One of them is by having a seizure during the trance and gasping for air with a wide open mouth (Hrólfs saga kraka and Hauks þáttr hábrókar). She delivers her prophesy during the trance, and it may be said that a song appears from elsewhere in her mouth (Ǫrvar-Odds saga and Hrólfs saga kraka). In Hrólfs saga kraka, it is in the beginning of the trance that she breathes in, and Tolley considers that this may represent a breathing in of spirits rather than her letting out her soul. Price comments that as far as textual criticism is concerned, this detail can not have been borrowed from those of the neighbouring Fenno-Ugric peoples, because the closest practitioners are the Yukaghir people on the other side of Eurasia, whose practices were inaccessible for the saga writers.The other situation occurs when the seeress has returned from her trance and tells about it while awake (Eiríks saga rauða and Vatnsdœla saga). Attributes Wands Platforms There appears to be a continuity between elements such as the first century Bructerian seeress Veleda's tower and the seiðhjallr that played an important role in Scandinavian sources. The word seiðhjallr means "incantation scaffold", for performing magic. Hallucinogens The notion of ecstatic experience induced or complemented by the use of intoxicants in the context of Nordic pagan religion is not new, and there have been several attempts to reconstruct such practices. Little evidence to confirm the Viking Age ingestion of hallucinogens such as psilocybin mushrooms or other entheogens has been found, with the exception of two archaeological finds:Several hundred seeds of henbane were found in grave 4 at Fyrkat. Their presence in the grave is likely significant, and the herb's deliriant properties suggest aspects of the rituals that might have been performed with it. There are many medieval accounts describing henbane's use as an ingredient in witches' ointments, used when a sorceress wished to change physical form. Henbane contains the psychoactive drug scopolamine, and when consumed as a tea, or when its juice is made into a topical salve and rubbed into the skin, especially around the armpits and chest, hallucinations can be experienced. A strong sensation of flight is often felt, which remains vivid for several hours. Bilsenkraut, the German name of henbane, is derived from the Indo-European bhelena; according to some sources, it originally meant "plant of madness". The proto-Germanic bil seems to have meant "vision, hallucination" or "magical power."Four seeds of the mind-altering plant cannabis sativa were found in the Oseberg ship burial, among the piles of pillows thrown into the prow of the ship when the grave was robbed. A single seed of cannabis was also found embedded in a clump of decayed leather, bound by a thin woollen cord, apparently the remains of a small leather pouch with a draw-string; it is possible that all the seeds were originally contained in this bag. The pouch was too small to hold enough seeds for planting, suggesting that they might have had symbolic significance, and could have been connected with the higher status woman's religious functions. Cats All over the world cats are often linked to magical practices, and the goddess Freyja, who was the first divinity reported to have practiced magic, was associated with cats. Cats and catskins appear to have been important symbols for the seeresses. In Eiríks saga rauða, the account of Þorbjörg lítilvölva tells that her ritual dress had a black lambskin hood that was lined with white catskin and on her hands she wore catskin gloves. Ellis Davidson argues that the catskin represents the seeresses' helping animal spirits (see the section on magical projection, above), and Price connects these cat spirits with the cats that pull Freyja's wagon.The most opulent female grave from the Viking Age is the extremely rich Oseberg ship burial from the first half of the 9th c. that contained two women. Although previously considered to be the grave of a queen, several scholars, such as Stine Ingstad, Neil Price and Leszek Gardeła note that the finds indicate that it was instead the grave of a seeress. In addition to a staff and cannabis it contained a chest with catskins, and a wagon that had one end decorated with nine cats (a significant number), animals sacred to Freyja , which suggests that it was a reference to the goddess whose wagon is pulled by cats, according to Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. About 50 graves from Medelpad, the Mälaren Valley and Gotland, most of which are identified as the graves of wealthy women, contain lynx skins; it has been argued that these powerful women had a special connection with the goddess Freyja. Christianity The seeresses rarely appear in the earliest Scandinavian written sources, such as runestones and skaldic poetry, and they do not appear in place names which suggests a marginal position in society; older research has cast them in a negative light. Simek comments that all our sources on Germanic seeresses have passed through the filter of Roman and Christian interpretations. The Romans interpreted them as similar to their augurs, while the Christian writers considered them to be "more or less witches". In sources from the Christian era, their rituals are described as suspicious and sometimes evil. This attitude can even be seen in some Eddic lays, and in the Ynglinga saga, Snorri Sturluson writes that their practice was so evil that "manly men considered it too shameful to practise it, and so it was taught to priestesses". It is possible that the Christian scribes wanted to minimize and deprecate them and their rites and turn them into an oddity. Price comments that the associations with Freyja and the Vanir gods lingered for a long time in Christian medieval Scandinavia, but the Viking Age views were replaced by negative views influenced by Christian attitudes towards female sexuality as something dangerous that had to be contained. This was related to the same fears that later led to witchcraft hysteria, manifested as what Ellis Davidson referred to as “the sinister light which played round [Freyja's] cult for the story-tellers of a Christian age”.Modern archaeological finds, however, do not confirm that the North Germanic seeresses had a marginal position at the bottom of society as depicted by older scholarship and Christian sources, but instead they suggest the contrary. The seeresses have been cast in a new light by a recent detailed analysis of Landnámabók, the Íslendingasögur and the Íslendingaþættir, which point out that the practitioners of magic were respected and well integrated in society. They were often connected to the highest echelons of society, they were free and they owned land. In a Norwegian setting they usually belong to Norwegian families, and in Iceland they do not live in caves or on islands, but in settlements with other people. Nor are they described as perverted or as sexual deviants. Moreover, archaeological studies from Norway and Sweden, such as that of the Oseberg burial, show that they belonged to the highest elite and were part of aristocratic society. Late Middle Ages The seeresss tradition did not disappear, at least not during the Middle Ages. Mitchell writes in his book Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages (2011) that not even the most triumphalist Christian, nor even the most sceptic scholar, can deny the continued survival of the practices of these women. However, it is also clear that during centuries of transmission, their practices changed through external influences, and evolved. Attitudes also changed and sorcery was increasingly considered to be witchcraft during the Middle Ages, and by the 15th century society appears no longer to have distinguished between sorcesses and healers such as midwives and wise women. The witch was inherently evil, she could fly to the sabbath and have intercourse with the devil, and she ate infants. Witch-hunts The Malleus Maleficarum extended the concept of "witch" to more women, and concepts that used to be separate – folklore and witchcraft - merged with the concept of heresy. Morris argues that without this book there would probably never have been witch-hunts, and that the printing press helped spread the notion of diabolical witchcraft from the ecclesiastical elite to a larger part of the population. This was also the time of the revival of "high magic" during the renaissance, but the Church did not separate the two and persecuted both the "low magic" and "high magic" as heresy. About eighty per cent of those accused of witchcraft were women, and the accusations included Devil worship, having sex with the Devil, sex both oral and anal, incest and cannibalism of infants. Morris comments that the accusations reveal more about the inquisitors than about the women who were accused. The accusations were characterized by ecclesiastical attitudes towards female sexuality, and it is notable that the practices they were accused of were preventive to procreation. Morris argues that the evolution from Germanic pagan seeresses to witches during the witch-hunts is a case study in how attitudes towards magic were affected by the change of religion. Modern influence The concept of the Germanic seeress has had influence in a variety of areas of popular culture. For example, in 1965, the Icelandic scholar Sigurður Nordal coined the Icelandic language term for computer—tölva— by blending the words tala (number) and völva.The seeress Veleda has inspired a number of artworks, including German writer Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's 1818 novel Welleda und Ganna, an 1844 marble statue by French sculptor Hippolyte Maindron, an illustration, Veleda, die Prophetin der Brukterer, by K. Sigrist, and Polish-American composer Eduard Sobolewski's 1836 opera Velleda.Practitioners of Germanic Heathenry, the modern revival of Germanic paganism, seek to revive the concept of the Germanic seeress.The asteroid 131 Vala is named for the ancient Norse vǫlva. See also Göndul, a name meaning 'wand-wielder' applied to a valkyrie in the Old Norse corpus and later appearing in a 14th-century charm used as evidence in a Norwegian witchcraft trial Norse cosmology, the cosmology of the North Germanic peoples

Hávamál (English: HAW-və-mawl; Old Norse: Hávamál, classical pron. [ˈhɒːwaˌmɒːl], Modern Icelandic pron. [ˈhauːvaˌmauːl̥], ‘Words of Hávi [the High One]’) is presented as a single poem in the Codex Regius, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking age. The poem, itself a combination of numerous shorter poems, is largely gnomic, presenting advice for living, proper conduct and wisdom. It is considered an important source of Old Norse philosophy. The verses are attributed to Odin; the implicit attribution to Odin facilitated the accretion of various mythological material also dealing with the same deity.For the most part composed in the metre ljóðaháttr, a metre associated with wisdom verse, Hávamál is both practical and philosophical in content. Following the gnomic "Hávamál proper" comes the Rúnatal, an account of how Odin won the runes, and the Ljóðatal, a list of magic chants or spells. Name The Old Norse name Hávamál is a compound of the genitive form of Hávi, which is the inflexionally weak form of Odin's name Hár ('High One'), and the plural noun mál (from older mǫ́l), and means 'Song (or Words) of the High One'. Textual history The only surviving source for Hávamál is the 13th century Codex Regius, with the exception of two short parts. The part dealing with ethical conduct (the Gestaþáttr) was traditionally identified as the oldest portion of the poem by scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century. Bellows (1936) identifies as the core of the poem a "collection of proverbs and wise counsels" which dates to "a very early time", but which, by the nature of oral tradition, never had a fixed form or extent. Klaus von See (1981) identifies direct influence of the Disticha Catonis on the Gestaþáttr, suggesting that also this part is a product of the high medieval period and casting doubt on the "unadulterated Germanic character" of the poem claimed by earlier commentators.To the gnomic core of the poem, other fragments and poems dealing with wisdom and proverbs accreted over time. A discussion of authorship or date for the individual parts would be futile, since almost every line or stanza could have been added, altered or removed at will at any time before the poem was written down in the 13th century. Individual verses or stanzas nevertheless certainly date to as early as the 10th, or even the 9th century. Thus, the line deyr fé, deyja frændr ("cattle die, kinsmen die") found in verses 76 and 77 of the Gestaþáttr can be shown to date to the 10th century, as it also occurs in the Hákonarmál by Eyvindr skáldaspillir. The Hávamál has been described as a 10th-century poem in some sources. Structure The Hávamál is edited in 165 stanzas by Bellows (1936). Other editions give 164 stanzas, combining Bellow's stanzas 11 and 12, as the manuscript abbreviates the last two lines of stanzas 11. Some editors also combine Bellow's stanzas 163 and 164. In the following, Bellow's numeration is used. The poems in Hávamál is traditionally taken to consist of at least five independent parts, the Gestaþáttr, or Hávamál proper, (stanzas 1–80), a collection of proverbs and gnomic wisdom a dissertation on the faithlessness of women (stanzas 81–95), prefacing an account of the love-story of Odin and the daughter of Billingr (stanzas 96–102) and the story of how Odin got the mead of poetry from the maiden Gunnlöð (stanzas 103–110) the Loddfáfnismál (stanzas 111–138), a collection of gnomic verses similar to the Gestaþáttr, addressed to a certain Loddfáfnir the Rúnatal (stanzas 139–146), an account of how Odin won the runes, introductory to the Ljóðatal the Ljóðatal (stanzas 147–165), a collection of charmsStanzas 6 and 27 are expanded beyond the standard four lines by an additional two lines of "commentary". Bellow's edition inverses the manuscript order of stanzas 39 and 40. Bellow's stanza 138 (Ljóðalok) is taken from the very end of the poem in the manuscript, placed before the Rúnatal by most editors following Müllenhoff. Stanzas 65, 73–74, 79, 111, 133–134, 163 are defective. Stanzas 81–84 are in málaháttr, 85–88 in fornyrðislag. The entire section of 81–102 appears to be an ad hoc interpolation. Stanza 145 is also an interpolation in málaháttr. Contents Gestaþáttr The first section Gestaþáttr, the "guest's section". Stanzas 1 through 79 comprise a set of maxims for how to handle oneself when a guest and traveling, focusing particularly on manners and other behavioral relationships between hosts and guests and the sacred lore of reciprocity and hospitality to the Norse pagans. The first stanza exemplifies the practical behavioral advice it offers: "Gattir allar, aþr gangi fram, vm scoðaz scyli, vm scygnaz scyli; þviat ouist er at vita, hvar ovinir sitia a fleti fyr."All the entrances, before you walk forward,you should look at,you should spy out;for you can't know for certain where enemies are sitting,ahead in the hallNumber 77 is possibly the most known section of Gestaþáttr: "Deyr fę, deyia frǫndr, deyr sialfr it sama; ec veit einn at aldri deýr: domr vm dꜹþan hvern." Cattle die,friends die,and the same with you;but I know of something that never diesand that's a dead person's deeds. On women Stanzas 83 to 110 deal with the general topic of romantic love and the character of women. It is introduced by a discussion of the faithlessness of women and advice for the seducing of them in stanzas 84–95, followed by two mythological accounts of Odin's interaction with women also known as "Odin's Examples" or "Odin's Love Quests". The first is an account of Odin's thwarted attempt of possessing the daughter of Billing (stanzas 96–102), followed by the story of the mead of poetry which Odin won by seducing its guardian, the maiden Gunnlöð (stanzas 103–110). Loddfáfnismál The Loddfáfnismál (stanzas 111–138) is again gnomic, dealing with morals, ethics, correct action and codes of conduct. The section is directed to Loddfáfnir ("stray-singer"). Rúnatal Rúnatal or Óðins Rune Song, Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins (stanzas 139–146) is a section of the Hávamál where Odin reveals the origins of the runes. In stanzas 139 and 140, Odin describes his sacrifice of himself to himself: "Vęit ec at ec hecc vindga meiði a nętr allar nío, geiri vndaþroc gefinn Oðni, sialfr sialfom mer, a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn. Við hleifi mic seldo ne viþ hórnigi, nysta ec niþr, nam ec vp rv́nar, ǫpandi nam, fęll ec aptr þatan." I know that I hung on a windy treenine long nights,wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,myself to myself,on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,downwards I peered;I took up the runes,screaming I took them,then I fell back from there. The "windy tree" from which the victim hangs is often identified with the world tree Yggdrasil by commentators. The entire scene, the sacrifice of a god to himself, the execution method by hanging the victim on a tree, and the wound inflicted on the victim by a spear, is often compared to the crucifixion of Christ as narrated in the gospels. The parallelism of Odin and Christ during the period of open co-existence of Christianity and Norse paganism in Scandinavia (the 9th to 12th centuries, corresponding with the assumed horizon of the poem's composition) also appears in other sources. To what extent this parallelism is an incidental similarity of the mode of human sacrifice offered to Odin and the crucifixion, and to what extent a Pagan influence on Christianity, has been discussed by scholars such as Sophus Bugge.The persistence of Odin's self-sacrifice in Scandinavian folk tradition was documented by Bugge (1889) in a poem from Unst on the Shetland Islands: Nine days he hang' pa de rütless tree;For ill wis da folk, in' güd wis he.A blüdy mael wis in his side —Made wi' a lance — 'at wid na hide.Nine lang nichts, i' de nippin rime,Hang he dare wi' his naeked limb.Some dey leuch;Bid idders gret. Ljóðatal The last section, the Ljóðatal enumerates eighteen songs (ljóð), sometimes called "charms", prefaced with (stanza 147): "Lioþ ec þꜹ kann, er kannat þioðans kónaoc mannzcis mꜹgr" The songs I knowthat king's wives know notNor men that are sons of men. The songs themselves are not given, just their application or effect described. They are explicitly counted from "the first" in stanza 147, and "a second" to "an eighteenth" in stanzas 148 to 165, given in Roman numerals in the manuscript.There is no explicit mention of runes or runic magic in the Ljóðatal excepting in the twelfth song (stanza 158), which takes up the motif of Odin hanging on the tree and its association with runes: "sva ec ristoc i rv́nom fác" So do I writeand color the runes Nevertheless, because of the Rúnatal preceding the list, modern commentators sometimes reinterpret the Ljóðatal as referring to runes, specifically with the sixteen letters of the Younger Futhark. Müllenhoff takes the original Ljóðatal to have ended with stanza 161, with the final three songs (16th to 18th) taken as late and obscure additions. Influence Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, leader of the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið, published his performance of a number of Eddaic poems, including the Hávamál, chanted in rímur style.The German viking-pagan metal band Falkenbach formed in 1989 and recorded their first demo, titled Hávamál, and incorporate lines from the poem into lyrics. Editions and translations editio princeps: Peder Hansen Resen, Edda. Islandorum an. Chr. 1215 islandice conscripta, 1665 (Google Books). Peter Andreas Munch, Carl Rikard Unger, Den Ældre Edda: Samling af norrøne oldkvad, indeholdende Nordens ældste gude- og helte-sagn, Christiania: P. T. Malling, 1847 (Internet Archive) Benjamin Thorpe, Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða: The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned, 1866 (online transcription Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine). Sophus Bugge, Sæmundar Edda hins fróða. Christiania: P. T. Malling, 1867. Olive Bray, The Elder or Poetic Edda, commonly known as Sæmund's Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems, London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908, pp. 61–111(online transcription). H. A. Bellows, The Poetic Edda, 1936, "Hovamol: The Ballad of the High One" (online edition). Carolyne Larrington, The Poetic Edda, Oxford University Press, 2006. Jackson Crawford, The Poetic Edda, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2015. Jackson Crawford, The Wanderer's Hávamál, 2019 (Google Books). Thorstein Mayfield, Poetic Edda: A Heathen Study Edition (Mythological Poems), Woden's Folk Press, 2019. See also Nine Herbs Charm Noleby Runestone Bibliography Lindow, John (2002). Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-983969-8. Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5. Media related to Hávamál at Wikimedia Commons "Havamal – Translation by Benjamin Thorpe". Archived from the original on 2008-05-15. Hávamál Translation by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor Hávamál Translation by Olive Bray Hávamál Original text Parallel versions of Odin's "Rune Song" with the Bellows, Hollander, Larrington and Orchard translations

Grímnismál (Old Norse: [ˈɡriːmnesˌmɔːl]; 'The Lay of Grímnir') is one of the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of Grímnir, one of the many guises of the god Odin. The very name suggests guise, or mask or hood. Through an error, King Geirröth tortured Odin-as-Grímnir, a fatal mistake, since Odin caused him to fall upon his own sword. The poem is written mostly in the ljóðaháttr metre, typical for wisdom verse. Structure and history The work starts out with a lengthy prose section describing the circumstances leading up to Grímnir's monologue. The monologue itself comprises 54 stanzas of poetic verse describing the worlds and Odin's many guises. The third and last part of the poem is also prose, a brief description of Geirröth's demise, his son's ascension, and Odin's disappearance. The prose sections were most likely not part of the original oral versions of Grímnismál. Henry Adams Bellows suggests that they were added in the 12th or 13th century and based on some sort of narrative tradition regarding the poem. This is not entirely certain. The poem itself was likely composed in the first half of the 10th century. Synopsis Odin and his wife, Frigg, were sitting in Hlidskjalf, looking out on the worlds. They turned their eyes towards King Geirröth, who was reigning in the stead of his late father, King Hrauthung. Geirröth and his older brother Agnarr had been raised by Odin and Frigg, respectively. The god and goddess had disguised themselves as a peasant and his wife, and had taught the children wisdom. Geirröth returned to his father's kingdom where he became king upon his father's death, while Agnarr dwelt with a giantess in a cave. In Hliðskjálf, Odin remarked to Frigg that his foster-child Geirröth seemed to be prospering more so than her Agnarr. Frigg retorted that Geirröth was so parsimonious and inhospitable that he would torture his guests if he thought there were too many of them. Odin disputed this, and the couple entered into a wager in this respect. Frigg then sent her maid Fulla to Geirröth, advising him that a magician would soon enter his court to bewitch him, and saying that he could be recognised by the fact that no dog was fierce enough to attack him. Geirröth heeded Fulla's false warning. He ordered his men to capture the man the dogs wouldn't attack, which they did. Odin-as-Grímnir, dressed in a dark blue cloak, allowed himself to be captured. He stated that his name was Grímnir, but he would say nothing further of himself. Geirröth then had him tortured to force him to speak, putting him between two fires for eight nights. After this time, Geirröth's son, named Agnarr after the king's brother, came to Grímnir and gave him a full horn from which to drink, saying that his father, the king, was not right to torture him. Grímnir then spoke, saying that he had suffered eight days and nights, without succour from any save Agnarr, Geirröth's son, whom Grímnir prophesied would be Lord of the Goths. He then revealed himself for who he was, as the Highest One, promising Agnarr reward for the drink which he brought him. Shifting from prose to poetry for Odin-as-Grímnir's monologue, Grímnir describes at great length the cosmogony of the worlds, the dwelling places of its inhabitants, and himself and his many guises. Eventually, Grímnir turns to Geirröth and promises him misfortune, revealing his true identity. Geirröth then realized the magnitude of his mistake. Having learned that he is undone, he rose quickly to pull Odin from the fires, but the sword which he had lain upon his knee slipped and fell hilt down, so that when the king stumbled he impaled himself upon it. Odin then vanished, and Agnarr, son of the dead King Geirröth, ruled in his father's stead. In popular culture The 12th album of the comic Valhalla is loosely based on the poem. In the 2017 Starz television adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, the character Mad Sweeney refers to Mr. Wednesday as Grimnir. Mr. Wednesday later emulates Odin's reveal of his identity through his various names when revealing his own true nature. Bibliography Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5. Grímnismál in old Norse and Henry Adams Bellows' translation, at voluspa.orgMyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository) Illustrations of Grímnismál from manuscripts and early print books. Clicking on the thumbnail will give you the full image and information concerning it.

KC, Kc and similar may refer to: Places Kuçovë District, Albania's ISO 3166-2 code Kansas City metropolitan area, a major metropolitan area of the United States Kansas City, Missouri, its principal city Kansas City, Kansas, the third-largest city in the region Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia's ISO 3166-2 code People Kent Cochrane (1951–2014), Canadian memory disorder patient KC Concepcion (born 1985), Philippine model, actress, singer, songwriter Kcee (musician) (born 1979), Nigerian singer, songwriter, performer K.C. Potter (born 1939), American academic administrator and LGBT rights activist Harry Wayne Casey (born 1951), American musician best known for his band KC and the Sunshine Band Govinda K.C. (born 1957), Nepali orthopaedic surgeon and philanthropic activist KC or K.C., an abbreviation for the Nepalese surname Khatri (Khatri Chhetri) Arts and entertainment KC (album), a 2010 album by KC Concepcion KC and the Sunshine Band, an American funk, R&B and disco musical group founded in 1973 King Crimson, a British progressive rock band K.C. Guthrie, a fictional character in Degrassi: The Next Generation KaibaCorp, a fictional gaming company in Yu-Gi-Oh! Businesses and organizations Schools and universities King's College, Hong Kong, a boys' secondary school in Hong Kong Kingwood College, now Lone Star College-Kingwood, in Kingwood, Houston, Texas, United States Kishinchand Chellaram College or K. C. College, South Mumbai, India Kutama College, a boys' boarding high school in Zimbabwe Kuen Cheng High School, a high school in Malaysia Sports organizations Kansas City Chiefs, a National Football League team based in Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City Royals, a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri Sporting Kansas City or Sporting KC, a Major League Soccer team based in Kansas City, Kansas Other businesses and organizations KC HiLiTES, a US manufacturer of driving lights Kimberly-Clark, a US personal care corporation The Kennel Club, a dog-breed registry in England Kingston Communications, a UK communications and IT service provider Air Astana (IATA airline designator) Science and technology Kc, the equilibrium constant, the equilibrium of a chemical reaction CXCL1 or KC, a cytokine Keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease Kilocycle, as in 1,000 cycles per second, with the modern equivalent being kilohertz Other uses KC Stadium, a former name of a football and rugby-league stadium in Hull, England Kelly criterion, a formula in probability theory and finance King's Counsel, a legal position in Commonwealth countries KC, an obsolete postnominal for Knight of the Order of the Crescent See also Kansas City (disambiguation) Casey (disambiguation)

EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for electronic publication and is sometimes styled ePub. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones, tablets, and computers. EPUB is a technical standard published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It became an official standard of the IDPF in September 2007, superseding the older Open eBook (OEB) standard.The Book Industry Study Group endorses EPUB 3 as the format of choice for packaging content and has stated that the global book publishing industry should rally around a single standard. The EPUB format is implemented as an archive file consisting of XHTML files carrying the content, along with images and other supporting files. EPUB is the most widely supported vendor-independent XML-based e-book format; that is, it is supported by almost all hardware readers. History A successor to the Open eBook Publication Structure, EPUB 2.0 was approved in October 2007, with a maintenance update (2.0.1) approved in September 2010.The EPUB 3.0 specification became effective in October 2011, superseded by a minor maintenance update (3.0.1) in June 2014. New major features include support for precise layout or specialized formatting (Fixed Layout Documents), such as for comic books, and MathML support. The current version of EPUB is 3.2, effective May 8, 2019. The (text of) format specification underwent reorganization and clean-up; format supports remotely hosted resources and new font formats (WOFF 2.0 and SFNT) and uses more pure HTML and CSS.In May 2016 IDPF members approved World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) merger, "to fully align the publishing industry and core Web technology". Version 2.0.1 EPUB 2.0 was approved in October 2007, with a maintenance update (2.0.1) intended to clarify and correct errata in the specifications being approved in September 2010. EPUB version 2.0.1 consists of three specifications: Open Publication Structure (OPS) 2.0.1, contains the formatting of its content. Open Packaging Format (OPF) 2.0.1, describes the structure of the .epub file in XML. Open Container Format (OCF) 2.0.1, collects all files as a ZIP archive.EPUB internally uses XHTML or DTBook (an XML standard provided by the DAISY Consortium) to represent the text and structure of the content document, and a subset of CSS to provide layout and formatting. XML is used to create the document manifest, table of contents, and EPUB metadata. Finally, the files are bundled in a zip file as a packaging format. Open Publication Structure 2.0.1 An EPUB file uses XHTML 1.1 (or DTBook) to construct the content of a book as of version 2.0.1. This is different from previous versions (OEBPS 1.2 and earlier), which used a subset of XHTML. There are, however, a few restrictions on certain elements. The mimetype for XHTML documents in EPUB is application/xhtml+xml.Styling and layout are performed using a subset of CSS 2.0, referred to as OPS Style Sheets. This specialized syntax requires that reading systems support only a portion of CSS properties and adds a few custom properties. Custom properties include oeb-page-head, oeb-page-foot, and oeb-column-number. Font-embedding can be accomplished using the @font-face property, as well as including the font file in the OPF's manifest (see below). The mimetype for CSS documents in EPUB is text/css.EPUB also requires that PNG, JPEG, GIF, and SVG images be supported using the mimetypes image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/svg+xml. Other media types are allowed, but creators must include alternative renditions using supported types. For a table of all required mimetypes, see Section 1.3.7 of the specification. Unicode is required, and content producers must use either UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding. This is to support international and multilingual books. However, reading systems are not required to provide the fonts necessary to display every Unicode character, though they are required to display at least a placeholder for characters that cannot be displayed fully.An example skeleton of an XHTML file for EPUB looks like this: Open Packaging Format 2.0.1 The OPF specification's purpose is to "[define] the mechanism by which the various components of an OPS publication are tied together and provides additional structure and semantics to the electronic publication". This is accomplished by two XML files with the extensions .opf and .ncx. .opf fileThe OPF file, traditionally named content.opf, houses the EPUB book's metadata, file manifest, and linear reading order. This file has a root element package and four child elements: metadata, manifest, spine, and guide. Furthermore, the package node must have the unique-identifier attribute. The .opf file's mimetype is application/oebps-package+xml.The metadata element contains all the metadata information for a particular EPUB file. Three metadata tags are required (though many more are available): title, language, and identifier. title contains the title of the book, language contains the language of the book's contents in RFC 3066 format or its successors, such as the newer RFC 4646 and identifier contains a unique identifier for the book, such as its ISBN or a URL. The identifier's id attribute should equal the unique-identifier attribute from the package element.The manifest element lists all the files contained in the package. Each file is represented by an item element, and has the attributes id, href, media-type. All XHTML (content documents), stylesheets, images or other media, embedded fonts, and the NCX file should be listed here. Only the .opf file itself, the container.xml, and the mimetype files should not be included.The spine element lists all the XHTML content documents in their linear reading order. Also, any content document that can be reached through linking or the table of contents must be listed as well. The toc attribute of spine must contain the id of the NCX file listed in the manifest. Each itemref element's idref is set to the id of its respective content document.The guide element is an optional element for the purpose of identifying fundamental structural components of the book. Each reference element has the attributes type, title, href. Files referenced in href must be listed in the manifest, and are allowed to have an element identifier (e.g. #figures in the example).An example OPF file: .ncx fileThe NCX file (Navigation Control file for XML), traditionally named toc.ncx, contains the hierarchical table of contents for the EPUB file. The specification for NCX was developed for Digital Talking Book (DTB), is maintained by the DAISY Consortium, and is not a part of the EPUB specification. The NCX file has a mimetype of application/x-dtbncx+xml. Of note here is that the values for the docTitle, docAuthor, and meta name="dtb:uid" elements should match their analogs in the OPF file. Also, the meta name="dtb:depth" element is set equal to the depth of the navMap element. navPoint elements can be nested to create a hierarchical table of contents. navLabel's content is the text that appears in the table of contents generated by reading systems that use the .ncx. navPoint's content element points to a content document listed in the manifest and can also include an element identifier (e.g. #section1).A description of certain exceptions to the NCX specification as used in EPUB is in Section 2.4.1 of the specification. The complete specification for NCX can be found in Section 8 of the Specifications for the Digital Talking Book.An example .ncx file: Open Container Format 2.0.1 An EPUB file is a group of files that conform to the OPS/OPF standards and are wrapped in a ZIP file. The OCF specifies how to organize these files in the ZIP, and defines two additional files that must be included. The mimetype file must be a text document in ASCII that contains the string application/epub+zip. It must also be uncompressed, unencrypted, and the first file in the ZIP archive. This file provides a more reliable way for applications to identify the mimetype of the file than just the .epub extension.Also, there must be a folder named META-INF, which contains the required file container.xml. This XML file points to the file defining the contents of the book. This is the OPF file, though additional alternative rootfile elements are allowed.Apart from mimetype and META-INF/container.xml, the other files (OPF, NCX, XHTML, CSS and images files) are traditionally put in a directory named OEBPS. An example file structure: --ZIP Container-- mimetype META-INF/ container.xml OEBPS/ content.opf chapter1.xhtml ch1-pic.png css/ style.css myfont.otf An example container.xml, given the above file structure: Version 3.0.1 The EPUB 3.0 Recommended Specification was approved on 11 October 2011. On June 26, 2014 EPUB 3.0.1 was approved as a minor maintenance update to EPUB 3.0. EPUB 3.0 supersedes the previous release 2.0.1.EPUB 3 consists of a set of four specifications: EPUB Publications 3.0, which defines publication-level semantics and overarching conformance requirements for EPUB Publications EPUB Content Documents 3.0, which defines profiles of XHTML, SVG and CSS for use in the context of EPUB Publications EPUB Open Container Format (OCF) 3.0, which defines a file format and processing model for encapsulating a set of related resources into a single-file (ZIP) EPUB Container. EPUB Media Overlays 3.0, which defines a format and a processing model for synchronization of text and audioThe EPUB 3.0 format was intended to address the following criticisms: While good for text-centric books, EPUB was rather unsuitable for publications that require precise layout or specialized formatting, such as comic books. A major issue hindering the use of EPUB for most technical publications was the lack of support for equations formatted as MathML. They were included as bitmap or SVG images, precluding proper handling by screen readers and interaction with computer algebra systems. Support for MathML is included in the EPUB 3.0 specification. Other criticisms of EPUB were the specification's lack of detail on linking within or between EPUB books, and its lack of a specification for annotation. Such linking is hindered by the use of a ZIP file as the container for EPUB. Furthermore, it was unclear if it would be better to link by using EPUB's internal structural markup (the OPF specification mentioned above) or directly to files through the ZIP's file structure. The lack of a standardized way to annotate EPUB books led to difficulty in sharing and transferring annotations and therefore limited the use scenarios of EPUB, particularly in educational settings, because it cannot provide a level of interactivity comparable to the web.On June 26, 2014, the IDPF published EPUB 3.0.1 as a final Recommended Specification.In November 2014, EPUB 3.0 was published by the ISO/IEC as ISO/IEC TS 30135 (parts 1-7).In January 2020, EPUB 3.0.1 was published by the ISO/IEC as ISO/IEC 23736 (parts 1-6). Version 3.2 EPUB 3.2 was announced in 2018, and the final specification was released in 2019. A notable change is the removal of a specialized subset of CSS, enabling the use of non-epub-prefixed properties. The references to HTML and SVG standards are also updated to "newest version available", as opposed to a fixed version in time. Version 3.3 The W3C announced version 3.3 on May 25, 2023. Changes included stricter security and privacy standards; and the adoption of the WebP and Opus media formats. Features The format and many readers support the following: Reflowable document: optimize text for a particular display Fixed-layout content: pre-paginated content can be useful for certain kinds of highly designed content, such as illustrated books intended only for larger screens, such as tablets. Like an HTML web site, the format supports inline raster and vector images, metadata, and CSS styling. Page bookmarking Passage highlighting and notes A library that stores books and can be searched Re-sizable fonts, and changeable text and background colors Support for a subset of MathML Better analytical support with compatible platforms Digital rights management—can contain digital rights management (DRM) as an optional layer Digital rights management An EPUB file can optionally contain DRM as an additional layer, but it is not required by the specifications. In addition, the specification does not name any particular DRM system to use, so publishers can choose a DRM scheme to their liking. However, future versions of EPUB (specifically OCF) may specify a format for DRM.The EPUB specification does not enforce or suggest a particular DRM scheme. This could affect the level of support for various DRM systems on devices and the portability of purchased e-books. Consequently, such DRM incompatibility may segment the EPUB format along the lines of DRM systems, undermining the advantages of a single standard format and confusing the consumer.DRMed EPUB files must contain a file called rights.xml within the META-INF directory at the root level of the ZIP container. Adoption EPUB is widely used on software readers such as Google Play Books on Android and Apple Books on iOS and macOS and Amazon Kindle's e-readers, but not by associated apps for other platforms. iBooks also supports the proprietary iBook format, which is based on the EPUB format but depends upon code from the iBooks app to function.EPUB is a popular format for electronic data interchange because it can be an open format and is based on HTML, as opposed to Amazon's proprietary format for Kindle readers. Popular EPUB producers of public domain and open licensed content include Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, PubMed Central, SciELO and others. In 2022, Amazon's Send-to-Kindle service removed support for its own Kindle File Format in favor of EPUB. Security and privacy concerns EPUB requires readers to support the HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, SVG formats, making EPUB readers use the same technology as web browsers. Such formats are associated with various types of security issues and privacy-breaching behaviors e.g. Web beacons, CSRF, XSHM due to their complexity and flexibility. Such vulnerabilities can be used to implement web tracking and cross-device tracking on EPUB files.Security researchers also identified attacks leading to local files and other user data being uploaded.The "EPUB 3.1 Overview" document provides a security warning: Authors need to be aware that scripting in an EPUB Publication can create security considerations that are different from scripting within a Web browser. For example, typical same-origin policies are not applicable to content that has been downloaded to a user's local system. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged that scripting be limited to container constrained contexts. Implementation An EPUB file is an archive that contains, in effect, a website. It includes HTML files, images, CSS style sheets, and other assets. It also contains metadata. EPUB 3.3 is the latest version. By using HTML5, publications can contain video, audio, and interactivity, just like websites in web browsers. Container An EPUB publication is delivered as a single file. This file is an unencrypted zipped archive containing a set of interrelated resources.An OCF (Open Container Format) Abstract Container defines a file system model for the contents of the container. The file system model uses a single common root directory for all contents in the container. All (non-remote) resources for publications are in the directory tree headed by the container's root directory, though EPUB mandates no specific file system structure for this. The file system model includes a mandatory directory named META-INF that is a direct child of the container's root directory. META-INF stores container.xml. The first file in the archive must be the mimetype file. It must be unencrypted and uncompressed so that non-ZIP utilities can read the mimetype. The mimetype file must be an ASCII file that contains the string "application/epub+zip". This file provides a more reliable way for applications to identify the mimetype of the file than just the .epub extension.An example file structure: --ZIP Container-- mimetype META-INF/ container.xml OEBPS/ content.opf chapter1.xhtml ch1-pic.png css/ style.css myfont.otf toc.ncx There must be a META-INF directory containing container.xml. This file points to the file defining the contents of the book, the OPF file, though additional alternative rootfile elements are allowed. Apart from mimetype and META-INF/container.xml, the other files (OPF, NCX, XHTML, CSS and images files) are traditionally put in a directory named OEBPS. An example container.xml: Publication The ePUB container must contain: At least one content document. One navigation document. One package document listing all publication resources. This file should use the file extension .opf. It contains metadata, a manifest, fallback chains, bindings, and a spine. This is an ordered sequence of ID references defining the default reading order.The ePUB container may contain: Style sheets Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) documents Media overlay documents Contents Content documents include HTML 5 content, navigation documents, SVG documents, scripted content documents, and fixed layout documents. Contents also include CSS and PLS documents. Navigation documents supersede the NCX grammar used in EPUB 2. Media overlays Books with synchronized audio narration are created in EPUB 3 by using media overlay documents to describe the timing for the pre-recorded audio narration and how it relates to the EPUB Content Document markup. The file format for Media Overlays is defined as a subset of SMIL. Software EPUB reader software exists for all major computing platforms, such as Adobe Digital Editions and calibre on desktop platforms, Google Play Books and Aldiko on Android and iOS, and Apple Books on macOS and iOS. There is also cross-platform editor software for creating EPUB files, including the open source programs calibre and Sigil. Most modern web browsers also support EPUB reader plugins. The Microsoft Edge browser had EPUB reader capability built in until September 2019. Reading software The following software can read and display EPUB files. Creation software The following software can create EPUB files. ISO/IEC TS 30135-1:2014 - EPUB3 — Part 1: EPUB3 Overview IDPF EPUB Validator (Github-repository)

Theresa Fu (born 22 September 1984) is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer, film and television actress, and model. Fu was introduced by the Talent Bang model agency in order to become a pop star. She started her career in 2002 as one of the members of Cookies. The group disbanded in 2005.In 2005, she recorded a duet, "自欺欺人", with Alex Fong. In 2006, she published a book with her personal drawings, stories and views on love. She is also good friends with her ex-bandmate, Stephy Tang. In 2008, Fu performed at the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. charity gala in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with many other artists. On 30 May 2008, Fu appeared as a special guest on Leo Ku's The Magic Moments Concert in Toronto to a crowd of 10,000 people at Rogers Centre. Fu's parents were immigrants from Fujian and her ancestral origin is in Xianyou. Discography Cookies Mini Cookies Solo Appearances in other albums Filmography Films TV series Books Tian Mimi (甜蜜蜜) (January, 2007) T With Sunshine (我和陽光在一起) (July, 2007) Life is Beautiful (雨後陽光) (2007) -- Postcard book 我會快樂的(July 2009) Life is like a Ferris Wheel (July 2012) See also Cookies (group) Theresa Fu at IMDb TheresaFu.com Theresafu.com T's Family BBS Gold Label Typhoon official profile

Hacken Lee Hak Kan (Chinese: 李克勤; Cantonese Yale: Lei5 Hak1kan4; pinyin: Lǐ Kèqín, is a Hong Kong singer, television host and actor, active since the 1980s. In 2013, Lee's song "House of Cards" swept multiple awards in many Hong Kong award ceremonies, including "World's Best Song" and "Broadcasting Index" in Metro's Awards. As of 2013, he has reached 14 times in receiving the "Outstanding Pop Singer Award" at RTHK's "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" and has established an irreplaceable status in the music industry of Hong Kong and Asia. Life and career Early years: 1980s Lee was brought up in a middle-class family. He lived in Arts Mansion in Happy Valley during his teenage years. He studied in Pun U Association Primary School (1974-1980) and Wah Yan College, Hong Kong (1980-1987). After his HKCEE in 1985, he entered the TVB new talent show along with Alex To, William So, Vivian Chow and Grasshopper, though he was unable to make it into the top 15 finalists. He then participated in the Second Hong Kong 19 District Singing Contest in 1985, a competition which he won with his rendition of Alan Tam's song "Love in the Fog" (霧之戀). He was subsequently offered a contract with PolyGram Records.Lee however continued his studies at Wah Yan College while singing part-time. He turned full-time in the summer of 1987 after failing to gain a university place due to poor HKALE results. His debut EP Hacken Lee EP sold less than 10,000 copies. Symbol of Destiny was released in 1987. His musical popularity lacking, he gained recognition by starring in TVB dramas in the late 1980s, especially the youth drama series "Teenage No More" (不再少年時), for which he also sang the theme song. In 1989, his song "Unchanged in Lifetime", the theme song of ATV's Cantonese version of the drama series "Blue Moon," won both the RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" and "TVB Jade Solid Gold Awards." 1990s In 1990, Lee, Jacky Cheung and Andy Lau were dubbed as "Three Musketeers in the music industry" by the media and were hailed as "tomorrow's highly anticipated superstars". Later on that year, however, due to the contract disputes between Hacken and his company, Hacken's career faltered. In 1992, Lee's career began to rise when he released the song "Red Sun" (紅日), for which he penned the Chinese lyrics that made it popular. In 1993, Hacken switched to Star Record Company and released the song "Look Back," which once again boosted his singing career and allowed him to win TVB Jade Solid Gold's Golden Award as well as reach the top five nominees for the Most Popular Singer Award. His first solo concert at Hong Kong Coliseum, alter that year, sold out in just a few hours.In 1994, Lee was crowned the title of "Zero Defect Vocals," alongside Jacky Cheung who was named "Perfect Vocals" the year before, and as well as the successor of the famous Alan Tam, whom Hacken idolized since he was little.In 1995, after the unprecedented success of his first solo concert, Hacken was full of confidence to hold his second concert again at Hong Kong Coliseum, "Dragon '95 Hacken's Contact of Hear Concert", total of 10 days. But the box office was very poor unfortunately, the worst situation was less than 40% attendance figures. This experience also is one of the most embarrassing thing in his singing career. His momentum continues to decline after the concert, together with contractual disputes between the record company, Hacken's singing career was started to fell in the trough. In 1996, Lee was signed on to another company where he issued the album "When I Found You" (當找到你), with the sales and popularity seemed to be improved slightly. However, due to several personnel changes and contractual disputes, since they released the album "By Hacken Side" (在克勤身邊), his career became stalled, even the new album was postponed indefinitely. In summer 1998, Lee was chaired as TVB for World Cup association football's sportscaster, and he composed and sing the song for the program, "Adverture of football fans", the song was popular though streets and lanes, the record company launched a selection album by this momentum. As an avid Manchester United fan, he also is the chairperson and president of its Hong Kong Fan Club. He also penned a public outcry against embattled former manager David Moyes on Hacken's personal Weibo. After the contract was expired with the record company, Lee had quite a long period cannot found a suitable recording company, he fought in TV media from singing career, filming drama and host the TV programs, such as Jade Solid Gold, to maintain the popularity. In late 1999, Lee had under no music contract for more than 12 months, he signed to Universal Music (former PolyGram) then, and issued his album "A Year Or So". In December, he had a musical performance with the Hong Kong Repertory, named "Adventure". This musical perform across the centuries, welcoming the coming of millennium. 2000s After signing with Universal Music, Lee released songs including "Feet of Fortune" (前後腳), "I Won't Sing" (我不會唱歌) and "The Grasp of Love" (愛不釋手) in 2001. In late 2001, Lee performed in collaboration with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, "Hong Kong Philharmonic & Hacken Live", organised total in 4 concerts and 2 additional concerts. The concert series was very well-received, as was a recording released CD and VCD of the series, both CD and VCD got "Ten Best Selling Album Award" at IFPI. In July, he launched the album "Flying Flower (飛花)", with the song in same title, he won TVB Jade Solid Gold Awards's Golden Melody Award, "Metro Music Awards" Metro Best Song Award, and RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award" Outstanding Pop Singer Award. In early 2002, Lee held his solo concert "Hacken Lee Live in Concert 2002" and got the praised again, and its recordings were equally well received at IFPI. In addition, he sang for TVB World Cup program's theme song "Victory"; the song "Tall Girl" was composed by Gigi Leung, lyrics by his own, and later on ""The Grasp of Love (愛不釋手) " were very popular. At "Jade Solid Gold Awards 2002", he won the "Most Popular Male Singer Award" at first time, and he had been re-confirmed as the successor of Alan Tam. Around the time of the 2002 concert, he co-starred in the TVB drama "Legal Entanglement (法網伊人)" which was aired. The series achieved high ratings and was one of TVB's most popular dramas that year. He won the "Most Favourite Character" award at the "2002 TVB Anniversary Awards" for his role in the series. Additionally, he was appointed the host of the 2002 World Cup and sang the theme song of TVB, which dominated the local charts for some time. He also won his first Most Popular Male Singer in TVB Jade Solid Gold Award. In 2003, 2004 and 2009, Lee partnered with Alan Tam in a series of concert tours around the world, including multiple shows in Hong Kong and Las Vegas. Known in English as "Alan & Hacken", the show's Chinese title, "左麟右李", is a play on the Chinese four-character idiom "左鄰右里" which means "neighbor", by using the artists' names homonyms 麟 and 李. By the end of 2003, Hacken won the Most Popular Male Singer in TVB Jade Solid Gold Award" again, this was the second time he got this award. In November 2004, Lee partnered with Joey Yung in a collaboration of a concert, which is better known by another four-character idiom "刻不容緩 (Urgency cannot afford delay)", once again using their names homonyms 克 and 容. As the concerts perform continuously, causing his vocal strain and muscle sprains, that led his voice got problem, but he launched the song "Urgency cannot afford delay". He has been called one of the "New 4 Heavenly King" by Alan Tam. In the end of 2004, Hacken swept the awards in music award ceremonies again, including Top Ten Chinese Gold Song by RTHK's "Best Pop Male Artist Award", and his live album "Alan & Hacken 2004 Concert" got "10 Guangdong Album Sales Award" by IFPI, and he won the "Best Sales Local Singer" again. In 2005, Lee released his fourth Mandarin album Ask About Love, he started a series of promotion activities in mainland China. By the end of 2005, He was the first Chinese artist to release a DualDisc, entitled "Hacken Lee Concert Hall". For this album, Universal Music invested over a million dollars, invited 4 Chinese musician to perform the songs of album, moreover, they gave up the general recording mode, moved to the music hall for recording, the CD side using coherent approach to record the live recordings of the songs in surround sound, and the DVD side featured the making of footage. The album was out of stock twice after it launched in a week, the sales had breakthrough a platinum figure very soon. In December, he won the "Most Popular Male Singer" of TVB Jade Solid Gold Award again, this was his third win. By the way, he won "My Favorite Singer" award and 5 song awards at "Metro Music Awards". At 1 January 2006, he won the bronze prize of the "My Favorite Singer", and talk about his 'Suit Theory' to explain the relationship between CRHK. From 28 January 2006 to 5 February, Lee held a series of sell-out concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum, named "Hacken Lee Live In Concert 2006", which is sponsored by Carlsberg) during the Chinese New Year period, and it was the first high-definition video in Cantonese concert. Meanwhile, he hosted the World Cup program for TVB, this was his third time being a football sportscaster, and wrote the lyrics and sung for the theme song, "I'm Number 10". In the middle of year, Hacken traveled to Seoul for recording the live songs of next album, "Hacken Lee Seoul Concert Hall II". All songs were recorded at the Harmony Theatre, Koyang Culture City Hall, Korea from 28 to 31 August 2006 for live taking. Many local Korean musicians participated in the recording project, including Kwak Jung "Harpist K" on harp, So Kyoung-Jin on Korean big drum, Jang Hyo-Seok on saxophone, Kim Won-Jin as boy soprano, Kim Hyun-Mi and Jung Hyun-Suk performed "Joy of Strings" on violin, Kim Hae-Ryeon on viola, and Chung Yu-Young on cello, David Hodges from New York played an antique 1920 bandoneon while recording. The album was released on a CD with an accompanying DVD using high-definition 1080i format, dated in November 2006, was following the success of the original Concert Hall, became the favorite of Hi-Fi enthusiasts, which sold over 80,000 copies. In 2007, Lee launched the selection album "Hacken Lee No. 1 Hits", it was released on 22 November 2007, which contains 4 CDs of his classic hits and new songs. He participated the concert held by Hong Kong Government, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR organized. In the climax part of the activity, he was singing the song "Legend Of The Dragon" and "Red Sun" with 20 professional drummers and over 10,000 primary students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. This performance had been included in the Guinness World Records. In between, his environmental-themed song was named "Whispering Whose", which the song won the "Song of The Year" on Jade Solid Gold award. He also announced that his wife had given birth to his first son, Ryan Lee at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. At 2008, Lee hosted a series of Chinese New Year concert series, which sold out 11 shows in Hong Kong from 8 to 18 February 2008, because it was between the Valentine's Day, so he featured the new song "Every Day is a Valentine's Day". And followed by a world tour. After, he was begun to prepare his new canton album by inviting some singer-songwriters to participate in the creation, such as Mavis Fan, Eason Chan, Khalil Fong, Hins Cheung, Louis Cheung, Justin Lo, Vincent Chow and Jan Lamb. In order to make a best music, the album was used 9 months for production. He just sent two new songs to radio this year, "She merciful and I'm Sad" and "What Year Is Now". Those songs received radio's favor. He also lyricist for himself, the theme song of "Alan Tam & Hacken Lee Concert 2009", the song "Needless To Scared", and being the lyricist of the song composed by Eason Chan, named "Season Changed". Lee was a host for the Beijing Olympics broadcast in 2008, as well as the ambassador of Standard Chartered Marathon and ambassador of the East Asian Games 2009. 2010 to present On April 7, 2010, Lee personally announced that his wife Emily Lo had given birth to their "Second Boss" (the nickname of Hacken called their second son), Rex Lee Lik-sze at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital smoothly. He also announced he will continue his concert tours and recording for his new canton album in May 2010. In middle of June, his new song "Sinner" was sent to radio. On 31 July, The song was adapted from the mandarin hit song "Bad Guy" of Abin Fong. It got three championship from 3 radio station, including RTHK, CRHK, and Metro. At 4 August, he held a Moov Live mini concert, performed the 7 songs of his upcoming new album. On 15 September, his new album Sinner was officially launched. Because of HKRIA Copyright Controversy, Hacken was prohibited to appear on TVB, Lawrence Cheng of Now TV, successfully arranged an interview with him, which was included in episode 79, broadcast on 2 October 2010. In 2011, Lee got award again at RTHK "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" again, made him be the unique singer that can receive song awards through four decades (1980s to 2010s). Then, he held the concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, in total of 6 days, named "Hacken & Hong Kong Sinfonietta Concert Hall 2011" in summer vocation. This was Hacken collaboration with Yip Wing-sie again, since "Hong Kong Philharmonic & Hacken Live" at 2001. In this concert, his state was good and he sang over 30 tracks every night, in addition to experiencing the zero defect listening, also had some pleasantly surprised programs. The concert was full of attendance and got the great acclaim. After the concert, he released a new mandarin with cantonese album "Deja Vu", which was his launched mandarin songs since 2005. The first plug song in cantonese was "Milky Way", was the "Three championship" held by RTHK, CRHK and Metro radio. The second plug song in cantonese was "Sky Lanterns", was boarded championship of the three radio stations on 29 October, got the "Three championship" again. At 10 December, Hacken appeared and sang for "Tung Wah Charity Show" on TVB, he was the first artist of HKRIA who can participate in TVB show after ice-breaking of HKRIA Copyright Controversy since 2010. By January 2012, Lee won the 7th out of 10 of the song award at the "Ultimate Song Chart Awards", for the song "Milky Way". He was invited to attend the Jade Solid Gold Awards Ceremony, as a performer and guests of honor. Then, he went to Beijing for the promotion of his new mandarin album, "'Deja Vu", and create something for his new canton album with two producer, Schumann and Alex Fung, which was his first cooperation with Schumann. At early of March, he was invited to sing the Hong Kong version of the theme song, "Armageddon Prairie", for the UEFA Champions League broadcast by Now TV, and he was chair as the host and the commentator of Now TV. In late August, he released the concept of adult rhymes of the new album, Amongst The Forest. Since he got a great acclaim from collaborating with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, he held his first solo concert tour in mainland China in September. In November, he hosted "Minute to Win It", a game show that authorized by NBC and production by TVB, and again hosted the TVB game show "Minutes to Fame" in 2005. The first episode of the show received a 30 points rating.In January 2013, Lee attended for "Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards" held by RTHK, and won the award for the song "What's The Things Alive For". In May 2013, Lee's new song "Forward", was invited the Hong Kong Children's Choir for vocal accompaniment, which was rare inspirational song in recent years at local music scene, and also the rare allegro song of him in recent years, and was sent to the radio. "Hacken Lee Concert Hall" series was separated by 7 years, Hacken launched a brand new HiFi album again at July, named "Remakes By Hacken". The album was fully produced by Schumann and Alex Fung again. After the album was released, it got the favor by the community of professional musicians, and praised by the fans. It occupied iTunes Top Songs list in the first week of release, even reached the success of double platinum album of sales. In October 2013, he released the new canton EP, named "House of Cards", the song in same title became the Annual Golden Song, on major radio awards ceremony were impressive results. In December, Hacken was held the concert with Alan Tam, to commemorate the 10th anniversary as being "Neighbour" (左麟右李), and they're offered the world tours. By May 2014, Lee issued a song "No Friend", which created by Eric Kwok and Wyman Wong, the song was sent to radio. The song was got widely radio and fans acclaim followed by "House of Cards". In June, he was the World Cup commentator for TVB, and launched his selection album "Selection To No Friends." In 2015, Lee directly advanced to the semi-final of King of Mask Singer (蒙面歌王) having become the first Masked Singer to win the preliminaries and reveal his face and identity. In 2016, Lee participated in the singing competition I Am a Singer (season 4) as the host and starting competitor and began the competition with his rendition of Alan Tam's song "Love in the Fog" (霧之戀), the song that brought him into the music industry via the singing competition he participated in 30 years ago. His consistently great weekly performances won over the hearts of many of the audience, with some of his most notable performances being his rendition of Ekin Cheng's "Days of Friendship" (友情歲月), C AllStar's "Sky Ladder" (天梯), and his 4th knockout round (ultimate knockout round) performance with renown pianist Lang Lang "I Can't Sing" (我不會唱歌), and he made it to compete in the finale (week 13) of the competition. Joey Yung sung with him in the Season 4 Biennial concert, shortly before Lee moved away from Universal Music, ending his partnership with Alan Tam, but reunites him with Joey Yung, after they had a concert in 2015. Personal life On November 28, 2006, Lee married his long-time girlfriend, Emily Lo Suk Yi, the winner of the 1992 Miss Hong Kong Pageant. On October 22, 2007, Lo gave birth to their first child, Ryan Lee Lap-yan. Their younger son Rex Lee Lik-sze was born on March 26, 2010. Music Discography Charts (*) Indicates still standings in charts (1) Indicates Champion in 2 weeks (×) Indicates the songs were not sent to TVB due to the HKRIA Copyright Controversy with TVB. (B) Represents the songs were banned by CRHK, because their original songs policy implications. The bold fonts represents the song won four championship, or three championship while the HKRIA Copyright Controversy, which excluded TVB. Music Awards Acting career Apart from his singing career, Lee is also an actor and one of the most popular singer-turned-actor in Hong Kong. He has appeared in numerous Hong Kong dramas, movies, and commercial advertisements. He has also appeared in many large-scale charity drives as a guest performer. One of his notable roles as an actor was his role in Legal Entanglement, which won him "Most Favorite Character" award at the 2002 TVB Anniversary Awards. Television series Programme Host Film Official Homepage (in Chinese)

The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its primary duties was to decide on an interpretation of the Chinese classics. This formed the basis of the Imperial examinations, which aspiring government bureaucrats had to pass to attain higher-level government posts. Painters working for the court were also attached to the academy. Academy members Some of the more famous academicians of Hanlin were: Li Bai (701–762) – Poet Bai Juyi (772–846) – Poet Yan Shu (991–1055) – Poet, calligrapher, (prime minister, 1042) Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) – Historian Shen Kuo (1031–1095) – Chancellor Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) – Painter Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322) – Painter, calligrapher, poet (rector, 1314–1320) Huang Zicheng (1350–1402) – Imperial scholar Li Dongyang (1447–1516) – Imperial officer, poet, served as 'Grand Historian' Ni Yuanlu (1593–1644) – Calligrapher, painter, high-ranking official Wu Renchen (1628–1689) – Historian and mathematician Chen Menglei (1650–1741) – Scholar, writer (Editor in Chief of the Complete Classics Collection Of Ancient China) Zhang Tingyu (1672–1755) – Politician and historian Ji Xiaolan (1724–1805) – Scholar, poet (Editor in Chief of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) Yao Nai (1731–1815) – Scholar Gao E (1738–1815) – Scholar and editor He Changling (1785–1848) – Scholar and official Zeng Guofan (1811–1872) – Scholar and later key military official Chen Lanbin (1816–1895) – Diplomat (ambassador to the U.S., Spain and Peru) Weng Tonghe (1830–1904) – Imperial Tutor Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940) – Educator Qu Hongji (1850–1918) – Politician Bureau of Translators Subordinated to the Hanlin Academy was the Bureau of Translators (Chinese: 四夷館/四译館; pinyin: Sìyí Guǎn/Sìyì Guǎn; Wade–Giles: Szu4-i2 Kuan3/Szu4-i4 Kuan3). Founded by the Ming dynasty in 1407, after the first expedition of Zheng He to the Indian Ocean, the Bureau dealt with the memorials delivered by foreign ambassadors and trained foreign language specialists. It included departments for many languages such as the Jurchen, "Tartar" (Mongol), Korean, Ryukyuan, Japanese, Tibetan, "Huihui" (the "Muslim" language, Persian) Vietnamese and Burmese languages, as well as for the languages of the "various barbarian tribes" (Bai yi 百夷, i.e., Shan ethnic groups on China's southwestern borders), "Gaochang" (people of Turfan, i.e. Old Uyghur language), and Xitian (西天; (Sanskrit, spoken in India). In 1511 and 1579 departments for the languages of Ba bai (八百; Lao) and Thai were added, respectively. A Malay language vocabulary (Manlajia Guan Yiyu) 滿剌加館譯語 (Words-list of Melaka Kingdom) for the Malay spoken in the Malacca Sultanate was compiled. A Cham language vocabulary 占城館 was created for the language spoken in the Champa Kingdom.When the Qing dynasty revived the Ming Siyiguan 四夷館, the Manchus, who "were sensitive to references to barbarians", changed the name from yi 夷 "barbarian" to yi 彝 "Yi people", and changed the Shan exonym from Baiyi 百夷 "hundred barbarians" to Baiyi 百譯 "hundred translations".The later Tongwen Guan set up by the Qing dynasty for translating western languages was subordinated to the Zongli Yamen and not the Hanlin. 1900 fire The Beijing Hanlin Academy and its library were severely damaged in a fire during the siege of the International Legations in Peking (now known as Beijing) in 1900 by the Kansu Braves while fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance. On June 24, the fire spread to the academy: The old buildings burned like tinder with a roar which drowned the steady rattle of musketry as Tung Fu-shiang's Moslems fired wildly through the smoke from upper windows. Some of the incendiaries were shot down, but the buildings were an inferno and the old trees standing round them blazed like torches. An attempt was made to save the famous Yung Lo Ta Tien, but heaps of volumes had been destroyed, so the attempt was given up. The flames destroyed many ancient texts.The academy operated continuously until its closure during the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. See also Academia Sinica Academies of Classical Learning Chen Cheng (Ming dynasty) Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Education in China Further reading Martin, William Alexander Parsons (1880). Hanlin Papers: Or, Essays on the Intellectual Life of the Chinese. Trübner & Company. Retrieved 24 April 2014. Sparks, Jared; Everett, Edward; Lowell, James Russell; et al., eds. (1874). The North American Review, Volume 119. American periodical series, 1800-1850. O. Everett. Retrieved 24 April 2014. Foreign language vocabularies wikisource:zh:華夷譯語 – 達達館Mongol language 華夷譯語(一) – 暹羅館 天文門。 Thai language 華夷譯語(二) – 緬甸館譯語 緬甸館來文通用門。Burmese language 華夷譯語(三) – 百夷館天文門。Baiyi (Dai, Shan) 華夷譯語(四) – 百夷館天文門和地理門。Baiyi (Dai, Shan) 華夷譯語(五) – 回回館《回回館雜字》天文門。Persian language 華夷譯語(六) – 回回館《回回館雜字》天文門和地理門。Persian language 高昌館來文 – 高昌館來文回鶻語 (畏兀兒館。Old Uyghur language 譯文備覽 – 譯文備覽 西番館。Tibetan language 西番譯語 – 《西番譯語》西番館Tibetan language wikisource:zh:華夷譯語/朝鮮館譯語 Korean language wikisource:zh:使琉球錄 (陳侃)#.E5.A4.B7.E8.AA.9E.EF.BC.88.E9.99.84.EF.BC.89 Ryukyuan language wikisource:zh:使琉球錄 (蕭崇業)/附#.E5.A4.B7.E8.AA.9E – 使琉球錄 夷語 夷字 Ryukyuan language wikisource:zh:使琉球錄 (夏子陽)/卷下#.E5.A4.B7.E8.AA.9E.E3.80.90.E9.99.84.E3.80.91 Ryukyuan language wikisource:zh:中山傳信錄/卷六#.E9.A2.A8.E4.BF.97 Ryukyuan language wikisource:zh:重修使琉球錄 Ryukyuan language 使琉球录三种-夷语_国学导航 Ryukyuan language 0-使琉球录-明-陈侃 Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine Ryukyuan language 國朝典故卷之一百二　　使琉球錄陳侃 撰 Ryukyuan language 《女直館》 《女真譯語》《女真館雜字》在 Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen by Wilhem Grube by Wilhem Grube 《女真文和女真語》作者：葛祿博 [1] [2] Jurchen language

DTAP may refer to: DTaP, a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis DTAP, a software development approach Direct Transfer Application Part (DTAP), a radio telecommunication protocol for GSM or CDMA Direct internet TAP

Macaronic language is any expression using a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words are effectively "internally macaronic." In spoken language, code-switching is using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation.Macaronic Latin in particular is a jumbled jargon made up of vernacular words given Latin endings or of Latin words mixed with the vernacular in a pastiche (compare dog Latin). The word macaronic comes from the Neo-Latin macaronicus which is from the Italian maccarone, or "dumpling," regarded as coarse peasant fare. It is generally derogatory and used when the mixing of languages has a humorous or satirical intent or effect but is sometimes applied to more serious mixed-language literature. History Mixed Latin-vernacular lyrics in Medieval Europe Texts that mixed Latin and vernacular language apparently arose throughout Europe at the end of the Middle Ages—a time when Latin was still the working language of scholars, clerics and university students, but was losing ground to vernacular among poets, minstrels and storytellers. An early example is from 1130, in the Gospel book of Munsterbilzen Abbey. The following sentence mixes late Old Dutch and Latin: Translated: This community was noble and pure, and completely full of all virtues. The Carmina Burana (collected c.1230) contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German or French. Another well-known example is the first stanza of the famous carol In Dulci Jubilo, whose original version (written around 1328) had Latin mixed with German, with a hint of Greek. While some of those early works had a clear humorous intent, many use the language mix for lyrical effect. Another early example is in the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays (c.1460). In The Talents (play 24), Pontius Pilate delivers a rhyming speech in mixed English and Latin. A number of English political poems in the 14th century alternated (Middle) English and Latin lines, such as in MS Digby 196: Several anthems also contain both Latin and English. In the case of 'Nolo mortem pecatoris' by Thomas Morley, the Latin is used as a refrain: Translated: "'I do not wish the death of the wicked'; These are the words of the Saviour." An allusion to John 3:17 and 2 Peter 3:9. Latin–Italian macaronic verse The term macaronic is believed to have originated in Padua in the late 15th century, apparently from maccarona, a kind of pasta or dumpling eaten by peasants at that time. (That is also the presumed origin of maccheroni.) Its association with the genre comes from the Macaronea, a comical poem by Tifi Odasi in mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of the genre is Tosontea by Corrado of Padua, which was published at about the same time as Tifi's Macaronea. Tifi and his contemporaries clearly intended to satirize the broken Latin used by many doctors, scholars and bureaucrats of their time. While this "macaronic Latin" (macaronica verba) could be due to ignorance or carelessness, it could also be the result of its speakers trying to make themselves understood by the vulgar folk without resorting to their speech.An important and unusual example of mixed-language text is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna (1499), which was basically written using Italian syntax and morphology, but using a made-up vocabulary based on roots from Latin, Greek, and occasionally others. However, while the Hypnerotomachia is contemporary with Tifi's Macaronea, its mixed language is not used for plain humor, but rather as an aesthetic device to underscore the fantastic but refined nature of the book. Tifi's Macaronea was a popular success, and the writing of humorous texts in macaronic Latin became a fad in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in Italian, but also in many other European languages. An important Italian example was Baldo by Teofilo Folengo, who described his own verses as "a gross, rude, and rustic mixture of flour, cheese, and butter". Other mixed-language lyrics Macaronic verse is especially common in cultures with widespread bilingualism or language contact, such as Ireland before the middle of the nineteenth century. Macaronic traditional songs such as Siúil A Rúin are quite common in Ireland. In Scotland, macaronic songs have been popular among Highland immigrants to Glasgow, using English and Scottish Gaelic as a device to express the alien nature of the anglophone environment. An example: Folk and popular music of the Andes frequently alternates between Spanish and the given South American language of its region of origin. Some Classical Persian poems were written with alternating Persian and Arabic verses or hemistichs, most famously by Saadi and Hafez. Such poems were called molamma' (ملمع, literally "speckled", plural molamma‘āt ملمعات), Residing in Anatolia, in some of his poems Rumi mixed Persian with Arabic as well as the local languages of Turkish and Greek.Macaronic verse was also common in medieval India, where the influence of the Muslim rulers led to poems being written in alternating indigenous Hindi and the Persian language. This style was used by the famous poet Amir Khusro and played a major role in the rise of the Urdu or Hindustani language. Unintentional macaronic language Occasionally language is unintentionally macaronic. One particularly famed piece of schoolyard Greek in France is Xenophon's line "they did not take the city; but in fact they had no hope of taking it" (οὐκ ἔλαβον πόλιν· άλλα γὰρ ἐλπὶς ἔφη κακά, ouk élabon pólin; álla gàr elpìs éphē kaká). Read in the French manner, this becomes "Où qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca." ("Where is Pauline the maid? At the [railway] station. She's pissing and taking a shit.") In English literature, the untranslated line makes an appearance in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Modern macaronic literature Prose Macaronic text is still used by modern Italian authors, e.g. by Carlo Emilio Gadda and Beppe Fenoglio. Other examples are provided by the character Salvatore in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, and the peasant hero of his Baudolino. Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo ("Comic Mystery Play") features grammelot sketches using language with macaronic elements. The 2001 novel The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt includes portions of Japanese, Classical Greek, and Inuktitut, although the reader is not expected to understand the passages that are not in English. Macaronic games are used by the literary group Oulipo in the form of interlinguistic homophonic transformation: replacing a known phrase with homophones from another language. The archetypal example is by François Le Lionnais, who transformed John Keats' "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" into "Un singe de beauté est un jouet pour l'hiver": 'A monkey of beauty is a toy for the winter'. Another example is the book Mots d'Heures. Macaronisms figure prominently in The Trilogy by the Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, and are one of the major compositional principles for James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake. In Michael Flynn's science fiction novels of the Spiral Arm series, a massive interplanetary exodus from all Earth language groups has led to star system settlements derived from random language and culture admixtures. At the time of the novels' setting, several hundred years later, each planet has developed a macaronic pidgin, several of which are used for all the dialogs in the books. The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie's second book bears a cross-lingual pun as its title, Priests de la Résistance. Poetry Two well-known examples of non-humorous macaronic verse are Byron's Maid of Athens, ere we part (1810, in English with a Greek refrain); and Pearsall's translation of the carol In Dulci Jubilo (1837, in mixed English and Latin verse). An example of modern humorous macaronic verse is the anonymous English/Latin poem Carmen Possum ("The Opossum's Song"), which is sometimes used as a teaching and motivational aid in elementary Latin language classes. Other similar examples are The Motor Bus by A. D. Godley, and the anonymous Up I arose in verno tempore. Ezra Pound's The Cantos makes use of Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Italian, among other languages. Recent examples are the mużajki or 'mosaics' (2007) of Maltese poet Antoine Cassar mixing English, Spanish, Maltese, Italian, and French; works of Italian writer Guido Monte; and the late poetry of Ivan Blatný combining Czech with English.Brian P. Cleary's "What Can I C'est?" makes use of macaronic verse, as do other poems in his book Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry: A whole body of comic verse exists created by John O'Mill, pseudonym of Johan van der Meulen, a teacher of English at the Rijks HBS (State Grammar School), Breda, the Netherlands. These are in a mixture of English and Dutch, often playing on common mistakes made when translating from the latter to the former. Theatre The finale of act 1 of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Opera Iolanthe has several instances of humorous macaronic verse.First, the three lords mix Italian and Latin phrases into their discussion of Iolanthe's age: Lord Mountararat: This gentleman is seen, / With a maid of seventeen, / A-taking of his dolce far niente...Lord Chancellor: Recollect yourself, I pray, / And be careful what you say- / As the ancient Romans said, festina lente...Lord Tolloller: I have often had a use / For a thorough-bred excuse / Of a sudden (which is English for repente)... Lord Mountararat: Now, listen, pray to me, / For this paradox will be / Carried, nobody at all contradicente... Then, the chorus of peers sing macaronic verse as they attempt to resist the fairies' powers: Our lordly style you shall not quench with base canaille! (That word is French.)Distinction ebbs before a herd of vulgar plebs! (A Latin word.) Twould fill with joy and madness stark the oι πoλλoί! (A Greek remark.) One Latin word, one Greek remark, and one that's French. Film 'Macaronisms' are frequently used in films, especially comedies. In Charlie Chaplin's anti-war comedy The Great Dictator, the title character speaks English mixed with a parody of German (e.g. "Cheese-und-cracken"). This was also used by Benzino Napaloni, the parody character of Benito Mussolini, using Italian foods (such as salami and ravioli) as insults. Other movies featuring macaronic language are the Italian historical comedies L'armata Brancaleone and Brancaleone alle crociate (d. Mario Monicelli), which mix modern and medieval Italian as well as Latin (sometimes in rhyme, and sometimes with regional connotations, such as the Italo-Normans using words from modern Sicilian). Song A macaronic song is one that combines multiple languages. Macaronic songs have been particularly common in Ireland (Irish–English) and also occur for other languages, such as Yiddish–Ukrainian.Macaronic language appearing in popular songs include Rammstein's "Amerika" (German and English), the Beatles’ "Michelle", the Talking Heads "Psycho Killer" and The Weeknd's "Montreal" (French and English), The Clash's "Spanish Bombs", José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" (Spanish and English), Bandolero's "Paris Latino", Magazine 60's "Pancho Villa", "Don Quichotte", "Costa del Sol", etc., JJ Lin's track entitled trilingually as "只對你說 Sarang Heyo 사랑해요" 只對你說 (Mandarin, English, and Korean). See also List of macaronic languages Blinkenlights, a macaronic (German/English) warning sign "Boar's Head Carol", Christmas carol in English/Latin language Contemporary Latin Creole language Dog Latin Faux Cyrillic Hiberno-Latin Loanword Lorem ipsum, scrambled Latin used as a placeholder text in print/media Mater si, magistra no Nadsat, a fictional English/Russian language, from the novel A Clockwork Orange Phono-semantic matching Pidgin Surzhyk Timor mortis conturbat me UEFA Champions League Anthem National anthem of South Africa Bibliography Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Macaronics" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). p. 192. Posen, I. Sheldon. "English-French Macaronic Songs in Canada – A Research Note and Query in Folksongs". celat.ulaval.ca. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008.

Hitman 3 is a 2021 stealth game developed and published by IO Interactive. It is the eighth main installment in the Hitman video game series, the sequel to 2018's Hitman 2, and the third and final entry in the World of Assassination trilogy. Concluding the story arc started in 2016's Hitman, the game follows genetically engineered assassin Agent 47 and his allies as they hunt down the leaders of the secretive organization Providence, which controls global affairs and was partially responsible for 47's creation and upbringing. Like its two predecessors, the game is structured around six levels, five of which are large sandbox locations that players can freely explore to find opportunities to eliminate their targets. Each mission also presents challenges that players can complete to unlock new items. The base game features six different locations: Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Chongqing, Mendoza, and the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. A post-launch update introduced a new island location set in the Andaman Sea. Unlike its predecessors, IO Interactive wanted the game to be more story-driven. As a result, the game had a more mature and serious tone. After years of working on Hitman games, the team was more willing to experiment with its mission design, shaking up the existing gameplay loop and realizing ideas that they had been unable or afraid to implement in the past, such as framing assassination opportunities within a murder-mystery in the Dartmoor level. While gameplay is largely similar to its predecessor, developers were inspired by immersive sim games when adding many of the new game's features. Hitman 3, the first game to be self-published by IO Interactive after becoming an independent studio, was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, and Nintendo Switch (via cloud gaming) on 20 January 2021. It received positive reviews, with praise for its level design and atmosphere, stealth mechanics, and 47's abilities. Some critics called it the best entry in the series. The game has been called one of the greatest stealth games of all time. Hitman 3 was also the most commercially successful game in the series, and was extensively supported by IO with several releases of downloadable content and free updates that added new features, game modes, and a new location. In 2023, IO rebranded Hitman 3 as Hitman: World of Assassination, with the contents of the previous two Hitman games becoming available to Hitman 3 owners, free of charge, along with a new game mode inspired by roguelike games called "Freelancer". Gameplay Like its predecessors, Hitman 3 is a stealth game played from a third-person perspective, in which players once again assume control of assassin Agent 47. In the game, 47 travels to various locations and carries out contracted assassinations, continuing the story of the last two games. The base game features six new locations: Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Chongqing, Mendoza, and the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. A seventh map, the fictional Ambrose Island in the Andaman Sea, India, was added for free on 26 July 2022. Owners of Hitman or Hitman 2 are able to import maps, levels, and their progress into Hitman 3. Maps from the older games incorporate the new gameplay changes featured in Hitman 3. PC and PlayStation players can also play the game in first-person with a virtual reality headset.As with previous games in the series, each location (with the exception of the Romania map), is a large, complex sandbox environment that the player can freely explore for infiltration and assassination opportunities. Players will gradually discover "persistent shortcuts", creating new pathways that can be used in future playthroughs. With the exception of the Berlin level, players are assigned several assassination targets, which can be highlighted using 47's instinct vision. Instinct vision will also highlight all relevant items of interest. Using stealth tactics are key to 47's success. 47 can gain access to restricted areas of the game by obtaining a disguise either by incapacitating non-player characters (NPCs) or by finding it somewhere in the map. Eavesdropping on conversations between NPC can also open up new ways for assassinations. Players may also encounter several "mission stories" in each level, which serve as a set of guided instructions that reveal opportunities for unconventional assassinations. To avoid detection, players should avoid performing actions that would be deemed as suspicious, such as crouching or running in the open. The player's disguise may also affect what actions a player may perform. For instance, dressing as a guard allows 47 to wander around the map with guns and weapons without drawing attention from other characters. Some NPCs, called enforcers, can see through the player's disguise. Guards have several states of alert level. Some may be suspicious of 47, who must attempt to blend in and mingle with the crowd to avoid drawing further attention. If the player is spotted performing an illegal action, 47 may be compromised and guards will begin searching for him. To avoid this, he must incapacitate the witnesses or change his current outfit.Each mission starts with a planning phase, allowing 47 to choose what weapons and items to bring with him. After the player completes a level once, they can choose their starting location in the map during this phase. Players can use a variety of methods to approach their target. 47 has a wide range of firearms and explosives that he can use to eliminate his targets. Items in the world can also be picked up by 47 and used as makeshift weapons. He can also used various items and gadgets to distract enemies, or assassinate targets. For instance, the ICA briefcase allows 47 to smuggle illegal weapons into an area, while the lockpick allows him to infiltrate locked areas. One new addition in Hitman 3 is 47's camera, which can be used to scan items and relay information to 47's handler. As players complete various challenges and replay a level, approaching their targets in different ways, they earn experience points and unlock Mastery Levels, which come with unlocks of new gear. Players are penalized for killing non-targets, or having crimes noticed by other NPCs or security cameras. Players are encouraged to stage their assassinations as accidental kills, which can significantly improve the mission ranking. Gameplay modes In addition to the game's single-player campaign, many game modes from previous games return in Hitman 3. Escalation contracts are multi-stage contracts that get harder with each stage. They task players with eliminating targets under specific conditions, such as wearing a particular disguise or using a specific weapon. Hitman 3 also features "Elusive Targets", which are time-limited missions that may only be attempted once. Elusive Targets are introduced in the game as regular updates. Hitman 3 also introduced "Elusive Target Arcade", which is a permanent feature in the game. In Elusive Target Arcade, players must take down several Elusive Targets consecutively as the difficulty increases from target to target. Failing requires the player to wait 12 hours before attempting again. The game also features Contracts Mode, where a player can select several targets across all the maps in the series, add extra complications like specific kill methods, and share their contracts with other players.The roguelike mode "Freelancer" was introduced in 2023. In this mode, 47 must take down several crime syndicates as a freelancer, without the help of the Agency, and players cannot save the game during missions. Players must eliminate four Syndicate leaders to complete the mode, after first eliminating the lower members of each syndicate in separate contract missions before the leaders are lured out. The player's contract, the assassination conditions, and the player's starting location are randomly generated. When a leader is lured out, a "Showdown" mission will become available, and 47's handler Diana will inform the player of four physical and three behavioral characteristics of the leader. Players can use their "suspect camera" to identify the syndicate leader in a level. Each syndicate has a unique "syndicate type" which rewards a particular playstyle. Completing missions will earn the player Merces, which can then be used to purchase new weapons and gear. In each map, players can earn extra Meres by eliminating Couriers and opening safes. They can also find Suppliers who will sell them unique Freelancer weapons. Some weapons collected in a map may also be brought back to the safehouse for use in future missions. As Mastery Levels increase, 47's safehouse, which serves as a hub space for the mode, gradually expands. If the player fails a mission, 47 will lose all of the equipment that he brought with him and half of his Merces reserve. Future locations will also become more guarded, as the syndicate members become aware of 47's presence. If the player dies or fails a Showdown mission, the player's progress will be reset. Plot During the events of Hitman 2, Agent 47 and his handler, Diana Burnwood, defect from the International Contract Agency (ICA) and join forces with rogue mercenary Lucas Grey to track down Providence, a secretive alliance of corporate executives, politicians, and industrialists collectively wielding political, military, and economic influence. In the game's final mission, the trio kidnap Arthur Edwards, Providence's intermediary known as the Constant, who identifies the three Partners controlling Providence: Carl Ingram, Marcus Stuyvesant, and Alexa Carlisle. Edwards, however, later escapes captivity and seized the Partners' corporate assets for himself. In Hitman 3, 47 and Grey seek revenge on Providence for turning them both into assassins through childhood conditioning and genetic experimentation, while Diana is motivated by the death of her parents—unaware that 47 carried out the killings while under Providence's control. Working together, 47 and Grey eliminate Ingram and Stuyvesant in Dubai during the inauguration of the Scepter (modeled after the Burj Khalifa), the world's tallest skyscraper, and Carlisle at her ancestral manor in Dartmoor. Following the Partners' deaths, Edwards assumes control of Providence and deploys mercenaries, who capture Grey and Diana. Grey commits suicide to ensure that 47 is not captured. 47 arranges to meet hacker Olivia Hall, Grey's only other trusted ally, in Berlin. Discovering that the ICA is tailing them, 47 kills several ICA agents sent to eliminate him, before he and Hall decide to conclusively stop the ICA by exposing its crimes to the public. 47 eliminates Hush and Imogen Royce, the overseers of the ICA's data storage facility in Chongqing, allowing Hall to steal and publish all of the ICA's operational data, while deleting all records referencing 47 and Diana. The ICA is irrevocably compromised and dismantled, ending 47's career as a professional assassin. Meanwhile, Edwards attempts to convert Diana to succeed him as Constant and seeks her betrayal of 47 by revealing that he killed her parents. Diana seemingly double-deals both sides, accepting Edwards's offer while inviting 47 to a gathering of Providence members in Mendoza, where he is instructed to eliminate the only people opposed to Diana's succession—Tamara Vidal and Don Archibald Yates—so that she can dismantle the organization upon assuming control. After he follows her instructions, 47's longtime trust in Diana is shaken when she incapacitates him with poison, seemingly as revenge for the murder of her parents. In a dream, a vision of Grey persuades 47 that Diana has not betrayed him, but rather helped to put Edwards within his reach. 47 wakes up imprisoned on a Providence-controlled train travelling in Romania through the Carpathian Mountains. 47 learns that Edwards is on board the train. When 47 confronts Edwards, he reveals that he had intended to once more turn 47 into a Providence assassin by wiping his memory through an injection of serum. Edwards leaves 47 with a choice: kill Edwards or inject him with the serum. At the end of the mission, 47 flees into the wild. Meanwhile, Diana assumes power as Constant and enacts a purge of Providence's members from leadership positions at major global corporations, dismantling Providence's power structure. One year later, 47 reconnects with Diana and the pair return to their former roles as assassin and handler, respectively, to keep the global elites in check, albeit now working freelance. In an alternate ending, if 47 injects himself with the serum while confronting Edwards, he passes out and later awakens in a padded room, greeted by Edwards's voice saying: "Wake up. Wake up, my friend. It's the dawn of a new day, and you have things to do", echoing the opening of Hitman: Codename 47. Development Gameplay design The idea for each location in the game began with the with the team deciding on some keywords and phrases that would define the level's themes. Each area in the game was designed to be a lived-in space, big enough for players to explore and express their creativity. As with previous games in the series, the team worked with contrasts. For instance, beneath the dark, rain-soaked streets of Chongqing lies a bright, hyper-modern research facility. Missions also contrast each other. For instance, the Dubai level, which is set during the inauguration of the Scepter, the world's tallest skyscraper, is immediately followed by Dartmoor, which features a historic mansion. Game director Mattias Engström said that, whereas the Mumbai and Miami missions in Hitman 2 reached the limits of mission sizes, potentially overwhelming players, the team designed Hitman 3 with the understanding that "it's better to be a little sharper and more focused, to create a more polished and coherent experience". The levels in Hitman 3 are also more experimental in nature, with the developer changing up the gameplay formula in certain missions (e.g., the Berlin level), and implementing older ideas that they had not been able to implement (e.g., the murder-mystery in the Dartmoor level).Developers were inspired by immersive sim games in designing several new features, such as keypads and other items that create puzzles for the player to solve. The introduction of persistent shortcuts that can only be opened from one direction, but will stay open permanently in all future playthroughs, was designed to "encourage exploration, reward curiosity, and incentivize replayability". Predictability and consistency were key factors for the AI, with developers wanting the game to be fun and interesting to experiment with even if it meant the AI seemed to be "stupid" sometimes. Scripting for the game's artificial intelligence, however, required immense effort from the team. The team had frequent meetings to discuss changing target's behaviour, and spent a significant amount of time ensuring that the system and the simulation would not break, even if the player performs unconventional actions. Level design For the opening mission in Dubai, Engström gave the level designers and artists several phrases, such as "an inviting beginning", "open and airy", and "on top of the world" (which is the name for the mission in the game). During development the team felt that the level was not living up to the "vertigo" and "verticality" keywords, and that the level would not give the player the feeling that they were high up on a massive skyscraper. As a result, the beginning of the mission was changed so that the player started outside of the skyscraper and working their way in, rather than starting by exiting an elevator into an atrium. IO Interactive's art director and lead environment artist visited Dubai early in development to gather reference material.Dartmoor was based around phrases like "a house filled with secrets", "ominous", and "vulnerable". The mansion setting was decided quite early on in development and features a gothic design inspired by detective fiction, such as Agatha Christie novels. The linear structure of a murder-mystery caused IO to rework some of the mechanics and narrative paths, as they clashed with the design principles of replayibility and player freedom. The team experimented with using randomized culprits, but struggled to build a narrative. Despite the singular, fixed story, players are required to replay the level several times to get the full picture of the incident. The player can also gather evidence to accuse different characters, resulting in different outcomes. The story required the detective disguise to allow free access to most of the level, contrasting with most Hitman levels, where the player has to avoid being detected. The first version of the mission allowed the player full freedom to explore rooms and talk to people, but the player would not know who exactly they could talk to or which rooms were relevant. The team highlighted all of the people and objects of interest, resulting in a dull experience for playtesters, who would merely follow each icon and interact with all prompts. The final mission uses more subtle ways to guide players, such as through conversations between staff members and guards. Sound cues, such as a draft of wind through a room or the sound of ruffling paper, were also used to hint the player in the right direction towards clues. The addition of a secondary target, where the player would be asked to kill the true culprit, was considered but cut.The Berlin mission was based on the key words "loneliness" and "isolation". The forest featured in the opening was deliberately designed to be cold and isolating to contrast with the rave found in the main part of the level. IO sought to make the rave and music in the Berlin nightclub authentic. The main level designer for the mission lives in Berlin and did location scouting for the level, taking reference photos and recording sounds. Instead of using tracks from other sources, Hitman 3 composer Niels Bye Nielsen wrote the music that is played at the rave. The crowd NPCs are programmed to adjust their dance moves in response to the music as it builds. Berlin features none of the guided missions stories found in other Hitman levels, and the player must identify the targets by themselves. While the team initially included a primary target, Agent Montgomery, and the other agents as optional targets, it later decided to leave the choice of targets up to the player. Initially, all 10 agents would show up in the game's instinct mode, but the team found that to be overwhelming for a first playthrough. Berlin is the first level in the trilogy to feature armed targets who will fight back instead of running into lockdown. Earlier versions of the level included agents patrolling as pairs and targets immediately pulling out their weapon to shoot Agent 47 upon spotting him; the team deemed that design too punishing. Berlin was the most expensive level to make as a result of the development of new features, such as target identification and different methods of presenting information to the player.The Mendoza location was IO Interactive's first attempt to depict Argentina in the Hitman franchise. The original two ideas for the level were a "tango location set in Buenos Aires" or a vineyard in South Africa. Both ideas were combined and Mendoza was chosen because it is an internationally known wine producing region. The company went to great lengths to create a fictional location with authentic-looking terrain and vegetation, to show the winemaking process, and to accurately portray aspects of Argentine culture, such as tango and the drinking of mate. As IO Interactive's associate producer Pablo Prada is from Argentina, he provided insight for many aspects of the level. The real-life Villavicencio Natural Reserve was an inspiration for the architecture of the level. Professional dancers were hired for the tango animations and consulted about the music. The designers reused existing NPC Spanish-dialect dialogue, which had been recorded with Colombian and Mexican accents, rather than recording new NPC dialogue with authentic Argentine accents, due to time and budgetary constraints, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. The company instead chose to focus on securing appropriate voice talent for the Chongqing location.Ambrose Island was added as a free downloadable content (DLC) as part of the Year 2 Update. The level is set during the events of Hitman 2. Live game director Kevin Goyon said that the team wanted to create a "pirate fantasy" and "to make a location that felt dangerous – but where 47 would belong". IO wanted to feature Lucas Grey and explore what happened to the militia after he left during Hitman 2. The team also explored the idea of rival factions, with the militia and pirates on the island, on the brink of a conflict. Goyon said that this allowed them "to create a rich lore and interesting situations". The island location provided a natural way to define the boundaries of the map. In contrast to other outdoor Hitman maps, which revolve around built-up areas (e.g., Hitman 2's Santa Fortuna and Mumbai), Ambrose Island was designed around the natural rocky topology and jungles of the island, with much of the map consisting of natural environments. The topology and jungles divide the map into different zones, allowing the team to experiment with more verticality than usual on the map. Story In Hitman 3, the developers emphasized the game's story aspects and sought to create closure for 47's character. The game incorporates hand-crafted moments designed around the first time playthrough, with the aim being to integrate many core story moments into the gameplay. Hitman 2 established the major players, and Hitman 3 allows each of these characters to develop their own character arc and become more involved in both the story and the gameplay. Throughout all three games, Agent 47 is undergoing a period of self-discovery: learning about his past, rebuilding his relationships with other characters, and realizing his ability to exercise his free will. The Berlin level, in which 47 refuses one of his allies' advice to leave the compound and instead opts to eliminate the ICA agents sent to hunt him, was considered to be an important "character moment" for him, as it represents the first instance in which he must make a choice. The Argentina level represents the first time the player meets Diana face-to-face in the trilogy. At the end of the mission, 47 dances with Diana for a tango. IO chose to limit the player's outfit choices for this particular moment in order to maintain the atmosphere and not undermine the storytelling. The Carpathian Mountains level, which was controversial for its linear design, was described by Engström as a "narratively driven set-piece that is setting up closure for the trilogy". The train was designed as a metaphor for 47 spending his life "following a path determined by others", with his stepping off the train at the end being symbolic of 47 leaving his past as a contract killer behind at the end of the story. The game had a "more mature, serious, darker" tone when compared with Hitman 2, which features a more lighthearted tone. The team took a more measured approach to the game's humor. While elements of lightheartedness are still core to the game's design, they are more likely to be discovered in subsequent playthroughs and are not as "front and center" as in Hitman 2.The game had six writers and a producer who managed the writing team. According to Forest Swartout Large, the game's executive producer, the dialogue budget accounted for a significant proportion of the overall development budget because the team had to write dialogue for not only the linear story, but also the emergent gameplay. The game's cast include David Bateson as Agent 47, Jane Perry as Diana Burnwood, John Hopkins as Lucas Grey, Isaura Barbé-Brown as Olivia Hall, and Phillip Rosch as the Constant. For the incidental dialogue, Bateson was instructed not to divertify his accent to fit the context of the situation. Instead, he was directed to deliver dialogue in a "delightfully wooden" way and deliver each line, regardless of how absurd it may be, seriously. Bateson further stated that he wanted to "give [47] almost a kind of Frankenstein's monster feel to him". Reflecting on the evolution of dark humour across the three games, Bateson said that "[it] has matured and evolved like a good cheese or a good wine, without the writers wanting to belittle or turn it into some kind of a lightweight comedy, because it’s not. People are dying horrific deaths. But it’s nice to have that dark humour". Technology IO Interactive reduced the file size of Hitman 3—including the data for the first two games in the trilogy—to 60-70 GB, as compared to Hitman 2's 150 GB size. Engine improvements allowed IO Interactive to use lossless LZ4 compression. The team also changed their method for importing content from older titles, reducing data duplication. In November 2020, IO Interactive announced that they had teamed up with Intel to optimise Hitman 3 performance on high-end CPUs with 8+ cores, which allowed the team to include more crowds and destructible environments. They also used Variable Rate Shading, a technique for improving rendering performance by dynamically changing the rate of shading in different parts of the frame. More high-end CPU features were added to the game on 24 May 2022, including real-time raytracing and adaptive supersampling when using Nvidia DLSS or AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution.The idea to add a VR mode to the game originated in 2018, when a senior game designer brought his PlayStation VR headset into the office to show it off. People at the office "couldn't stop playing" the game Firewall: Zero Hour, which inspired the developers to make their own VR mode for Hitman 3. The VR team, which was made up of 10 to 12 people, believed that the game's level design suited the new perspective offered by VR, even though they were not designed with it in mind. The cover system was reworked, with players physically crouching to hide out of sight instead of locking into a cover system. They also enabled players to have free-form movement with the game's melee weapons, instead of using scripted animations. Many items, which previously would have been quite small on the screen or obscured by UI, were redesigned to include more detail. The team used the holographic sights for aiming in first-person. Despite VR being designed to be an immersive personal experience, the team decided not to tone down any of the violent content of the game. Release The game was announced on 11 June 2020 at the PlayStation 5 reveal event with the tagline 'Death Awaits'. IO Interactive self-published the game. Hitman 3 was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S natively, and Nintendo Switch via cloud streaming technology and streaming service Stadia (under the title Hitman: World of Assassination). A VR mode was released for PlayStation VR on the same day. Full VR and motion control support for PC players became available in January 2023. Players who pre-ordered the game received the "Trinity Pack", which includes a collection of items inspired by the two previous games in the World of Assassination series. A commemorative passport celebrating the 20th anniversary of the franchise is also available for players who preordered the physical version of Hitman 3 Deluxe Edition, which was released with Limited Run Games. IO Interactive considered using an episodic model for Hitman 3 like that seen in 2016's Hitman, where the first location would have released in August 2020. The Hitman 3 Free Starter Pack was made available on 30 March 2021, which grants players permanent access to the ICA Facility training missions from 2016's Hitman and periodic free access to other locations from the trilogy. In September 2022, Google announced they would be discontinuing their Stadia service in January 2023. In response IO Interactive announced that Stadia players would be able to transfer their progress to other platforms from 11 January to 17 February 2023.IO Interactive signed a 12-month exclusivity period for the PC version with the Epic Games Store, explaining "as an independent studio, our partnership with Epic has given us the freedom to create Hitman 3 exactly as we imagined and self-publish the game to our players directly". Prior to the game's launch, IO Interactive announced that unlike console players, PC players who owned Hitman or Hitman 2 on Steam would not be able to unlock locations from previous games in Hitman 3 unless they repurchase them on the Epic Games Store, backtracking on their promise. This led to criticism over IO's exclusivity deal for the game with the Epic Games Store. Tim Sweeney, Epic Games' CEO, issued an apology and committed to working with IO Interactive on a solution to allow Steam players to import locations to the Epic Games Store. IO guaranteed that players will not need to repurchase the games however, they admitted there would be a delay and players could not import Hitman 2 locations into Hitman 3 for a few weeks. IO also released Hitman: GOTY Edition for players who players who pre-ordered or purchased the game within its first ten days of release on PC. The location transfer system was implemented a month later.On 13 January 2022, IO Interactive announced the Hitman Trilogy, a collection of all three games in the World of Assassination trilogy. Both Hitman 3 and the Hitman Trilogy were released for Steam on 20 January 2022. Upon launch, the Steam version was met with a wave of negative reviews from players who complained about the price being the same as when the game had launched on the Epic Games Store a year earlier. The pricing system was seen as confusing by some due to the large amount of different versions of the game available. In response, IO Interactive issued a statement saying that the "Hitman 3 launch on Steam didn't go as planned" and offered all players who had already bought the game or who purchased it through to 19 February a free upgrade to the Deluxe Edition of the game. Players who already owned or purchased either the Deluxe Edition or the Hitman Trilogy would receive the Seven Deadly Sins DLC for free instead.IO Interactive supported Hitman 3 extensively with post-launch updates. IO Interactive launched a seven-part downloadable content series named Seven Deadly Sins. The sins are Greed, Pride, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Envy and Wrath, with the packs being released in that order. The first pack (Greed) was released on 30 March. The packs can be bought individually or collectively as part of a season pass. Each pack contains a unique escalation, a new suit and a new sin-themed item. The release of each pack started a new 'Season of Sin' lasting between four and six weeks, during which the regular free content such as featured contracts and elusive targets would be themed around the sin for that season. The final pack (Wrath) was released on 26 October 2021, with the "Season of Wrath" concluding on 29 November. While IO initially declared that they were unlikely to make new maps for the locations and instead, focused on "reimaginging" existing locations, they released "Ambrose Island", a new location for free in July 2022. The Freelancer mode was originally set to be released in 2022, though its release was pushed to January 2023. Alongside Freelancer's release, IO Interactive announced that they were rebranding Hitman 3 into Hitman: World of Assassination, which packaged both Hitman Game of the Year Edition and Hitman 2 Standard Access Pass into Hitman 3. The two older Hitman games would then be removed from storefronts. The Deluxe version of the game includes Hitman 2 Expansion Access Pass, which allows players to gain access to the New York Bank DLC level and the Haven Island level, Hitman 3 Deluxe Edition and the Seven Deadly Sins DLC packs. Critical reception Hitman 3 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It has been considered by some critics to be the best entry in the series and one of the greatest stealth games of all time. The game was praised for its gameplay loop, creativity, and level design. It was the best-reviewed game in the series.Nick Statt from The Verge praised Hitman 3 for being a cohesive and accessible experience, stating that "IOI has meticulously crafted ways to teach even the most bumbling, haphazard players how to become Agent 47 in mind and body". He compared the game's level to puzzles, writing that the game often invites players to understand its gameplay systems and exploit them in order to find success. He praised the game for allowing players to experiment with different approaches, making Hitman 3 a "a memorable and darkly comedic experience". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell from Eurogamer wrote that Hitman 3 was most rewarding when observing the patterns of the game's systems and strategising novel plans, although he was disappointed that the game does not react to the player's actions in a significant way after a target has been killed. While Jeff Cork from Game Informer liked the game's slow pacing and approach to level design, he felt that Hitman 3 was unlikely to convince players unimpressed with previous games. Luke Reily, writing for IGN, wrote that "the slow-burn thrill of these games comes from planning, patience, and hiding in plain sight", and the game "rewards rational thinking over rushing", while accommodating players who enjoy more action-packed games. Russ Frushtick from Polygon wrote that Hitman 3 frequently contrasted "predictable assassin-y stuff with true nonsense", and that the game's pairing of both seriousness and absurdity resulted in "high comedy". The game's level design received critical praise. Writing for The Guardian, Keith Stuart said that IO had successfully created several intricate locations for players to explore. He enjoyed the openness of each level, and wrote that modern Hitman games have become hugely replayable and "a benchmark for generous sandbox game design". Evans-Thirlwell said that Hitman 3's maps were comparable in quality to its predecessors, and said that they were worth revisiting for their diverse assassination opportunities and side stories. Hurley praised the incidental events featured in the game, which helped flesh out the game world. Reily wrote that the maps in Hitman 3 were among the best IO had created, praising each location's complex layout and verticality and the wealth of assassination opportunities within them. Jeff Cork from Game Informer praised the levels for their consistent quality, and noted that despite the fixed gameplay loop, IO Interactive was able to introduce variety to mission design. He wrote that each level offered improvisational opportunities for players to approach their objectives. GameSpot's Phil Hornshaw wrote that Hitman 3 was "full of fun and fascinating ideas". He also said that although the gameplay mechanics were similar to the earlier games in the trilogy, the game "finds new ways to challenge seasoned assassins purely through excellent design". The Berlin level, which twisted the gameplay formula significantly, received critical acclaim. Jeff Grubb from VentureBeat wrote that Berlin demonstrated the "maturity of the Hitman formula", remarking that IO Interactive no longer need to rely on mission stories to guide players, allowing players to enjoy a freeform experience. The Dartmoor map was particularly praised for the optional murder mystery elements, drawing comparisons to the movie Knives Out. The final level, set on a train in the Carpathian Mountains, was criticised for its linearity and as feeling out of place for a Hitman game.The narrative received mixed reviews from critics. Slatt enjoyed the larger emphasis on the game's story. He wrote that the game had successfully combined the engrossing story found in Hitman Absolution and the freeform gameplay found in Hitman: Blood Money. He stated that the stronger story in the game gave players a more clear purpose in assassinating various targets. He also praised IOI for making individual missions more story-driven. Hornshaw praised the game for tying the targets to the game's story, resulting in more interesting characters and consequential missions. Writing for VG 247, Alex Donaldson stated that the experience was more "directed", and that IO's attempt to turn Hitman 3 into an "epic story" largely succeeded, noting that it was significantly less silly than its predecessors. Hurley also felt that the game "has a stronger narrative flow to locations and story beats". Stuart, however, found the story to be forgettable and formularic, especially in comparison with the emergent stories that the player can create on their own. He likened the game's narrative to "straight-to-Netflix spy thrillers". Cameron Kunzelman from Vice criticised the game for being story-driven. Following the failure of Absolution in 2012, he wrote that the franchise was again repeating its mistake.The PlayStation VR mode received mostly positive reviews and was praised for its immersion, impressive visuals for a PSVR title and for supporting all of the maps in the trilogy. It was criticised for visual downgrades, including a lack of reflections and low draw distance. The control scheme, which utilisesa combination of DualShock 4 controller and motion controls, received mixed reviews. The PC VR version released in 2022 was heavily criticised for not offering full motion controls or improving upon the flaws of the PlayStation version. Sales Hitman 3 reached the number 1 position in the UK game boxed charts, with launch sales up 17% over Hitman 2. IO Interactive also stated that Hitman 3 had the "biggest digital launch" for the franchise. One week after the game had been released, Hitman 3's sales had already surpassed its development budget. By April 2021, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak stated that Hitman 3 had performed "300% better commercially" than its predecessor Hitman 2. By November 2021, Hitman 3 was the most successful game from the franchise and the entire World of Assassination trilogy, reaching 50 million players. Awards and accolades Hitman 3 received the "PC Game of the Year" award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2021 and the "Best Stealth" award from PC Gamer. Several publications considered it one of the best video games of the year, including Push Square, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Time, Ars Technica, The Guardian, IGN, TechRadar, GamesRadar+, The Washington Post, Edge, Kotaku, GameSpot, Rock Paper Shotgun, Giant Bomb, VG247, NME, Eurogamer, Gamereactor, Mashable, The A.V. Club and Polygon. PC Gamer placed the game 2nd in their 2021 "Top 100 PC Games" list and 5th in their 2022 list.The game was nominated for "Best VR/AR Game" at The Game Awards 2021 for its PlayStation VR mode. Eurogamer's Ian Higton named it the best PS VR game of 2021 and it was also voted the best PS VR game of 2021 by readers of PlayStation Blog. After its Steam release in 2022, Hitman 3 won "VR Game of the Year" at the 2022 Steam Awards. IO Interactive was nominated for "Best Game Development Studio" at the NME Awards 2022. An episode of the A Sound Effect Podcast featuring Hitman 3 developers titled "How Hitman 3's powerful sound was made with the audio team at IO Interactive" was nominated for "Best Game Audio Presentation Podcast or Broadcast" at the 2022 Game Audio Network Guild Awards. Future IO Interactive has confirmed that they will make additional Hitman games, although Hitman 3 is the final game in the World of Assassination trilogy. Christian Elverdam, IO Interactive's chief creative officer, has said that walking away from the Hitman franchise for the time being and closing the door on this chapter of Agent 47's story feels fitting. IO Interactive have confirmed they are likely going to do a new take on the game's formula when they return to the Hitman series. Official website

Rui En (born Loh Rui En on 29 January 1981) is a Singaporean actress, singer and host. Early life Rui En was born on 29 January 1981. Her father worked as a property agent, and her mother is a housewife. Her parents divorced when she was 17; her father remarried three years later, and her mother remarried in 2007. While growing up, she shared in a 2008 The Straits Times interview, she used to smoke and drink socially to cope with the insecurity and instability she felt from her broken home, and after quitting ballet as a co-curricular activity (CCA) in secondary school. She subsequently kicked the habit in 2004.Rui En studied at Singapore Chinese Girls' School for both her primary and secondary education, and subsequently at Raffles Junior College (RJC). She graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor of Business in 2004. Career Modelling and music career Rui En first started modelling after she completed her A Levels in RJC in 1999, and was managed by Phantom Management. In 2001, she was featured in a SingTel ad which propelled her into the limelight and earned her a feature in Singapore's edition of FHM. She subsequently signed on with Hype Records's subsidiary, Artistes Network.Rui En ventured into Taiwan in 2002 with the stage name 芮恩 (pinyin: Ruì'ēn). She made her first appearance as the female lead in label mate Jay Chou's music video for Secret Code (暗號) and went on to co-endorse Panasonic GD68 with him. Rui En subsequently released her debut regional Chinese album, Rui Σn vol. 01, in the same year under the co-production of Hype Records and Alfa Music. Chou composed the song White Feather (白色羽毛) which was released in her debut album, Rui Σn vol. 01. Rui En was nominated as the Best Local Singer in the Singapore Hits Awards 2003 and was selected alongside Taufik Batisah to perform both the English and Mandarin versions of the 2005 National Day Parade's theme song, Reach Out for the Skies. After a six years' break, Rui En released her second Chinese album in late 2008 under Hype Records, titled United Nations. This album was only released in Singapore, with all lyrics penned by Rui En herself. Since then, she resumed the use of her original name, 瑞恩. In April 2009, Rui En was invited to perform at Singapore Day 2009 at London's Hampton Court Palace, a yearly event organised by the Overseas Singaporean Unit in the Prime Minister's Office to engage overseas Singaporeans. Acting career Rui En made her acting debut in MediaCorp drama, No Problem, in 2002. She landed her first leading role in 2005, with A Promise for Tomorrow. In the following year, she was identified as one of the most promising young actresses in the Singapore Entertainment Industry by local entertainment magazine I-Weekly and was hence labelled as one of the Seven Princesses of Mediacorp.In 2004, Rui En took over Steph Song's role in the English sitcom Achar! for the second season after Song left the series after falling out with the male lead, Jas Arora. However, after reviewing her performance in that sitcom, Rui En felt that she was acting just for fame and popularity as a clutch to her broken family situation. Thereafter, in addition to quitting smoking and drinking, she decided to stop taking up roles that require kissing and/or intimate scenes. Thus despite being nominated for the Best Newcomer Award in 2004's Star Awards, she was limited in the choice of roles she could take on.In March 2008, Rui En was involved in a high-profile rejection of the role as an ambitious businesswoman struggling with mental illness in The Defining Moment, which subsequently went to Fann Wong instead. She was reported to have rejected the role due to a rape scene in the script as part of her stance against revealing, kissing or intimate scenes and has been criticised by some as unprofessional. She is reported to have been blacklisted by some producers after this role-rejection incident. After playing a social service worker and AIDS patient in By My Side in 2008, Rui En started to gain recognition, winning one of the eight 'Top 8 Likable Female Lead Characters' awards with her only production that year. In 2010, Rui En was labelled as one of the 10 Faces to watch in 2010 by MediaCorp's Buzz. Rui En also won several awards for the characters she portrayed, for instance her role as Zhang Luoyun in My School Daze which emerged as the 'Top 10 Favourite Female Characters' in Star Awards 2010, and Lin Jiaqi in The Dream Catchers which emerged as the 'Top 5 Favourite Female Characters'.In 2011, Rui En won the 'Most Favourite Female Character' award with her role as Yang Xiaodong in Happy Family. Rui En was also credited for her outstanding performance in portraying a widow in With You, winning the 'Best Actress' award in Star Awards 2011.Rui En was awarded the 'Best Actress in Leading Role' at the 2012 Asian Television Awards, for her role as a tough cop in crime drama Unriddle 2. She went on to win her third acting award in the following year at the Star Awards 2013 for the same role in Unriddle 2, earning her second 'Best Actress Award' at Star Awards. In 2013, Rui En was appointed the spokesperson for L'Oréal Paris Youth Code, making her the first Singaporean spokesperson for the international cosmetics brand.In addition to her roles in dramas, Rui En has starred in a three-part docudrama produced by Channel NewsAsia, as one of Singapore's pioneer painters, Georgette Chen. The English-language series, which was also adapted into Mandarin, aired on Channel NewsAsia, MediaCorp Channel 5 and MediaCorp Channel 8 in April 2015.Rui En received the All-Time Favourite Artiste award in the 2016 star awards after winning the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes award from 2005 to 2016 respectively with Qi Yuwu. In 2021, Rui En left Artistes Network. Personal life In January 2016, Rui En was also involved in a hit and run accident. There were no casualties involved, and both parties agreed to make a private settlement.On 13 April 2016, Rui En was involved in a car accident entering a carpark near her home when her car knocked over a stationary motorcycle. On 14 April, it was reported that Rui En was assisting the police with investigations into the accident. She subsequently apologised and responded with an official statement regarding the accident. The owner of the motorcycle accepted Rui En's apology through Wanbao on 15 April. For this incident, Rui En was fined S$700. Community work Rui En is the theme song singer for The Community Chest of Singapore. The song, titled "Listen to Your Heart", has been released in the form of EP in years 2003 and 2009.She is also a regular volunteer at "Beyond Social Services". She has also volunteered for several children welfare organizations. Notably, in 2016, she volunteered her services together with her fan club to commemorate their 9th anniversary. Filmography Film Television series Variety show Discography Solo albums Rui Σn vol. 01 芮恩Rui Σn同名專輯 (December 2002) United Nations 共和國 (October 2008) Compilations Morning Express VI 阳光系列6 (2003)This compilation album consists of Rui En's The Way To Be Happy 快乐方式 (Track 3) and Test 考验 (Track 9). The songs were released under Rui En's birth name – 卢瑞恩 (Lú Ruì'ēn).Celebrating 25 Years of Chinese Drama Collector's Edition 戏剧情牵25 (2007)This album is a Collector's Edition composed of memorable theme songs spanning across the Singapore Chinese Drama's Twenty-Five years' History. Tracks from Rui En include a remix version of "The Way To Be Happy 快乐方式" and "Unfreeze 解冻". The songs were released under Rui En's stage name – 芮恩 (Ruì'ēn). Singles "Listen to Your Heart"This is the theme song for The Community Chest of Singapore and there are English and Mandarin versions to this song. The songs were released in the form of a Single."Reach Out for the Skies (2005)"This is the theme song for National Day Parade, 2005 and there are English and Mandarin versions to this song. Music videos were produced for both versions."Listen to Your Heart – Remix (2009)"A remix version of the theme song for The Community Chest of Singapore, the Mandarin track was first performed on televised charity show, TrueHearts Show 2009. The EP released in November 2009 consisted of the original tracks and the remixes in both English and Mandarin. This graphic artwork for this single was designed by Rui En's fan club, RBKD, on behalf of The Community Chest of Singapore."Sky's the Limit"A single by Taufik Batisah featuring Rui En."Numb" 麻木 (2013)A single by Rui En. Drama theme songs Beautiful Connection – "The Way To Be Happy 快乐方式 "(2002)This song was nominated as Best Drama Theme Song in Star Awards 2002 and was first released in Morning Express VI. A remix version was released in Celebrating 25 Years of Chinese Drama Collector's Edition.No Problem! – "Test 考验" (2003)This is an insert song released in Morning Express VI.Love at 0 °C – "Unfreeze 解冻" (2006)This was Rui En's first set of self-penned lyrics published and also her first and only theme song for the drama she is starring in. This song is released in Celebrating 25 Years of Chinese Drama Collecter's Edition.By My Side – "Slow Dance 慢舞" (2008)This is an insert song found in Rui En's United Nations. Singles Awards and nominations In 2007, Rui En was presented with the "Nanyang Outstanding Young People Award" by her alma mater Nanyang Technological University. Rui En at IMDb Rui En on Instagram

Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, abbreviated as DKMS (transl. German Bone Marrow Donor File), is an international nonprofit bone marrow donor center based in Tübingen, Germany, with entities in Chile, India, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. DKMS works in the areas of blood cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and raises awareness of the need for donors for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation which people with blood cancers need for treatment as well as helping people sign up to their national bone marrow registries. Over the years, DKMS has expanded beyond Germany. History DKMS was founded in Germany on 28 May 1991 by billionaire Peter Harf, an executive with Coty, Inc., and university professor Gerhard Ehninger, the hematologist who treated his first wife Mechtild Harf. Mechtild had been diagnosed with leukemia, and while her cancer initially responded to drugs, she eventually needed a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSC) but none of her family members were a good match. Harf founded DKMS to raise awareness of the need for donors in Germany and to help people to register with the German national bone marrow registry. He included the whole family, including their 14-year-old daughter Katharina, in the effort. Within a year, the number of registered donors in Germany increased from 3,000 to 68,000. He continued building the organization afterwards.Katharina eventually moved to the United States to Harvard University, worked for Louis Vuitton in New York City for a time, then started an MBA at Columbia University; she dropped out and instead founded the US affiliate of DKMS with her father in 2004. The US affiliate also works to raise awareness of the need for donors, helps people register with the National Marrow Donor Program, and if needed will help pay for any health tests, medication and travel costs.In 2014, DKMS began promoting May 28 as World Blood Cancer Day to help raise awareness. That year they also began offering grants to support scientists working on diagnosis or treatment of blood cancers, offering two people up to €80,000 per year for up to three years. Activities DKMS uses gala events and specific patient appeals to raise money and awareness.In the United Kingdom and the United States, DKMS hold their annual Big Love gala event to fundraise which is often attended by high-profile celebrities. Their most recent event was held at the Camden Roundhouse in November 2018, with attendees including Georgia May Jagger, Jamie Redknapp, Henry Holland and their global ambassador, model Eva Herzigová.Notable patient appeals have included Marley Nicholls, Damary Dawkins and Peter McCleave who appeared on the BBC Breakfast TV show with his son Maxwell in February 2019 seeking 10,000 potential donors. See also Anthony Nolan Blood Cancer UK DKMS US website DKMS Germany website DKMS UK website "DKMS, registered charity no. 1150056". Charity Commission for England and Wales. "DKMS, Registered Charity no. SC046917". Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The Bank of China (BOC; Chinese: 中国银行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Yínháng) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world. The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, replacing the Qing Dynasty's Ta-Ching Government Bank. It has been the second oldest bank in China still in existence after the Bank of Communications, founded in 1908. From its establishment until 1942, it issued banknotes on behalf of the Government along with the "Big Four" banks of the period: the Farmers Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Central Bank of the Republic of China. After the People's Republic was established in 1949, it has become a national commercial and foreign exchange professional bank. Its original central bank designation was carried on by the newly formed People's Bank of China.As of 31 December 2019, it was the second-largest lender in China overall and ninth-largest bank in the world by market capitalization value, and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. As of the end of 2020, it was the fourth-largest bank in the world in terms of total assets, ranked after the other three Chinese banks.The Bank of China is legally separate from its subsidiary the Bank of China (Hong Kong), although they maintain close relations in management and administration and co-operate in several areas including reselling BOC's insurance and securities services. History The Bank of China's history began in 1905, when the Qing government established Daqing Hubu Bank (大淸戶部銀行) in Beijing, which was in 1908 renamed to Daqing Bank (大淸銀行). When the Republic of China was established in 1912, Chen Jintao was named head of financial reform in President Sun Yat-sen's government. Chen Jintao transformed the bank into the Bank of China, becoming its founder.After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, the Bank of China effectively split into two operations. Part of the bank relocated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang (KMT) government, and was privatized in 1971 to become the International Commercial Bank of China (中國國際商業銀行). As the People's Bank of China began spinning off its commercial functions starting in 1978, the Bank of China became focused on international finance.: 225  In 2002, it merged with Jiaotong Bank (交通銀行) to become the Mega International Commercial Bank. The Mainland operation is the current entity known as the Bank of China. It is the second largest lender in China overall, and the fifth largest bank in the world by market capitalization value. Once 100% owned by the central government, via China Central Huijin and National Council for Social Security Fund (SSF), an Initial public offering (IPO) of its shares took place in June 2006, the free float is at present over 26%. In the Forbes Global 2000 it ranked as the 4th-largest company in the world.It is the most globally-active of China's banks, with branches on every inhabited continent. Outside of mainland China, BOC also operates in 27 countries and areas including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, Hungary, United States, Panama, Brazil, Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Zambia, South Africa, and a branch office in the Cayman Islands. In December 2010, the Bank of China New York branch began offering renminbi products for Americans. It was the first major Chinese bank to offer such a product. Although it is present in the above countries/territories, its operations outside China accounted for less than 4% of the activity of the bank by both profits and assets. Mainland China accounts for 60% of the bank by profits and 76% by assets as at December 2005. Timeline of overseas activities 1917: BOC opened a branch in Hong Kong. 1929: BOC opened its first overseas branch in London. The branch managed the government's foreign debt, became a center for the bank's management of its foreign exchange, and acted as an intermediary for China's international trade. 1931: BOC opened a branch in Osaka. 1936: BOC opened a branch in Singapore to handle remittances to China of overseas Chinese. It also opened an agency in New York. 1937: On the outbreak of hostilities with Japan, Japanese forces blockaded China's major ports. BOC opened a number of branches in Batavia, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Haiphong, Hanoi, Rangoon, Bombay, and Calcutta to facilitate the gathering of remittances and the flow of military supplies. It also opened sub-agencies in Surabaya, Medan, Dabo, Batu Pahat, Baichilu, Mandalay, Lashio, Ipoh, and Seremban. 1941-1942: The Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia forced BOC to close all overseas its branches, agencies, sub-branches and sub-agencies, except London, New York, Calcutta, and Bombay. Nevertheless, in 1942, it managed to set up six new overseas branches, such as in Sydney, (Australia), Liverpool, and Havana, and possibly Karachi. 1946: BOC reopened its branches and agencies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Haiphong, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Jakarta. It moved the Hanoi agency to Saigon. At the suggestion of the Allied Forces Headquarters, it liquidated the branch in Osaka and opened a sub-branch in Tokyo. 1947: BOC opened agencies in Bangkok, Chittagong, and Tokyo. 1950: After victory of Communist forces in the civil war, some branches (ex. Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Calcutta, Bombay, Chittagong, and Karachi) of Bank of China joined the bank headquartered in Beijing, while others (ex. New York, Tokyo, Havana, Bangkok, and one other, possibly Panama) opted to remain with the Bank of China headquartered in Taipei. In 1971, this bank took the name International Commercial Bank of China. 1963: The Burmese government nationalized all banks, foreign and domestic, including the Bank of China's Rangoon branch. 1971: The Bank of China transferred its two branches in Karachi and Chittagong to the National Bank of Pakistan. 1975: The Republic of South Vietnam nationalized the Bank of China's branch in Saigon and the Khmer Rouge government nationalized its Phnom Penh branch. 1979: BOC opened a branch in Luxembourg, which gradually became its European headquarters through the 1990s. 1981: BOC opened a branch in New York. 1985: BOC opened a branch in Paris (France) 1987: BOC became an ordinary member of the LBMA. 1992: BOC opens a representative office in Toronto. 1993: Bank of China (Canada) established to conduct business in Canada as a Schedule II bank. 2001: Kwangtung Provincial Bank was closed and merged under Bank of China, Singapore Branch. 2002: Bank of China Futures Pte Ltd wound up operations in Singapore. 2005: In the runup to its initial public offering, BOC solicited long term investors to take strategic stakes in the company, including a $3.1 billion investment by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and further investments by Swiss bank UBS AG and Temasek Holdings (who also promised to subscribe for an additional $500 million worth of shares during the IPO). The Bank was also investigated by the United States in its money laundering probe related to the superdollars affair. 2006: BOC's listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 1, 2006, was the largest IPO since 2000 and the fourth largest IPO ever, raising some US$9.7 billion in the H-share Global Offering. The Over-Allotment Option was then exercised on June 7, 2006, raising the total value of their IPO to US$11.2 billion. BOC also made a successful IPO in mainland China on July 5, 2006, offering up to 10 billion A-shares on the Shanghai A Stock Exchange for RMB20 billion (US$2.5 billion). BOC also bought Singapore Airlines's stake in Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, renaming it BOC Aviation in 2007. 2008: Bank of China buys a 20 percent stake in La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild (LCFR) for 236.3 million euros (US$340 million) 2001-2007: Massive staff layoffs and paycuts in BOC Singapore Branch, culminating in 2007 with branch head Zhu Hua being asked to leave by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for his poor performance. He was replaced by Liu Yan Fen. 2008: Head of Settlements at BOC, Chin Chuh Meng, was investigated involvement for Multi-Level Marketing Activities in Singapore, a scheme involving employees of the Bank of China and ex-Kwangtung Bank. 2009: Opened branches in São Paulo and Maputo. Penang branch reopened in October. People's Park Remittance Centre opened in Singapore. Sunday Banking Business ceased in Chinatown Sub-branch in Singapore. 2012: BOC opened branch in Taiwan. The opening is seen as a symbol of deepening economic ties across Taiwan Strait Bank of China (M) Bhd opened its 6th branch in Malaysia at Tower 2, PFCC, Bandar Puteri Puchong in 2012. 2013: BOC opened a branch in Lisbon, Portugal. During the Korean crisis, the Bank of China halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. New branch opened in Montreal. The Canadian arm of the Bank of China now has 10 branches across Canada, including five in the Greater Toronto Area and three in Vancouver. 2015: BOC gained entry to the London Bullion Market Association gold price auction. At the time, it was one of eight members to the auction. 2015 BoC opened two global commodity centres in Singapore, becoming the first Chinese bank to do so outside China. 2016 BoC received permission to open a branch in Brunei. 2016 BoC opened a branch in Mauritius becoming the first Chinese-funded bank in Mauritius. 2017 BoC received permission to operate a deposit bank in Turkey. 2017 In October 2017, BoC opened its first branch in Pakistan in Karachi, Pakistan. Major subsidiaries Hong Kong BOC started operations in Hong Kong in 1917. It became a note-issuing bank in Hong Kong in 1994, and in Macau in 1995.In 2001, BOC regrouped its Hong Kong operations into Bank of China (Hong Kong); then BOCHK listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2002. Two-thirds of its share capital are in free float. The bank's headquarters in Hong Kong are located in the Bank of China Tower, designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei, and was opened to the public in 1990 as the tallest building in Hong Kong at that time.It listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (independently from BOCHK) (SEHK:3988) by floating the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the world by any institution since 2000 on June 1, 2006, raising US$9.7 billion. The IPO attracted HK$286 billion (US$36.7 billion) in retail orders and was the most heavily oversubscribed in the history of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The offer was around 76 times oversubscribed. Although some financial analysts advised caution due to the worrying amounts of non-performing loans, this hardly deterred investors. The IPO share price started at HK$2.95 per share and jumped 15% (to HK$3.40) after the first day of trading.In 2008, the Bank of China was crowned Deal of the Year - Debt Market Deal of the Year at the 2008 ALB Hong Kong Law Awards. Canada Bank of China (Canada), commonly known as BOCC, is the Canadian subsidiary of the Bank of China (BOC). The Bank of China began its business in Canada by opening a representative office in Toronto on September 8, 1992. BOCC was incorporated as a subsidiary of BOC in 1993 under Schedule II of the Bank Act. BOCC provides the following types of banking services in Canada: bank accounts to both personal and commercial banking clients, remittance services (including bank drafts and wire transfers), loans and mortgages, foreign exchange services, and China visa application assistance services where by it acts as agent, however plans for a China Visa Application Centre are being made and it is anticipated that the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto will entrust all future China Visa applications to Bank of China Canada's Visa Application Centre.In Canada, BOCC has ten locations located in Markham, Toronto (several branches, in downtown, North York and Scarborough], Mississauga, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary. It previously had branches in Burnaby and Richmond. As well, the bank is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA); registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks; and, a member of Interac, which handles transactions between automated teller machines of different banks and debit card transactions. Banknotes Although it is not a central bank, the Bank of China is licensed to issue banknotes in two of China's Special Administrative Regions. Until 1942, the Bank of China issued banknotes in mainland China on behalf of the Government of the Republic of China. Today, the Bank issues banknotes in Hong Kong and banknotes in Macau (under the Portuguese name "Banco da China, Sucursal de Macau"), along with other commercial banks in those regions. Ownership As of 30 September 2015, largest shareholders of the Bank of China ordinary shares (both A shares and H shares) were: China Central Huijin (an investment arm of the government of the People's Republic of China): 64.63% (A shares) HKSCC Nominees Limited (nominee account): 27.78% (H shares) China Securities Finance (state-owned legal person): 2.90% (A shares)As of 30 September 2015, largest shareholders of the Bank of China preference shares (both domestic and offshore) were: The Bank of New York Mellon (custodian bank): 39.96% (offshore) China Mobile Communications: 18.01% (domestic) China National Tobacco Corporation: 5.00% (domestic) Zhongwei Real Estate: 3.00% (domestic) Leaders Current Chairman Liu Liange (刘连舸), President and vice-chairman of the board since 2015. Past Chairman Chen Siqing (zh:陈四清), former president and chairman, current chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Controversies Guarantee scandal in Poland After COVEC withdrew from completing its construction of the A2 highway in Poland, Bank of China was to pay a performance guarantee to the Polish government's road organization GDDKiA. However, with Export-Import Bank of China, they refused to pay this; only Deutsche Bank honoured its obligations under the court decision. Wultz v. Bank of China On August 8, 2008, the family of Daniel Wultz, an American teenager killed in a 2006 terrorist attack in Israel, filed suit against the Bank of China in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case was subsequently transferred to the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, where litigation continues. On October 29, 2012, the Honorable J. Scheindlin issued a ruling compelling Bank of China to provide discovery. Alleged money transfers to Hamas In 2012, the families of eight terror victims of the 2008 Mercaz HaRav massacre in Jerusalem filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Bank of China. The suit asserted that in 2003 the bank's New York branch wired millions of dollars to Hamas from its leadership in Syria and Iran. The Bank of China subsequently denied providing banking services to terrorist groups: "The Bank of China has always strictly followed the UN's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements and regulations in China and other judicial areas where we operate." Money laundering In 2014 BOC denied China Central Television reports of money laundering. See also List of largest banks List of asset management companies of the People's Republic of China Foreign exchange reserves of the People's Republic of China BOC Aviation - Singapore-based aircraft leasing company owned by BOC Resources Bank of China, A History of the Bank of China, 1912-1949, Beijing: 1999. Business data for Bank of China: (in English) Official website

Idiolect is an individual's unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people. The term is etymologically related to the Greek prefix idio- (meaning "own, personal, private, peculiar, separate, distinct") and -lect, abstracted from dialect, and ultimately from Ancient Greek λέγω, légō, 'I speak'. Language Language consists of sentence constructs, choice of words, and expression of style. Accordingly, an idiolect is an individual's personal use of these facets. Every person has a unique idiolect influenced by their language, socioeconomic status, and geographical location. Forensic linguistics psychologically analyzes idiolects.The notion of language is used as an abstract description of the language use, and of the abilities of individual speakers and listeners. According to this view, a language is an "ensemble of idiolects... rather than an entity per se". Linguists study particular languages by examining the utterances produced by native speakers. This contrasts with a view among non-linguists, at least in the United States, that languages as ideal systems exist outside the actual practice of language users: Based on work done in the US, Nancy Niedzielski and Dennis Preston describe a language ideology that appears to be common among American English speakers. According to Niedzielski and Preston, many of their subjects believe that there is one "correct" pattern of grammar and vocabulary that underlies Standard English, and that individual usage comes from this external system.Linguists who understand particular languages as a composite of unique, individual idiolects must nonetheless account for the fact that members of large speech communities, and even speakers of different dialects of the same language, can understand one another. All human beings seem to produce language in essentially the same way. This has led to searches for universal grammar, as well as attempts to further define the nature of particular languages. Forensic linguistics Forensic linguistics includes attempts to identify whether a person produced a given text by comparing the style of the text with the idiolect of the individual in question. The forensic linguist may conclude that the text is consistent with the individual, rule out the individual as the author, or deem the comparison inconclusive.In 1995 Max Appedole relied in part on an analysis of Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente's writing style to identify him as Subcomandante Marcos, a leader of the Zapatista movement. Although the Mexican government regarded Subcomandante Marcos as a dangerous guerilla, Appedole convinced the government that Guillén was a pacifist. Appedole's analysis is considered an early success in the application of forensic linguistics to criminal profiling in law enforcement.In 1998 Ted Kaczynski was identified as the "Unabomber" by means of forensic linguistics. The FBI and Attorney General Janet Reno pushed for the publication of an essay of Kaczynski's, which led to a tip-off from Kaczynski's brother, who recognized the writing style, his idiolect.In 1978 four men were accused and convicted of murdering Carl Bridgewater. No forensic linguistics was involved in their case at the time. Today, forensic linguistics reflects that the idiolect used in the interview of one of the men was very similar to that man's reported statement. Since idiolects are unique to an individual, forensic linguistics reflects that it is very unlikely that one of these files was not created by using the other. Detecting idiolect with corpora Idiolect analysis is different for an individual depending on whether the data being analyzed is from a corpus made up entirely from texts or audio files, since written work is more thought out in planning and precise in wording than in spontaneous speech, where informal language and conversation fillers (i.e. umm..., you know, etc.) fill corpus samples. Corpora with large amounts of input data allow for the generation of word frequency and synonym lists, normally through the use of the top ten bigrams created from it (context of word usage is taken into account here, when determining whether a bigram is legitimate in certain circumstances).Whether a word or phrase is part of an idiolect is determined by where the word is in comparison to the window's head word, the edge of the window. This window is kept to 7-10 words, with a sample that is being considered as a feature of the idiolect being possibly +5/-5 words away from the "head" word of the window (which is normally in the middle). Data in corpus pertaining to idiolect get sorted into three categories: irrelevant, personal discourse marker(s), and informal vocabulary. Samples that are at the end of the frame and far from this head word are often ruled to be superfluous. Superfluous data then is run through different functions than non-superfluous data to see if this word or phrase is a part of an individual's idiolect. See also Dialect Idioglossia Private language argument Referential indeterminacy Sociolect Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology

ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1967 at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to explore communication between humans and machines, ELIZA simulated conversation by using a pattern matching and substitution methodology that gave users an illusion of understanding on the part of the program, but had no representation that could be considered really understanding what was being said by either party. Whereas the ELIZA program itself was written (originally) in MAD-SLIP, the pattern matching directives that contained most of its language capability were provided in separate "scripts", represented in a lisp-like representation. The most famous script, DOCTOR, simulated a psychotherapist of the Rogerian school (in which the therapist often reflects back the patient's words to the patient), and used rules, dictated in the script, to respond with non-directional questions to user inputs. As such, ELIZA was one of the first chatterbots ("chatbot" modernly) and one of the first programs capable of attempting the Turing test.ELIZA's creator, Weizenbaum, intended the program as a method to explore communication between humans and machines. He was surprised and shocked that individuals, including Weizenbaum's secretary, attributed human-like feelings to the computer program. Many academics believed that the program would be able to positively influence the lives of many people, particularly those with psychological issues, and that it could aid doctors working on such patients' treatment. While ELIZA was capable of engaging in discourse, it could not converse with true understanding. However, many early users were convinced of ELIZA's intelligence and understanding, despite Weizenbaum's insistence to the contrary. The original ELIZA source-code had been missing since its creation in the 1960s as it was not common to publish articles that included source code at this time. However, more recently the MAD-SLIP source-code has now been discovered in the MIT archives and published on various platforms, such as archive.org. The source-code is of high historical interest as it demonstrates not only the specificity of programming languages and techniques at that time, but also the beginning of software layering and abstraction as a means of achieving sophisticated software programming. Overview Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, running the DOCTOR script, was created to provide a parody of "the responses of a non-directional psychotherapist in an initial psychiatric interview" and to "demonstrate that the communication between man and machine was superficial". While ELIZA is best known for acting in the manner of a psychotherapist, the speech patterns are due to the data and instructions supplied by the DOCTOR script. ELIZA itself examined the text for keywords, applied values to said keywords, and transformed the input into an output; the script that ELIZA ran determined the keywords, set the values of keywords, and set the rules of transformation for the output. Weizenbaum chose to make the DOCTOR script in the context of psychotherapy to "sidestep the problem of giving the program a data base of real-world knowledge", as in a Rogerian therapeutic situation, the program had only to reflect back the patient's statements. The algorithms of DOCTOR allowed for a deceptively intelligent response, which deceived many individuals when first using the program.Weizenbaum named his program ELIZA after Eliza Doolittle, a working-class character in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. According to Weizenbaum, ELIZA's ability to be "incrementally improved" by various users made it similar to Eliza Doolittle, since Eliza Doolittle was taught to speak with an upper-class accent in Shaw's play. However, unlike the human character in Shaw's play, ELIZA is incapable of learning new patterns of speech or new words through interaction alone. Edits must be made directly to ELIZA's active script in order to change the manner by which the program operates. Weizenbaum first implemented ELIZA in his own SLIP list-processing language, where, depending upon the initial entries by the user, the illusion of human intelligence could appear, or be dispelled through several interchanges. Some of ELIZA's responses were so convincing that Weizenbaum and several others have anecdotes of users becoming emotionally attached to the program, occasionally forgetting that they were conversing with a computer. Weizenbaum's own secretary reportedly asked Weizenbaum to leave the room so that she and ELIZA could have a real conversation. Weizenbaum was surprised by this, later writing: "I had not realized ... that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."In 1966, interactive computing (via a teletype) was new. It was 15 years before the personal computer became familiar to the general public, and three decades before most people encountered attempts at natural language processing in Internet services like Ask.com or PC help systems such as Microsoft Office Clippit. Although those programs included years of research and work, ELIZA remains a milestone simply because it was the first time a programmer had attempted such a human-machine interaction with the goal of creating the illusion (however brief) of human–human interaction.At the ICCC 1972 ELIZA was brought together with another early artificial-intelligence program named PARRY for a computer-only conversation. While ELIZA was built to speak as a doctor, PARRY was intended to simulate a patient with schizophrenia. Design Weizenbaum originally wrote ELIZA in MAD-SLIP for CTSS on an IBM 7094, as a program to make natural-language conversation possible with a computer. To accomplish this, Weizenbaum identified five "fundamental technical problems" for ELIZA to overcome: the identification of key words, the discovery of a minimal context, the choice of appropriate transformations, the generation of responses in the absence of key words, and the provision of an editing capability for ELIZA scripts. Weizenbaum solved these problems and made ELIZA such that it had no built-in contextual framework or universe of discourse. However, this required ELIZA to have a script of instructions on how to respond to inputs from users.ELIZA starts its process of responding to an input by a user by first examining the text input for a "keyword". A "keyword" is a word designated as important by the acting ELIZA script, which assigns to each keyword a precedence number, or a RANK, designed by the programmer. If such words are found, they are put into a "keystack", with the keyword of the highest RANK at the top. The input sentence is then manipulated and transformed as the rule associated with the keyword of the highest RANK directs. For example, when the DOCTOR script encounters words such as "alike" or "same", it would output a message pertaining to similarity, in this case "In what way?", as these words had high precedence number. This also demonstrates how certain words, as dictated by the script, can be manipulated regardless of contextual considerations, such as switching first-person pronouns and second-person pronouns and vice versa, as these too had high precedence numbers. Such words with high precedence numbers are deemed superior to conversational patterns and are treated independently of contextual patterns.Following the first examination, the next step of the process is to apply an appropriate transformation rule, which includes two parts: the "decomposition rule" and the "reassembly rule". First, the input is reviewed for syntactical patterns in order to establish the minimal context necessary to respond. Using the keywords and other nearby words from the input, different disassembly rules are tested until an appropriate pattern is found. Using the script's rules, the sentence is then "dismantled" and arranged into sections of the component parts as the "decomposition rule for the highest-ranking keyword" dictates. The example that Weizenbaum gives is the input "You are very helpful", which is transformed to "I are very helpful". This is then broken into (1) empty (2) "I" (3) "are" (4) "very helpful". The decomposition rule has broken the phrase into four small segments that contain both the keywords and the information in the sentence.The decomposition rule then designates a particular reassembly rule, or set of reassembly rules, to follow when reconstructing the sentence. The reassembly rule takes the fragments of the input that the decomposition rule had created, rearranges them, and adds in programmed words to create a response. Using Weizenbaum's example previously stated, such a reassembly rule would take the fragments and apply them to the phrase "What makes you think I am (4)", which would result in "What makes you think I am very helpful?". This example is rather simple, since depending upon the disassembly rule, the output could be significantly more complex and use more of the input from the user. However, from this reassembly, ELIZA then sends the constructed sentence to the user in the form of text on the screen.These steps represent the bulk of the procedures that ELIZA follows in order to create a response from a typical input, though there are several specialized situations that ELIZA/DOCTOR can respond to. One Weizenbaum specifically wrote about was when there is no keyword. One solution was to have ELIZA respond with a remark that lacked content, such as "I see" or "Please go on". The second method was to use a "MEMORY" structure, which recorded prior recent inputs, and would use these inputs to create a response referencing a part of the earlier conversation when encountered with no keywords. This was possible due to Slip's ability to tag words for other usage, which simultaneously allowed ELIZA to examine, store and repurpose words for usage in outputs.While these functions were all framed in ELIZA's programming, the exact manner by which the program dismantled, examined, and reassembled inputs is determined by the operating script. The script is not static and can be edited, or a new one created, as is necessary for the operation in the context needed. This would allow the program to be applied in multiple situations, including the well-known DOCTOR script, which simulates a Rogerian psychotherapist.A Lisp version of ELIZA, based on Weizenbaum's CACM paper, was written shortly after that paper's publication, by Bernie Cosell. A BASIC version appeared in Creative Computing in 1977 (although it was written in 1973 by Jeff Shrager). This version, which was ported to many of the earliest personal computers, appears to have been subsequently translated into many other versions in many other languages. Shrager claims not to have seen either Weizenbaum's or Cosell's versions. In 2021 Jeff Shrager searched MIT's Weizenbaum archives, along with MIT archivist Myles Crowley, and found files labeled Computer Conversations. These included the complete source code listing of ELIZA in MAD-SLIP, with the DOCTOR script attached. The Weizenbaum estate has given permission to open-source this code under a Creative Commons CC0 public domain license. The code and other information can be found on the ELIZAGEN site.Another version of Eliza popular among software engineers is the version that comes with the default release of GNU Emacs, and which can be accessed by typing M-x doctor from most modern Emacs implementations. Pseudocode From Figure 15.5, Chapter 15 of Speech and Language Processing (third edition). function ELIZA GENERATOR(user sentence) returns response Let w be the word in sentence that has the highest keyword rank if w exists Let r be the highest ranked rule for w that matches sentence response ← Apply the transform in r to sentence if w = 'my' future ← Apply a transformation from the ‘memory’ rule list to sentence Push future onto the memory queue else (no keyword applies) Either response ← Apply the transform for the NONE keyword to sentence Or response ← Pop the oldest response from the memory queue Return response Response and legacy Lay responses to ELIZA were disturbing to Weizenbaum and motivated him to write his book Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation, in which he explains the limits of computers, as he wants to make clear his opinion that the anthropomorphic views of computers are just a reduction of human beings or any life form for that matter. In the independent documentary film Plug & Pray (2010) Weizenbaum said that only people who misunderstood ELIZA called it a sensation.The Israeli poet David Avidan, who was fascinated with future technologies and their relation to art, desired to explore the use of computers for writing literature. He conducted several conversations with an APL implementation of ELIZA and published them – in English, and in his own translation to Hebrew – under the title My Electronic Psychiatrist – Eight Authentic Talks with a Computer. In the foreword he presented it as a form of constrained writing.There are many programs based on ELIZA in different programming languages. In 1980, a company called "Don't Ask Software" created a version called "Abuse" for the Apple II, Atari, and Commodore 64 computers, which verbally abused the user based on the user's input. For MS-DOS computers, some Sound Blaster cards came bundled with Dr. Sbaitso, which functions like the DOCTOR script. Other versions adapted ELIZA around a religious theme, such as ones featuring Jesus (both serious and comedic), and another Apple II variant called I Am Buddha. The 1980 game The Prisoner incorporated ELIZA-style interaction within its gameplay. In 1988 the British artist and friend of Weizenbaum Brian Reffin Smith created two art-oriented ELIZA-style programs written in BASIC, one called "Critic" and the other "Artist", running on two separate Amiga 1000 computers and showed them at the exhibition "Salamandre" in the Musée du Berry, Bourges, France. The visitor was supposed to help them converse by typing in to "Artist" what "Critic" said, and vice versa. The secret was that the two programs were identical. GNU Emacs formerly had a psychoanalyze-pinhead command that simulates a session between ELIZA and Zippy the Pinhead. The Zippyisms were removed due to copyright issues, but the DOCTOR program remains. ELIZA has been referenced in popular culture and continues to be a source of inspiration for programmers and developers focused on artificial intelligence. It was also featured in a 2012 exhibit at Harvard University titled "Go Ask A.L.I.C.E.", as part of a celebration of mathematician Alan Turing's 100th birthday. The exhibit explores Turing's lifelong fascination with the interaction between humans and computers, pointing to ELIZA as one of the earliest realizations of Turing's ideas.ELIZA won a 2021 Legacy Peabody Award. In popular culture In 1969, George Lucas and Walter Murch incorporated an Eliza-like dialogue interface in their screenplay for the feature film THX-1138. Inhabitants of the underground future world of THX, when stressed, would retreat to "confession booths" and initiate a one-sided Eliza-formula conversation with a Jesus-faced computer who claimed to be "OMM".ELIZA influenced a number of early computer games by demonstrating additional kinds of interface designs. Don Daglow wrote an enhanced version of the program called Ecala on a DEC PDP-10 minicomputer at Pomona College in 1973 before writing the computer role-playing game Dungeon (1975).The 2011 video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the 2016 sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided features an artificial-intelligence Picus TV Network newsreader named Eliza Cassan.In Adam Curtis's 2016 documentary, HyperNormalisation, ELIZA was referenced in relationship to post-truth.In the twelfth episode of the American sitcom Young Sheldon, aired in January 2018, starred the protagonist "conversing" with ELIZA, hoping to resolve a domestic issue.On August 12, 2019, independent game developer Zachtronics published a visual novel called Eliza, about an AI-based counseling service inspired by ELIZA. See also ELIZA effect ChatGPT Bibliography Norvig, Peter (1992), ELIZA: Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, pp. 151–154, 159, 163–169, 175, 181, ISBN 1-55860-191-0. Wardip-Fruin, Noah (2014), Expressing Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies, Cumberland: MIT Press, pp. 24–36, ISBN 978-0262517539. Weizenbaum, Joseph (1976), Computer power and human reason: from judgment to calculation, W. H. Freeman and Company, ISBN 0-7167-0463-3. Whitby, Blay (1996), "The Turing Test: AI's Biggest Blind Alley?", in Millican, Peter; Clark, Andy (eds.), Machines and Thought: The Legacy of Alan Turing, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, pp. 53–62, ISBN 0-19-823876-2, archived from the original on 2008-06-19, retrieved 2008-08-11. Further reading McCorduck, Pamela (2004), Machines Who Think (2nd ed.), Natick, MA: A. K. Peters, Ltd., ISBN 1-56881-205-1 Collection of several source code versions at GitHub dialogues with colorful personalities of early AI at the Wayback Machine (archived January 20, 2013), a collection of dialogues between ELIZA and various conversants, such as a company vice president and PARRY (a simulation of a paranoid schizophrenic) Weizenbaum. Rebel at work – Peter Haas, Silvia Holzinger, Documentary film with Joseph Weizenbaum and ELIZA. CORECURSIVE #078; The History and Mystery Of Eliza; With Jeff Shrager – Adam Gordon Bell interviews Jeff Shrager, author of the 1973/77 BASIC ELIZA, and discoverer of the original ELIZA code.

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) is one of the "big four" banks in China. In 2015, CCB was the 2nd largest bank in the world by market capitalization and 6th largest company in the world. The bank has approximately 13,629 domestic branches. In addition, it maintains overseas branches in London, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, New York City, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Santiago de Chile, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland. Its total assets reached CN¥ 8.7 trillion in 2009, and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. Its headquarters is in Xicheng District, Beijing. History CCB was founded on 1 October 1954 under the name of People's Construction Bank of China (Chinese: 中国人民建设银行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiànshè Yínháng), and later changed to China Construction Bank on 26 March 1996. It was established in order to focus on financing for investments, in the context of the People's Bank of China beginning to spin off its commercial banking functions.: 225 In January 2002, CCB Chairman Wang Xuebing resigned from the bank after being charged with accepting bribes while he was employed with Bank of China; he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In March 2005, his successor, Zhang Enzhao, resigned for "personal reasons". Just prior to his resignation, he had been charged in a lawsuit with accepting a US$1 million bribe. He was later sentenced to 15 years in jail in connection with the case.China Construction Bank Corporation was formed as a joint-stock commercial bank in September 2004 as a result of a separation procedure undertaken by its predecessor, China Construction Bank, under the PRC Company Law. Following the China Banking Regulatory Committee's approval on 14 September 2004, the next day the bank (Jianyin) became a separate legal entity, owned by the Chinese government holding company, Central Huijin Investment Company or simply Huijin. During the 2013 Korean crisis, the China Construction Bank halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.In 2015, China Construction Bank ranks the 2nd in Forbes’ 13th annual Global 2000 ranking of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world.In 2021, China Construction Bank ranks the 3rd largest bank around the world in Forbes' 2021 Global 2000 list. It ranks 5th in Forbes' 2022 Global 2000 list. Investment by Bank of America In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in China Construction Bank for US$3 billion. It represented the company's largest foray into China's growing banking sector. Bank of America currently has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and sought to expand its Chinese business as a result of this deal. On or about 5 June 2008, Bank of America purchased 6 billion H-shares for approximately HK$2.42 per share using call options under a formula in the initial acquisition agreement. Bank of America now holds about 25.1 billion H-shares, representing about 10.75% of CCB's issued shares. Bank of America may not sell the 6 billion shares that it purchased from Huijin using the call option before 29 August 2011 without prior consent of CCB. Bank of America still has the option to purchase additional shares.In May 2009, speculation was raised that US$7.3 billion worth of CCB shares had been sold by BoA after being ordered to obtain more capital following the results of the Dodd-Frank Act Annual Stress Test.On 29 August 2011, Bank of America announced it would sell approximately half its stake in CCB (13.1 billion shares worth about US$8.3 billion) to an undisclosed group of investors.In September 2013, Bank of America sold its remaining stake in the China Construction Bank for as much as $1.5 billion.In June 2017, China Construction Bank (Malaysia) signs 13 Memorandum of Understandings on its opening day in Malaysia. International expansion In 2006, CCB acquired Bank of America (Asia), which started in 1912 in Hong Kong as Bank of Canton, and had a subsidiary in Macao. CCB opened a London office on 2 June 2009. In 2008, CCB submitted an application to the New York State Banking Department and the Federal Reserve Board to establish a branch in New York City. CCB officially opened its New York branch on 6 June 2009. In 2013, CCB opened its European Headquarters in Luxembourg.In 2016, CCB Indonesia was founded by the merger between two banks: Bank Windu Kentjana and Bank Anda. Health fund China Construction Bank investment division launched a CN¥5 billion (US$731.3 million) fund called China Healthcare Investment Fund to focus on investments in China's rapidly growing healthcare sector. The fund focuses on investments in healthcare related sectors including pharmacy, medical equipment manufacturing, medical institutions and services. It is the first domestic investment fund specializing in investments in China's healthcare industry. Stock exchanges listing In late 2005, China Construction Bank made an initial public offering on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. In late 2007, it made China's second-largest initial public offering of CN¥57.12 billion (US$7.6 billion) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The bank is a component of Hang Seng Index, SSE 180 Index and other indexes of Pan-Chinese and Pan-Asia stock exchanges, such as CSI 300 Index, Hang Seng China 50 Index, FTSE China A50 Index and S&P Asia 50. The bank was also a component of the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. Awards Global 2000 Rank #2 - World's Largest Public Companies in 2016 See also Asset management in China Media related to China Construction Bank at Wikimedia Commons Business data for China Construction Bank: Official website China Construction Bank New York ccbny.com China Construction Bank Singapore China Construction Bank Frankfurt ccbff.de China Construction Bank Johannesburg ccbjhd.com China Construction Bank Korea ccbseoul.com

LilyPond is a computer program and file format for music engraving. One of LilyPond's major goals is to produce scores that are engraved with traditional layout rules, reflecting the era when scores were engraved by hand. LilyPond is cross-platform, and is available for several common operating systems; released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, LilyPond is free software and part of the GNU Project. History The LilyPond project was started in 1996 by Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen, after they decided to abandon work on MPP (MusiXTeX PreProcessor), a project they began collaborating on in 1995. Its name was inspired both by the Rosegarden project and an acquaintance of Nienhuys and Nieuwenhuizen named Suzanne, a name that means lily in Hebrew (שׁוֹשַׁנָּה). Version 1.0 LilyPond 1.0 was released on July 31, 1998, highlighting the development of a custom music font, Feta, and the complete separation of LilyPond from MusiXTeX. Version 2.0 LilyPond 2.0 was released on September 24, 2003, announcing a simplified syntax model and a much more complete set of facilities for notating various styles of music. Design LilyPond is mostly written in C++ and uses Scheme (interpreted by GNU Guile) as its extension language, allowing for user customization. It has a relatively large codebase; as of March 10, 2017, the source includes over 600,000 lines of C++, 140,000 lines of Scheme, and 120,000 lines of Python code.It uses a simple text notation for music input, which LilyPond interprets and processes in a series of stages. In the final stage, music notation is output to PDF (via PostScript) or other graphical formats, such as SVG or PNG. LilyPond can also generate MIDI files that correspond to the music notation output. LilyPond is a text-based application, so it does not contain its own graphical user interface to assist with score creation. (However, a text-editor based "LilyPad" GUI for Windows and MacOS is included by default on these systems.) It does, however, have a flexible input language that strives to be simple, easing the learning curve for new users. LilyPond adheres to the WYSIWYM paradigm; the workflow for typesetting music notation with LilyPond is similar to that of preparing documents with LaTeX. LilyPond supports experimental musical notation. Its guitar facilities support alternative tunings, such as major-thirds tuning. Software features LilyPond's primary goal is to produce output comparable to professionally engraved scores instead of output that looks mechanical and computer-generated. An essay from the LilyPond website, written by LilyPond developers, explains some typographical issues addressed by LilyPond: Optical font scaling: depending on the staff size, the design of the music font is slightly altered; this is a feature that Donald Knuth's Computer Modern font is known for. As a result, note heads become more rounded, and staff lines become thicker. Optical spacing: stem directions are taken into account when spacing subsequent notes. Special ledger line handling: ledger lines are shortened when accidentals are nearby, thus enhancing readability. Proportional spacing: notes can be positioned in such a way that exactly reflects their duration. For example, with this setting, the space between consecutive quarter notes is four times greater than between consecutive sixteenth notes. Overview of input syntax The native input language for LilyPond is comprehensive, and consists of many commands needed for expressing any sort of articulation, dynamic, meter, etc. It is similar to that of TeX. The ability to embed Scheme code within a LilyPond source file permits arbitrary extensions to the input language and assists with algorithmic composition. Some general syntactic features are listed below. Single-line comments begin with a percent sign %. are represented in pitch-duration format: pitch is specified with Helmholtz pitch notation, and duration is specified with a numeral based system. The semantics of the pitch-duration format change depending on the active input mode; this is explained in depth in the LilyPond manual. For example, in absolute mode, a'4 is an A, one octave up from the base A (A3 in scientific pitch notation), of quarter note length. Commands usually begin with a backslash (such as \time, or \slurUp). The function of the command in question determines where the command is placed; for example, if the command is used to indicate a fixed dynamic on a specific note, it is placed after the note. Some common commands are represented symbolically to ease typing. One example is with slurs, where ( and ) indicate the beginning and ending of a slur, respectively. Another example is with manual beaming, where [ and ] indicate the extent of the beam.LilyPond's interface with Pango requires the input character encoding to be UTF-8. One benefit of this is that more than one language can be included in the same source file. Example of LilyPond input file Corresponding output More complex output Lilypond can also create extensively customised output. An example is the short extract of a Karlheinz Stockhausen piano piece below. Collaboration with other projects Several graphical scorewriters—such as Rosegarden, NoteEdit, Canorus, Denemo, and TuxGuitar—can export files directly to LilyPond format. Other graphical applications serve as front ends to LilyPond, including Frescobaldi and the LilyPondTool plugin for jEdit. Denemo integrates the PDF output of LilyPond in its display, allowing some editing operations on the final typeset score. The Mutopia Project, which distributes free content sheet music, uses LilyPond to typeset its music, as does Musipedia, a collaborative music encyclopedia. Emacs' org-mode contains support for embedding LilyPond scores into documents.OOoLilyPond, a LibreOffice extension provides support for calling LilyPond to embed scores into documents. Integration into MediaWiki Lilypond is available in MediaWiki via the Score extension code. This, for example, transforms the notation into The above excerpt is a simplified version of Solfeggio in C Minor by C.P.E. Bach. More complex scores, including lyrics, are also possible within MediaWiki wikis. See Pastime with Good Company for an example of this. Integration into text using lilypond-book Integration of lilypond musical elements into various document formats (both TeX-based systems such as LaTeX and Texinfo, and also DocBook and HTML pages) is natively supported through the companion program lilypond-book, developed and maintained by the LilyPond community. This allows users to embed musical elements within texts, such as musicology, song booklets, work sheets for teaching, and school examinations. Integration into LaTeX For integration into the LaTeX document preparation system, lyLuaTeX has been developed as a LuaLaTeX package to embed musical elements within texts. It includes features for matching layout and appearance of the musical elements with the surrounding text document. Music elements may consist of music symbols, song lyrics, guitar chords diagrams, lead sheets, music excerpts, guitar tablatures, or multi-page scores. Comparison to other scorewriters Finale and Sibelius are two proprietary scorewriters often compared to LilyPond. Andrew Hawryluk, a LilyPond user, wrote a series of articles comparing output quality between Finale and LilyPond.Another scorewriter with comparable features to LilyPond is SCORE, but SCORE relies on manual positioning more than Lilypond does. See also Official website "lyluatex – Commands to include lilypond scores within a (Lua)LATEX document". Retrieved April 16, 2020.

Yummy Yummy (Chinese: 雅米雅米, also known as Food for Life) is an episodic drama filmed by Singapore's now defunct SPH MediaWorks and Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Limited in a joint collaboration. It was released in August 2005. The series is notable for being one of the few Singaporean co-productions in a language other than English or Mandarin Chinese. Synopsis After meeting on game show called Yummy Yummy, five contestants keep in touch and become friends. They face with a number of challenges as they attempt to open a restaurant together, but in the end their friendships persevere. Daniel Yau (Raymond Lam Fung) is the only son of a wealthy restaurant owner. Chan Ka Lok (Kevin Cheng Ka Wing) is a poor, but nice boy who works at his family's shop that sells chickens. Mandy Chow (Charmaine Sheh Shi Man) is an orphan who learned to be independent after her parents were divorced and her mother died. Yan Chow (Tavia Yeung Yi) is the younger sister of Mandy and loves to eat dried foods, especially dried lemons. Mandy and Yan did not know they were sisters until they became good friends. Terry Ng (Ben Yeo Chee Long) lives in Singapore with his bossy mother and quiet father. Terry joined Yummy Yummy because he discovered that the contestants would receive the chance to go to Hong Kong. Terry's girlfriend, Jane lived in Hong Kong and he wanted to find her. Chan Ka Bo (Natalie Tong Si Wing) is the younger sister of Chan Ka Lok. She met Terry because he was one of her brother's good friends. Yuko Leong (Michelle Chia Yun-Ee) is the only daughter of a wealthy businessman. She is a rich, spoiled girl who lived in Singapore. Daniel met Yuko while the contestants of Yummy Yummy visited Singapore. She accused Daniel of scratching her BMW because she saw him touching the scar on her car. In the game show, Chan Ka Lok, Daniel Yau, Terry Ng and Yan Chow are on the yellow team. Mandy Chow is one of the managers of Yummy Yummy. In the end, they found out that they have something in common. Cast Other cast Mimi Chu Peter Yu Chen Huihui Shaun Chen as Wu Shilong Adam Chen as Rambo Lynn Poh Michelle Chia as Yuko Leong Natalie Tong Awards and nominations 2007 Astro WLT TV Drama Awards-Favorite Characters-Yau Hock Lai(Raymond Lam), Chan Ga Lok (Kevin Cheng) and Mandy Chow Man Hei (Charmaine Sheh)

Riit (ᕇᑦ) is the stage name of Rita Claire Mike-Murphy, a Canadian Inuk musician and television personality from Pangnirtung, Nunavut who is most noted as the host of APTN's children's series Anaana's Tent.As Riit, she released her self-titled debut EP, a collaboration with The Jerry Cans and producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda, in 2017 on Aakuluk Music. In 2019 she released the single "Qaumajuapik", and performed the song live on CBC Radio One's Q in May. Her album Ataataga, produced by Graham Walsh, was released in October 2019 on Six Shooter Records. The album was a Juno Award nominee for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2020, and was a longlisted nominee for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize. Her song "#uvangattauq" was shortlisted for the 2020 SOCAN Songwriting Prize.She won the Emerging Talent Award from the Youth Media Alliance in 2019 for her work on Anaana's Tent.In 2020 she appeared as a duet vocalist on Terry Uyarak's single "Anuri".

The Microsoft Store is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 (at the time known as the Windows Store) as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With Windows 10, Microsoft merged its other distribution platforms (Windows Marketplace, Windows Phone Store, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Xbox Store, and a web storefront also known as "Microsoft Store") into Microsoft Store, making it a unified distribution point for apps, console games, and digital videos. Digital music was included until the end of 2017, and E-books were included until 2019.As with other similar platforms, such as the Google Play and Mac App Store, Microsoft Store is curated, and apps must be certified for compatibility and content. In addition to the user-facing Microsoft Store client, the store has a developer portal with which developers can interact. Microsoft takes 5–15% of the sale price for apps and 30% on Xbox games. Prior to January 1, 2015, this cut was reduced to 20% after the developer's profits reached $25,000. In 2021, 669,000 apps were available in the store. Categories containing the largest number of apps are "Books and Reference", "Education", "Entertainment", and "Games". The majority of the app developers have one app. History The Web-based storefront Microsoft previously maintained a similar digital distribution system for software known as Windows Marketplace, which allowed customers to purchase software online. The marketplace tracked product keys and licenses, allowing users to retrieve their purchases when switching computers. Windows Marketplace was discontinued in November 2008. At this point, Microsoft opened a Web-based storefront called "Microsoft Store". Windows 8 Microsoft first announced Windows Store, a digital distribution service for Windows at its presentation during the Build developer conference on September 13, 2011. Further details announced during the conference revealed that the store would be able to hold listings for both certified traditional Windows apps, as well as what were called "Metro-style apps" at the time: tightly-sandboxed software based on Microsoft design guidelines that are constantly monitored for quality and compliance. For consumers, Windows Store is intended to be the only way to obtain Metro-style apps. While announced alongside the "Developer Preview" release of Windows 8, Windows Store itself did not become available until the "Consumer Preview", released in February 2012.Updates to apps published on the store after July 1, 2019, are no longer available to Windows 8 RTM users. Per Microsoft lifecycle policies, the RTM version of Windows 8 has been unsupported since January 12, 2016, excluding some Embedded editions, as well its server equivalent, Windows Server 2012. Windows 8.1 An updated version of Windows Store was introduced in Windows 8.1. Its home page was remodeled to display apps in focused categories (such as popular, recommended, top free and paid, and special offers) with expanded details, while the ability for apps to automatically update was also added. Windows 8.1 Update also introduced other notable presentation changes, including increasing the top app lists to return 1000 apps instead of 100 apps, a "picks for you" section, and changing the default sorting for reviews to be by "most popular". Updates to apps published on the Store after June 30, 2023, are no longer available to Windows 8.1. Per Microsoft lifecycle policies, the Windows 8.1 Update reached the end of its extended support on January 10, 2023, excluding some Embedded editions, as well its server equivalent, Windows Server 2012 R2. Windows 10 Windows 10 was released with an updated version of the Windows Store, which merged Microsoft's other distribution platforms (Windows Marketplace, Windows Phone Store, Xbox Video and Xbox Music) into a unified store front for Windows 10 on all platforms, offering apps, games, music, film, TV series, themes, and ebooks. In June 2017, Spotify became available in the Windows Store. In September 2017, Microsoft began to re-brand Windows Store as Microsoft Store, with a new icon carrying the Microsoft logo. Xbox Store was merged into this new version of the platform. This is in line with Microsoft's platform convergence strategy on all Windows 10-based operating systems. Web apps and traditional desktop software can be packaged for distribution on Windows Store. Desktop software distributed through Windows Store are packaged using the App-V system to allow sandboxing.In February 2018, Microsoft announced that Progressive Web Apps would begin to be available in the Microsoft Store, and Microsoft would automatically add selected quality progressive web apps through the Bing crawler or allow developers to submit Progressive Web Apps to the Microsoft Store.Starting from Windows 10 version 1803, fonts can be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Store. Windows 11 In Windows 11, Microsoft Store received an updated user interface, and a new pop-up designed to handle installation links from websites. Microsoft also announced a number of changes to its policies for application submissions to improve flexibility and make the store more "open", including supporting "any kind of app, regardless of app framework and packaging technology", and the ability for developers to freely use first- or third-party payment platforms (in non-game software only) rather than those provided by Microsoft. Windows Server The Microsoft Store is not installed by default in Windows Server 2012 or later versions of Windows Server. Apps that would normally be available in the Store can be installed through sideloading. Store features Microsoft Store is the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps to users. Sideloading apps from outside the store is supported on Windows 10 on an opt-in basis, but Windows 8 only allows sideloading to be enabled if the device is running the Enterprise edition of Windows 8 on a domain. Sideloading on Windows RT, Windows 8 Pro, and on Windows 8 Enterprise computers without a domain affiliation, requires the purchase of additional licenses through volume licensing. Individual developers are able to register for US$19 and companies for US$99.Initially, Microsoft took a 30% cut of app sales until it reached US$25,000 in revenue, after which the cut dropped to 20%. On January 1, 2015, the reduction in cut at $25,000 was removed, and Microsoft takes a 30% cut of all app purchases, regardless of overall sales. As of August 1, 2021, Microsoft only takes a 12% cut of app sales. Third-party transactions are also allowed, of which Microsoft does not take a cut. Windows apps and games In 2015, over 669,000 apps were available on the store, including apps for Windows NT, Windows Phone, and UWP apps, which work on both platforms. Categories containing the largest number of apps are "Games", "Entertainment", "Books and Reference", and "Education". The majority of the app developers have one app. Both free and paid apps can be distributed through Microsoft Store, with paid apps ranging in cost from US$0.99 to $999.99. Developers from 120 countries can submit apps to Microsoft Store. Apps may support any of 109 languages, as long as they support one of 12 app certification languages.From 2016 to 2019, most Microsoft Studios games ported to PC were distributed exclusively via Microsoft Store. Microsoft later abandoned this strategy in May 2019, amid criticism of limitations faced by UWP-based games, and a desire to also sell games on competing storefronts such as Steam. The new Xbox app subsequently became the main frontend for PC games available via Microsoft Store, and also integrates subscription service PC Game Pass. Movies and TV shows Movies and television shows are available for purchase or rental, depending on availability. Content can be played on the Microsoft Movies & TV app (available for Windows 10, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Xbox X/S), or Xbox Video app (available for Windows 8/RT PCs and tablets, and Windows Phone 8). In the United States, a Microsoft account can be linked to the Movies Anywhere digital locker service (separate registration required), which allows purchased content to be played on other platforms (e.g. MacOS, Android, iOS). Microsoft Movies & TV is currently available in the following 21 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The purchase of TV shows is not currently supported in Belgium. Former features Music On October 2, 2017, Microsoft announced that the sale of digital music on the Microsoft Store would cease on December 31 after the discontinuation of Groove Music Pass. Users were able to transfer their music to Spotify until January 31, 2018. Books Books bought from the Microsoft Store were formerly accessible on the EdgeHTML-based Microsoft Edge. The ability to open ePub e-books was removed during the shift to the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge. On April 2, 2019, Microsoft announced that the sale of e-books on the Microsoft Store had ceased. Due to DRM licenses that would not be renewed, all books became inaccessible by July 2019, and Microsoft automatically refunded all users that had purchased books via the service. Guidelines and developers Similar to Windows Phone Store, Microsoft Store is regulated by Microsoft. Applicants must obtain Microsoft's approval before their app becomes available on the store. These apps may not contain, support or approve, gratuitous profanity, obscenity, pornography, discrimination, defamation, or politically offensive content. They may also not contain contents that are forbidden by or offensive to the jurisdiction, religion or norms of the target market. They may also not encourage, facilitate or glamorize violence, drugs, tobacco, alcohol and weapons. Video game console emulators that are "primarily gaming experiences or target Xbox One" and third-party web browsers that use their own layout engines, are prohibited on Microsoft Store.Microsoft has indicated that it can remotely disable or remove apps from end-user systems for security or legal reasons; in the case of paid apps, refunds may be issued when this is done.Microsoft initially banned PEGI "18"-rated content from the store in Europe. However, critics noted that this made the content policies stricter than intended, as some PEGI 18-rated games are rated "Mature" on the U.S. ESRB system, which is the next lowest before its highest rating, "Adults Only". The guidelines were amended in December 2012 to remove the discrepancy.On October 8, 2020, Microsoft announced a commitment to ten "principles" of fairness to developers in the operation of the Microsoft Store. These include transparency over its rules, practices, and Windows' "interoperability interfaces", not preventing competing application storefronts to run on Windows, charging developers "reasonable fees" and not "forc[ing]" them to include in-app purchases, allowing access to the store by any developer as long as their software meets "objective standards and requirements", not blocking apps based on their business model, how it delivers its services, or how it processes payments, not impeding developers from "communicating directly with their users through their apps for legitimate business purposes", not using private data from the store to influence the development of competing for software by Microsoft, and holding its own software to the same standards as others on the store. The announcement came in the wake of a lawsuits against Apple, Inc. and Google LLC by Epic Games over alleged anticompetitive practices conducted by their own application stores.With the release of Windows 11, Microsoft announced that it would not require software (excluding games) distributed via Microsoft Store to use its own payment platforms, and that it will also allow third-party storefronts (such as Amazon Appstore—which will be used for its Android app support, and Epic Games Store) to offer their clients for download via Microsoft Store. Developer tools In addition to the user facing Microsoft Store client, the store also has a developer portal with which developers can interact. The Windows developer portal has the following sections for each app: App Summary - An overview page of a given app, including a downloads chart, quality chart, financial summary, and a sales chart. App Adoption - A page that shows adoption of the app, including conversions, referrers, and downloads. App Ratings - A ratings breakdown, as well as the ability to filter reviews by region. App Quality - An overview page showcasing exceptions that have occurred in the app. App Finance - A page where a developer can download all transactions related to their app.Microsoft Store provides developer tools for tracking apps in the store.The dashboard also presents a detailed breakdown of users by market, age, and region, as well as charts on the number of downloads, purchases, and average time spent in an app. See also List of Microsoft software Mac App Store, equivalent platform on macOS Microsoft website

Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Google's Android operating system, built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development. It is available for download on Windows, macOS and Linux based operating systems. It is a replacement for the Eclipse Android Development Tools (E-ADT) as the primary IDE for native Android application development. Android Studio was announced on May 16, 2013, at the Google I/O conference. It was in early access preview stage starting from version 0.1 in May 2013, then entered beta stage starting from version 0.8 which was released in June 2014. The first stable build was released in December 2014, starting from version 1.0. At the end of 2015, Google dropped support for Eclipse ADT, making Android Studio the only officially supported IDE for Android development.On May 7, 2019, Kotlin replaced Java as Google's preferred language for Android app development. Java is still supported, as is C++. Features The following features are provided in the current stable version: Gradle-based build support Android-specific refactoring and quick fixes Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility and other problems ProGuard integration and app-signing capabilities Template-based wizards to create common Android designs and components A rich layout editor that allows users to drag-and-drop UI components, option to preview layouts on multiple screen configurations Support for building Android Wear apps Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, enabling integration with Firebase Cloud Messaging (Earlier 'Google Cloud Messaging') and Google App Engine Android Virtual Device (Emulator) to run and debug apps in the Android studio.Android Studio supports all the same programming languages of IntelliJ (and CLion) e.g. Java, C++, and more with extensions, such as Go; and Android Studio 3.0 or later supports Kotlin, and "all Java 7 language features and a subset of Java 8 language features that vary by platform version." External projects backport some Java 9 features. While IntelliJ states that Android Studio supports all released Java versions, and Java 12, it's not clear to what level Android Studio supports Java versions up to Java 12 (the documentation mentions partial Java 8 support). At least some new language features up to Java 12 are usable in Android.Once an app has been compiled with Android Studio, it can be published on the Google Play Store. The application has to be in line with the Google Play Store developer content policy. Version history The following is a list of Android Studio's major releases: System requirements These features includes requirements for IDE + Android SDK + Android Emulator. Windows: x86_64 CPU architecture; 2nd generation Intel Core or newer, or AMD CPU with support for a Windows Hypervisor; macOS: ARM-based chips, or 2nd generation Intel Core or newer with support for Hypervisor.Framework; Linux: x86_64 CPU architecture; 2nd generation Intel Core or newer, or AMD processor with support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) and SSSE3; Windows: CPU with UG (unrestricted guest) support; Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM) 6.2.1 or later (HAXM 7.2.0 or later recommended).The use of hardware acceleration has additional requirements on Windows and Linux: Intel processor on Windows or Linux: Intel processor with support for Intel VT-x, Intel EM64T (Intel 64), and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality; AMD processor on Linux: AMD processor with support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) and Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSSE3); AMD processor on Windows: Android Studio 3.2 or higher and Windows 10 April 2018 release or higher for Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) functionality.For an attached webcam to work with Android 8.1 (API level 27) and higher system images, it must have the capability to capture 720p frames. Official homepage at developer.android.com

Di Nü Hua is a fictional Chinese story about Princess Changping of the Ming Dynasty and her husband/lover, Zhou Shixian. The first known story was a Kunqu script written in the Qing Dynasty, while the second version was a Cantonese opera from the early 1900s later found in Japan and Shanghai. Little information is available from this early 1900s version. The contemporary prevailing version, not meant to be historically accurate, comes from the second Cantonese opera script. The story unfolds as Princess Changping and Zhou Shixian are introduced to each other, participating in an arranged marriage. They meet and get engaged with the blessing of their parents. Her father, the emperor, is overthrown by Li Zicheng. To save herself, the Princess hides as a nun in a monastery, but she happens to meet Zhou again. After being found by the new regime (the Qing dynasty), she follows Zhou's plan to eventually commit suicide. Zhou formulates a plan to make sure that her father is properly buried (without asking for a proper burial ceremony) while her little brother is released to safety. Zhou returns alone to negotiate with the new regime using the bargaining power vested in him by a written request from her. Once the new regime makes good on these promises, the couple return to her former home for a wedding ceremony. They take poison on their wedding night in the palace garden where they first meet. Adaptations Based on the Kunqu version and other publications, Playwright Tang Ti-sheng adaptation of this into a Cantonese opera script debuted in the Lee Theatre on 7 June 1957. Actresses Yam Kim Fai and Bak Sheut Sin were members of the original cast in leading roles. These two actresses played the leads until 1961 and then only sporadically from 1962 to 1970. In October 2007, Yuen Siu Fai, as the Princess's father in 2006/7 performances in Hong Kong and Macau (40 total) schooled one academic on a radio broadcast. The talk show is available online (in Cantonese). Translation: This title has become this popular today mostly by word of mouth since the mid-1960s; staged at Kai De Amusement Park Cantonese Opera Theatre. The performances of Chor Fung Ming throughout the 1970s and 1980s in newly developed satellite cities and towns were very well received. The role of male lead is extremely heavy by design and demonstrates the ‘masculine’ traits of Yam style (e.g. Chinese: 走鑼邊花). The more organic actors/actresses in this role would find it more emotionally demanding. It was non-stop and exhausting after intermission.While most well-known Tang works cater to the female leads, this is an exception. The importance of Zhou Shixian, instead of the Princess, in this 1957 version is also unique compared to other versions such as Eternal Regret of Dynasty Ming (Chinese: 《明末遺恨》) and How Jing-ngo Slew the Tiger (Chinese: 《貞娥刺虎》), both of Peking opera. Notable performances Loong Kim Sang 2019 From 28 November 2019 to 14 December 2019, the Loong Kim Sang performance commemorated 30 years since the passing of her mentor Yam Kim Fai. Peking opera 2018 According to Yu Kuizhi, this production was inspired by the (late 2006 to early 2007) performances at the Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong. Yu talked specifically how much the 2006 performance of Loong Kim Sang impressed him and addressed Loong as sensei (meaning accomplished, to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill) throughout that event. Films/CD/DVD A film starring some of the Cantonese opera original cast was released in 1959, while the album of full 4-hour stage version was released in 1960. In 1976, the film titled Prince Chang Ping was directed by John Woo, starring the Chor Fung Ming (Young Phoenix) Cantonese Opera Troupe along Leung Sing Bor and Lang Chi Bak. A live recording of the stage performance by Chor Fung Ming (Young Phoenix) Cantonese Opera Troupe in December 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of debut is available in DVD/CD. TV TV stations, in Hong Kong as well as Taiwan, have a few productions, sometimes renamed, relating to the 1957 version. In 1981, ATV Home adapted the play into a television drama titled Princess Cheung Ping (Chinese: 武侠帝女花), in a wuxia setting, starring Damian Lau, Michelle Yim and David Chiang. In 2003, TVB produced Perish in the Name of Love, a television series loosely based on the original play. Steven Ma and Charmaine Sheh starred in the leading roles. Summary 1959 Film - Dinü hua at IMDb, Story by Disheng Tang. 1976 Film - Princess Chang Ping at IMDb, directed by John Woo, Story by Disheng Tang. 1981 ATV Home production - Renamed :(Chinese: 武俠帝女花) 1994 Taiwan production - Renamed in PRC as :(Chinese: 亂世不了情 translated as Luan Shi Bu Le Qing) by Director: Lai Kin-kwok (Chinese: 賴建國), starring Cecilia Yip and Angie Chiu as the male lead and female lead respectively. 2003 TVB production Perish in the Name of Love 2008 50th Anniversary DVD (Live Recording of Stage Production) 1959 film The Flower Princess at IMDb The Flower Princess at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase1976 film The Flower Princess at IMDb The Flower Princess at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase

Pangnirtung (or Pang, also Pangniqtuuq, in syllabics: ᐸᖕᓂᖅᑑᖅ IPA: [paŋniqtuːq]) is an Inuit hamlet, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, located on Baffin Island. The community is located about 45 km (28 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, and about 2,700 km (1,700 mi) from the North Pole. Pangnirtung is situated on a coastal plain at the coast of Pangnirtung Fjord, a fjord which eventually merges with Cumberland Sound. As of January 2022, the mayor is Stevie Komoartok. Name There is some confusion about the village name. Residents say the real name is Pangniqtuuq, which means "the place of many bull caribou". Early in 2005 residents voted against officially changing the name of the village to the native one, as Pangnirtung has achieved an international reputation. Its residents have created high-quality traditional arts in sculpture, as well as adaptation of themes and design in printmaking and weaving. Pangnirtung is nicknamed the Switzerland of the Arctic, or simply Pang. History The Inuit and their ancestors, Paleo-Eskimo, have inhabited the area for thousands of years, perhaps up to 4000 years. Their cultures became well-adapted to the climate and environment. Contact with European Canadians has been limited to less than the last century. In 1921, the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post in Pangnirtung. Two years later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police erected a permanent office. The first government-appointed teacher arrived in 1956. The first administrative office was established in 1962. Since then, numerous Inuit have achieved success with marketing their traditional arts. They transformed traditional drawing skills to produce lithographs and other forms of prints, allowing reproduction and wider distribution of their work. Other artists have made sculptures and carvings in local stone. Since the government established a weaving studio in 1970, many Inuit have learned to weave and are producing tapestries and other works that find an international market. Demographics In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Pangnirtung had a population of 1,504 living in 396 of its 456 total private dwellings, a change of 1.6% from its 2016 population of 1,481. With a land area of 7.98 km2 (3.08 sq mi), it had a population density of 188.5/km2 (488.1/sq mi) in 2021. Economic development The community operates a turbot fishery. In 2008, the federal government budgeted for the construction of a harbour. Pangnirtung Fisheries Limited operates a packing plant to process local turbot catches. Founded in 1992 during peak summer operations the company has over 40 employees during peak season.Auyuittuq Lodge is the hamlet's only hotel, which comprises 25 rooms, shared facilities, a dining room, and a lounge. Local services Power is supplied to Pangnirtung via standalone diesel generators operated by Qulliq Energy. Fuel is imported via tanker and stored in a tank farm near the Pangnirtung Airport. The purchase of diesel fuel is the responsibility of the government of Nunavut.Water, sewage, and garbage services are provided by the municipality of Pangnirtung. Water trucks fill up at a reservoir adjacent to the hamlet and deliver seven days a week. Sewage is pumped out and treated at the municipal treatment plant. Garbage is picked up five days a week and transported to a landfill that slowly deteriorates due to Arctic temperatures.For emergency services it is protected by the 14-member Pangnirtung Fire Department. The fire service uses one pumper with one older reserve from one station. Policing is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pangnirtung Detachment attached to V Division.Mini C, The North West Company (Northern Store), Pangnirtung Inuit Co-op and Co-op Express are the only local retailers and grocery options. KFC Express, Pizza Hut and Co-op Express are the only fast food restaurants in the hamlet. Perishable goods are shipped by air and all other items by sealift when waters are ice-free. Banking is done through the Co-op or money ordersGasoline for cars or snowmobiles is done at the Quickstop or the Co-op. Education There are two schools in Pangnirtung: Alookie Elementary School - kindergarten to Grade 5 Attagoyuk Ilisavik High School - Grades 6 to 12Post secondary-studies opportunities can be made through Nunavut Arctic College's Community Learning Centre. Recreation Aksayuk Arena is a sports and recreational centre. Transportation Like all Nunavut communities Pangnirtung is a fly-in community with no road access to the rest of Nunavut. Pangnirtung Airport provides the only viable means of access. There are gravel roads in the community and residents use SUV's, pickup trucks, 4-wheel ATV's and snowmobiles. Places of worship Two churches can be found in Pangnirtung: St. Luke's Anglican Church Full Gospel (Pentecostal) Church Health Basic medical services are available at the Health Centre. Four beds are available for assessment only, with advance care via medevac to Iqaluit. Nearby Pangnirtung Pangnirtung is the nearest town (1 hour by boat) to Auyuittuq National Park and the location of one of two park offices, the other is in Qikiqtarjuaq. Located near to the Parks Canada office is the Angmarlik Visitor Centre. Iglunga, now uninhabited, is an Inuit hamlet, just south of Iglunga Island, is about 65 km (40 mi) to the west. Small craft harbour In 2009, the then Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, proposed building a new modern harbour in Pangnirtung to support the region's turbot-fishing industry. Harper received a warm welcome with many residents gathered at the airport to greet him. The town's 1,500 residents listened as Harper announced that $17 million worth of harbour construction promised in the last two budgets would get under way in the fall of that year. Harper said the greatest potential for the hamlet's future lies in the inshore turbot fishery. The shortfalls of the previous harbour were a big problem for fishermen: When the tide ebbed, the harbour turned to mud. The work on the harbour was completed in September 2013. The entire project ended up costing about $40.5 million. The improvements to the harbour include a fixed wharf, breakwater, marshalling area, sea lift ramp and a dredged channel and basin. The improvements will allow residents to unload their catches faster by allowing smaller crafts to dock easily and safely. Broadband communications The community has been served by the Qiniq network since 2005. Qiniq is a fixed wireless service to homes and businesses, connecting to the outside world via a satellite backbone. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by SSI Micro. In 2017, the network was upgraded to 4G LTE technology, and 2G-GSM for mobile voice. In popular culture The 2022 Canadian Inuit science fiction film Slash/Back was filmed in Pangnirtung. It was directed by Nyla Innuksuk in her feature debut, and starred largely local actors recruited for the film. Notable residents Image gallery See also List of municipalities in Nunavut Further reading Uqqurmiut Inuit Artist Association Hamlet of Pangnirtung official website. Geoffrey Secord photo collection of Pangnirtung (1953-1955) Fur trade post under construction, Pangnirtung Fiord 1921

Beanie may refer to: Headgear Beanie (seamed cap), in parts of North America, a cap made from cloth often joined by a button at the crown and seamed together around the sides Beanie, a knit cap, in Britain, Australia, South Africa and parts of Canada and the United States (also known as a toque) Beanie, any type of headgear unsuitable for safe motorcycling People Richard Dalley, American ice dancer Beanie Ebert (1902–1980), American football player Beanie Feldstein (b. 1993), American actress and singer Beanie Sigel (b. 1974), American rapper born Dwight Grant H. M. Walker (1878–1937), American writer for silent and early talking films and newspaper sports writer Beanie Wells (b. 1988), American football running back Les Witte (1911–1973), American basketball Wilbur Soot (b. 1996), English Twitch streamer and YouTuber Arts, entertainment, and media The Beanies, an Australian children's band and podcast Beanie Babies, a popular stuffed toy animal line, launched in 1993 Ben "Beanie" Harper, a character on the soap opera Love of Life Beany, title character of the children's programs Time for Beany, Beany and Cecil, and The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil Beeny, a hamlet in England Beaney, a surname All pages with titles beginning with Beanie All pages with titles containing Beanie

Smörgåsbord (Swedish: [ˈsmœ̂rɡɔsˌbuːɖ] , roughly translates to “sandwich-table”) is a buffet-style meal of Swedish origin. It is served with various hot and cold dishes. Smörgåsbord became internationally known at the 1939 New York World's Fair when it was offered at the Swedish Pavilion "Three Crowns Restaurant". It is typically a celebratory meal and guests can help themselves from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant the term refers to a buffet-style table laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes. Etymology In Northern Europe, the term varies between "cold table" and "buffet": In Norway it is called koldtbord or kaldtbord, in Denmark det kolde bord (literally "the cold table"), in the Faroe Islands, kalt borð (cold table); in Germany kaltes Buffet and in the Netherlands koud buffet (literally "cold buffet"); in Iceland it is called hlaðborð ("loaded/covered table"), in Estonia it is called Rootsi laud ("Swedish table") or puhvetlaud ("buffet table"), in Latvia aukstais galds ("the cold table"), in Finland voileipäpöytä ("butter-bread/sandwich table") or ruotsalainen seisova pöytä ("Swedish standing table/buffet"). In Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, it is a called "shvedskyj stol" ("Swedish table") (Cyrillic: Шведский стол) or "zakusochnyj stol" ("snack table") (Cyrillic: закусочный стол) or "kholodnyj stol"("cold table") (Cyrillic: холодный стол). In Central and Eastern Europe each language has a term meaning "Swedish table". In Japan it is referred to as バイキング / ヴァイキング (baikingu / vaikingu, i.e. "Viking"). The Swedish word smörgåsbord consists of the words smörgås ("sandwich", usually open-faced) and bord ("table"). Smörgås in turn consists of the words smör ("butter", cognate with English smear) and gås (literally "goose", but later referred to the small pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of cream while it was churned). The small butter pieces were just the right size to be placed and flattened out on bread, so smörgås came to mean "buttered bread". In Sweden, the term att bre(da) smörgåsar ("to spread butter on open-faced sandwiches") has been used since at least the 16th century. In English the word smorgasbord refers loosely to any buffet with a variety of dishes and is not necessarily used to reference traditional Swedish cuisine. In Sweden, smörgåsbord instead refers to a buffet consisting mainly of traditional dishes. The buffet concept remains popular in Sweden even outside of its traditional presentation. Buffets are for example commonly served at larger private gatherings consisting of any type of food, or at fika with a variety of pastries. For restaurants in Sweden of various types of Asian cuisine it is common to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet (in particular for lunch customers), and is referred to with the more generic term buffé ("buffet"). In an extended sense, the word is used to refer to any situation which invites patrons to select whatever they wish from an abundant selection, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a bookstore, etc. Smörgåsbord and julbord A traditional Swedish smörgåsbord consists of both hot and cold dishes. Bread, butter, and cheese are always part of the smörgåsbord. It is customary to begin with cold fish dishes, which are generally various forms of herring, salmon, and eel. After eating the first portion, people usually continue with the second course (other cold dishes), and round off with hot dishes. Dessert may or may not be included in a smörgåsbord. Julbord A special Swedish type of smörgåsbord is the julbord (literally "Yule/Christmas table"). The classic Swedish julbord is central to traditional Swedish cuisine. A traditional julbord is typically eaten buffet-style in five to seven courses (depending on local and family traditions). The first three courses are usually fish courses. The first plate is an assortment of different pickled herrings served with sour cream and chives. The second is a variety of cold fish, particularly several kinds of lox (e.g. gravlax); the third plate is hot fish dishes, particularly lutfisk. Other traditional dishes are (smoked) eel, rollmops, herring salad, baked herring, smoked salmon, smoked char and shellfish canapés, accompanied by sauces and dips. The fourth course is often a selection of cold sliced meats, the most important cold cut being Christmas ham (julskinka) with mustard. Other traditional cuts include smoked sausages, leverpastej, wild game cuts, smoked leg of lamb (fårfiol), pâtés and several types of brawn (sylta). It is also common to serve the cold meats with sliced cheese, pickled cucumbers and soft (vörtbröd) and crispbreads.The fifth course consists of warm dishes (småvarmt). Traditionally, the fifth course begins with soaking bread in the stock from the Christmas ham, which is called dopp i grytan. Warm dishes include Swedish meatballs (köttbullar), small fried hot-dog-type sausages (prinskorv), roasted pork ribs (revbensspjäll), pork sausages (fläskkorv), potato sausages (potatiskorv), and Janssons frestelse (literally "Jansson's Temptation"; a warm potato casserole), matchstick potatoes layered with cream, onion and sprats. Side dishes include beetroot salad in mayonnaise and warm stewed red, green or brown cabbage and boiled potatoes. The sixth and seventh courses are a cheese plate and a dessert plate. Julbord cheeses include Stilton, Cheddar, västerbottenost and Christmas Edam cheese (edammer). Desserts include rosettes (struvor), klenäts (klenäter), polkagrisar, knäck, dates, figs, ischoklad, saffron buns, mandelmusslor, gingerbread cookies, marzipan figures, different kinds of nuts, risalamande, and, most importantly, rice pudding (risgrynsgröt) sprinkled with cinnamon powder. Traditionally, an almond is hidden in the bowl of rice pudding and whoever finds it receives a small prize or is recognised for having good luck. A julbord often also include local and family specialties. Among them are isterband, baked beans, omelette with shrimps or mushrooms covered with béchamel sauce, äggost, saffranspannkaka, långkål, rörost, ostkaka, kroppkakor and julgädda. Beer and the occasional snaps, brännvin or akvavit are common beverages served with this Christmas meal. The seasonal soft drink julmust is also served at the julbord, as well as during the whole Christmas holiday. The Christmas ham is either boiled or broiled and then painted and glazed with a mixture of egg, breadcrumbs and mustard. Lutfisk, lyed fish made of stockfish (dried ling or cod), is served with boiled potato, thick white sauce or mustard sauce, green peas and sometimes cubed bacon. More and more families opt to eat lutfisk as dinner the day before or after Christmas Eve rather than as a dish among other at the julbord. Julbord is served from early December until just before Christmas at restaurants and until Epiphany in some homes. It is traditional for most Swedish and Norwegian workplaces to hold an annual julbord between November and January. History The members of the Swedish merchant and upper class in sixteenth-century Sweden and Finland served schnapps table (brännvinsbord), a small buffet presented on a side table offering a variety of hors d'oeuvres served prior to a meal before sitting at the dinner table. The most simple brännvinsbord was bread, butter, cheese, herring and several types of liqueurs; but smoked salmon, sausages and cold cuts were also served. The brännvinsbord was served as an appetizer for a gathering of people and eaten while standing before a dinner or supper, often two to five hours before dinner, sometimes with the men and women in separate rooms. The smörgåsbord became popular in the mid-seventeenth century, when the food moved from the side table to the main table and service began containing both warm and cold dishes. Smörgåsbord was also served as an appetizer in hotels and later at railway stations, before the dining cars time for the guests. During the 1912 Olympic Games, restaurants in Stockholm stopped serving smörgåsbord as an appetizer and started serving them instead as a main course. Since March 2020, many smörgåsbords were suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as there are restaurants offering take-away or delivery. In small towns in parts of the Canadian prairies a communal potluck called a smörgåsbord is a common event organized by local service organizations to raise money for needy causes. Willing individuals in town will commit to providing various desserts and side dishes while the service organization will be responsible for providing the main course(s). This often includes roast beef, pork, and turkey, a variety of boiled vegetables, potatoes and gravy. Typically these are heavily attended events held on a weekend, often over multiple days drawing people from surrounding small towns, each of which can count on a similar attendance from neighboring towns and villages when they hold their own smörgåsbord. See also Swedish cuisine – Culinary traditions of Sweden Korean table d'hôte – Korean buffet-style meal Zakuski – Russian term for appetizers served before meals Boodle fight – Military practice of eating a communal meal in the PhilippinesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine The essential Julbord from Radio Sweden including recipes History of Smörgåsbord, Smörgåsbord table setting and etiquette The Julbord Food Guide from Swedish to English Smorgasbord 2, in the videogame DELTARUNE

In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in retail stores as a part of sales promotions. They are often widely distributed through mail, coupon envelopes, magazines, newspapers, the Internet (social media, email newsletter), directly from the retailer, and mobile devices such as cell phones. The New York Times reported "more than 900 manufacturers' coupons were distributed" per household, and that "the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that four families in five use coupons. "Only about 4 percent" of coupons received were redeemed. Coupons can be targeted selectively to regional markets in which price competition is great. Most coupons have an expiration date, although American military commissaries overseas honor manufacturers' coupons for up to six months past the expiration date. Pronunciation The word is of French origin, pronounced [kupɔ̃]. In Britain, the United States, and Canada it is pronounced KOO-pon. A common alternate American pronunciation is KEW-pon. History Origin During the great famine of 18 AH (638 CE), Umar, the second ruler of the Islamic Caliphate, introduced several reforms such as the introduction of food rationing using coupons, which were given to those in need and could be exchanged for wheat and flour. Coca-Cola's 1888-issued "free glass of" is the earliest documented coupon. Coupons were mailed to potential customers and placed in magazines. It is estimated that between 1894 and 1913 one in nine Americans had received a free Coca-Cola, for a total of 8,500,000 free drinks. By 1895 Coke was served in every state in the United States.In 1929, Betty Crocker began a loyalty points program and began issuing coupons that could be used to redeem for premiums like free flatware. In 1937 the coupons were printed on the outside of packages. The loyalty program ended in 2006, one of the longest loyalty programs.In Australia consumers first came in contact with couponing when a company called Shopa Docket promoted offers and discounts on the back of shopping receipts in 1986. Types and uses Coupons offer different types of values, such as discounts, free shipping, buy-one get-one, trade-in for redemption, first-time customer coupons, free trial offer, launch offers, festival offers, and free giveaways. Similarly, there are varied uses of coupons which include: to incentivize a purchase, reduce a price, provide a free sample, or to aid marketers in understanding the demographics of their customer. Function Coupons can be used to research the price sensitivity of different groups of buyers (by sending out coupons with different dollar values to different groups). Time, location and sizes (e.g. five pound vs. 20 pound bag) affect prices; coupons are part of the marketing mix. So is knowing about the customer. Grocery coupons Grocery coupons come in two major types: store coupons: issued by the store itself. Some stores will also accept store coupons issued by competitors. Coupons issued by the manufacturer of a product may be used at any coupon-accepting store that carries that product. Part of their function is to advertise their offerings and attract new customers.Some grocery stores regularly double or even triple the value of coupons to bring customers into their stores. Periodic special events double or triple coupon values on certain days or weeks. Conveyance Coupons exist in more than one form, and are acquired by customers in a variety of ways. Paper Historically, verifying the discount offered has been via presenting coupons clipped from newspapers or received in the mail. Some retailers and companies use verification methods such as unique barcodes, coupon ID numbers, holographic seals, and watermarked paper as protection from unauthorized copying or use. Other than newspapers, there are also coupon book publishers and retailers who compile vouchers and coupons into books, either for sale or free. Electronic By the mid-1990s, "couponing had also moved to the internet." An early term was clipless coupons. Later on the term "downloadable coupons" came into use. Options include: Internet coupons: Online retailers often refer to these as "coupon codes", "promotional codes", "promotion codes", "discount codes", "keycodes", "promo codes", "surplus codes", "portable codes", "shopping codes", "voucher codes", "reward codes", "discount vouchers", "referral codes" or "source codes". These are typed in before the sale is finalized. Marketers can use different codes for different channels or groups in order to differentiate response rates. Free shipping and cashback are additional inducements. Mobile: Smartphone based, these are often distributed via WAP Push over SMS or MMS, and presented at the store or online. These also have advertising benefits even after their expiration date. Apps: Related to classic coupons are loyalty cards; these have increasingly been superseded by mobile apps.Iranian government national rations has a mobile app. Taxation Depending on the jurisdiction, coupons may or may not reduce the sales tax which must be paid by the consumer. The most consumer-friendly tax situation taxes the actual price paid, including when the store does double and triple coupon reductions.The above applies when the retailer is the source of the coupon, since the product is offered at the post-coupon price. In jurisdictions seeking to tax more, if the coupon is issued by the manufacturer, the original price is still paid but some of the price is covered by the manufacturer instead of the consumer and the full price remains taxable. Trading Coupon manufacturers may or may not place restrictions on coupons limiting their transferability to ensure the coupons stay within the targeted market. Since such restrictions are not universal and are difficult and/or costly to enforce, limited coupon trading is tolerated in the industry. Organized coupon exchange clubs are commonly found in regions where coupons are distributed. Often coupons are available for purchase at some online sites, but since most coupons are not allowed to be sold, the fee is considered to be for the time and effort put into cutting out the coupons. Some types of coupons may be sold. The New York Times not only said "the traffic is legal" regarding selling airline discount coupons, but wrote "check the commercial notices column in The New York Times or the classified advertising section under 'Miscellaneous') in The Wall Street Journal.During war time or economic hardships, trading or selling ration coupons is an economic crime. See also Canadian Tire money Coupon (bond) Drug coupon Extreme Couponing Trading stamp Split payment Media related to coupons at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of coupon at Wiktionary

Robloxis an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in 2006, the platform hosts user-created games of multiple genres coded in the programming language Lua. For most of Roblox's history, it was relatively small, both as a platform and as a company. Roblox began to grow rapidly in the second half of the 2010s, and this growth has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.Roblox is free to play, with in-game purchases available through a virtual currency called Robux. As of August 2020, Roblox had over 164 million monthly active users, including more than half of all American children under 16. Although Roblox has received generally positive reviews from critics, it has faced criticism for its moderation, microtransactions, and allegedly economically exploitative practices toward children. Overview Roblox Studio Roblox allows players to create their own games using its proprietary engine, Roblox Studio, which can then be played by other users. Games (called "experiences" by the corporation) are made with a derivative of the language Lua named Luau. Users are able to create purchasable content through one-time purchases, known as "game passes", as well as microtransactions which can be purchased more than once, known as "developer products" or "products". The majority of games produced using Roblox Studio are developed by minors, and a total of 20 million games a year are produced using it. Items and currency Roblox allows players to buy, sell, and create virtual items which can be used to decorate their virtual character that serves as their avatar on the platform. Only Roblox administrators can sell accessories, body parts, gear, and packages under the official Roblox user account; virtual hats and accessories can also be published by a select few users with past experience working with Roblox Corporation. Several individuals design items as a full-time job, with the highest-earning creators making over $100,000 a year off item sales. Items with a limited edition status can only be traded between or sold by users with a Roblox Premium membership. These limited items have a Recent Average Price (RAP), with the value of the item fluctuating based off its demand. Selling these items for real-world money is against the Roblox terms of service, but this does not stop people from doing so through black market sites and communities, in which these items are often exchanged for payment methods such as cryptocurrency or sometimes PayPal. Previously, Roblox would release these limited items themselves until in April 2023 when they introduced the "UGC Limiteds" feature, allowing for a select group of creators on the platform to design and sell user-generated limited items. These UGC limiteds cannot be traded but, however, can be resold after a 30-day holding period.Robux allows players to buy various items, and are obtained by purchase with real currency, from a recurring stipend given to members with a Premium membership, and from other players by producing and selling virtual content in Roblox. Prior to 2016, Roblox had another currency, Tix (short for "Tickets"), that was discontinued in April of that year. Robux acquired through the sale of user-generated content can be exchanged into real-world currency through the website's Developer Exchange system. Roblox scams There are a sizable amount of scams relating to Roblox, largely revolving around automated messages promoting scam websites, scam games designed to appear to give out free Robux, and invalid Robux codes. In the Roblox community, there are people known as "beamers" who compromise Roblox accounts to steal and sell their items on black markets. They employ various techniques, such as creating phishing websites or ploys to acquire a victim's login token. Once they gain access to the victim's account, these "beamers" steal and subsequently sell valuable limited items owned by the victims for real-world currency or cryptocurrency through marketplace sites or Discord chatrooms. The slang term "beaming" is commonly used to describe this entire process, along with the victim having been "beamed". Roblox does offer hacking victims a "rollback" for their items, although this is only offered once per account. Events Roblox occasionally hosts real-life and virtual events. They have in the past hosted events such as BloxCon, which was a convention for ordinary players on the platform. Roblox operates annual Easter egg hunts and also hosts an annual event called the "Bloxy Awards", an awards ceremony that also functions as a fundraiser. The 2020 edition of the Bloxy Awards, held virtually on the platform, drew 600,000 viewers. Roblox Corporation annually hosts the Roblox Developers Conference, a three-day invite-only event in San Francisco where top content creators on the site learn of upcoming changes to the platform. The company has also hosted similar events in London and Amsterdam.Roblox occasionally engages in events to promote films, such as ones held to promote Wonder Woman 1984 and Aquaman. In 2020, Roblox hosted its first virtual concert, which was compared by Rolling Stone to that of American rapper Travis Scott's virtual concert in Fortnite, during which American rapper Lil Nas X debuted his song "Holiday" to an audience of Roblox players. In 2021, Swedish singer Zara Larsson performed songs at a virtual party to celebrate her the reissuing of her album Poster Girl. On September 17, 2021, a virtual concert by the American band Twenty One Pilots took place. In October 2021, Roblox partnered with Chipotle Mexican Grill to give $1 million of burritos away to the first 30,000 people every day as a part of Chipotle's Halloween Boorito promotion. History and development The beta version of Roblox was created by co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 under the name DynaBlocks. Baszucki started testing the first demos that year. In 2005, the company changed its name to Roblox, and it officially launched on September 1, 2006. In March 2007, Roblox became compliant with COPPA, with the addition of safe chat, a change that limited the communication ability of users under the age of 13 by restricting them to selecting predefined messages from a menu. In August, Roblox applied server improvements and released a premium membership service named "Builders Club". This paid membership feature was rebranded as Roblox Premium in September 2019.In December 2011, Roblox held its first Hack Week, an annual event where Roblox developers work on outside-the-box ideas for new developments to present to the company. On December 11, 2012, an iOS version of Roblox was released, and on July 16, 2014, an Android version was released. On October 1, 2013, Roblox released its Developer Exchange program, allowing developers to exchange Robux earned from their games into real-world currencies.On May 31, 2015, a feature called 'Smooth Terrain' was added, increasing the graphical fidelity of the terrain and changing the physics engine from a block-oriented style to a smoother and more realistic one. On November 20, Roblox was launched on Xbox One, with an initial selection of 15 games chosen by Roblox staff. New Roblox games for the Xbox One have to go through an approval process and are subject to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board standards.In April 2016, Roblox launched Roblox VR for Oculus Rift. At the time of release, more than ten million games were available in 3D. Around the same time period, the safe chat feature was removed and replaced by a system based on a whitelist with a set of acceptable words for users under 13 years old and a set of blacklisted words for other users. In June, the company launched a version compatible with Windows 10. While the game platform has had a presence on the PC since 2004, when its web version was created, this was the first time it was upgraded with a standalone launcher built for Windows.Throughout 2017, Roblox engaged in a number of updates to its server technology, as the technology they were operating on until that point was out of date and led to frequent outages. Also in 2017, Roblox closed its official forums. In November 2018, the ability for a player to play as a "guest", without an account, which had been progressively restricted over the previous two years, was removed entirely. In July 2020, Roblox announced the creation of “Party Place”, which functions as an online hangout. The feature was created using new technology that had been used during the 2020 Bloxy Awards and was designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Roblox was granted permission to release in China on December 3, 2020. In October 2021, Roblox experienced its longest downtime to date, with services being unavailable for three days.In December 2021, Roblox shut down its Chinese servers, stating that they were attempting to create "another version" of the app that allowed Chinese players to access the platform. In July 2022, an archive of internal documents related to the platform's activities in China were leaked by an unidentified hacker. This document revealed that the Roblox Corporation had planned to roll out a variety of changes to the platform in order to comply with Chinese internet censorship laws, and that prior to shutting their operations in China they had been concerned that Tencent would hack the platform and attempt to set up a competitor.In September 2022, Roblox Corporation announced that it planned to add an age rating system, which would allow for moderate portrayals of violence in games flagged as suitable for players aged 13 and over. The company stated that it was wanting to increase the platform's appeal to a young adult audience of users 17–24, which it stated was the fastest-growing demographic on Roblox. On June 20, 2023, Roblox started allowing games rated as only for players 17 years and over, which are permitted to have more graphic violence, romantic themes, and alcohol usage.On July 27, 2023, Roblox was released as a public beta for the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. The beta was downloaded over one million times within five days.In September 2023, it was announced that Roblox would be made available on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 the following month, with the Meta Quest versions being made publicly available later in September. Community and culture Activism Users of Roblox have been noted for their efforts against racism, with numerous regular users and co-founder Baszucki having declared their support for the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter. In August 2019, an investigation by NBC News revealed over 100 accounts linked to far-right and neo-Nazi groups. After being contacted about the accounts by NBC, Roblox moderators removed them. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Roblox in numerous ways. Due to quarantines imposed by the pandemic limiting social interaction, Roblox is being used as a way for children to communicate with each other. One of the most noted ways that this method of communication is being carried out is the phenomenon of birthday parties being held on the platform. COVID-19 has caused a substantial increase in both the platform's revenue and the number of players on it, in line with similar effects experienced by the majority of the gaming industry, as players forced to remain indoors due to COVID-19 lockdowns spent more time playing video games.The Roblox platform has also been used to stage virtual religious processions in lieu of in-person ceremonies due to quarantine restrictions, such as a server by devotees of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila where models based on the icon of the Black Nazarene and other icons were made. Similar virtual processions and religious ceremonies have also been staged by various Roman Catholic parishes in the Philippines and other countries by religious youth organizations. "Oof" sound effect From its release until November 2020, Roblox's sound effect for when a character dies was a sound commonly transcribed and titled as "oof", which became a substantial part of the platform's reputation due to its status as a meme. The sound was originally produced by Joey Kuras for the studio of video game composer Tommy Tallarico for the video game Messiah produced in 2000. This caused the two to enter a copyright dispute, which ended in 2022 when Roblox pulled the sound from their platform and replaced it with a new one. Reception and revenue Critical reception Roblox has generally received positive reviews. Common Sense Media gave it 4 out of 5 stars, praising the website's variety of games and ability to encourage creativity in children while finding that the decentralized nature of the platform meant game quality varied, and recommended disabling chat functions for young players to prevent possibly harmful interactions. Patricia E. Vance of the Family Online Safety Institute advised parents to monitor their child's interactions on the platform but praised the platform for "…allowing kids to play, explore, socialize, create and learn in a self-directed way", and granting special praise to Roblox Studio for its ability to encourage children to experience game development. Trusted Reviews, in its overview of the platform, also praised Roblox Studio, stating that “for anyone seeking to develop their computer science skills, or create projects that will instantly receive feedback from a huge audience, the appeal is obvious”. Craig Hurda, writing in Android Guys, gave a more moderate review, praising the number of games available and finding that the game was entertaining for children, while also finding that the platform's audio was "hit-or-miss" and declaring that it had limited appeal for adult players. Criticism Roblox has received widespread criticism for its chat filtration system. Although Roblox's filtration system, Community Sift, censors and removes most inappropriate messages and content, some can still avoid the system. To combat these issues, Roblox has 1,600 people working to remove such content from the platform. Roblox offers privacy settings; parents can limit what people a user can contact, restrict access to private servers, and turn on parental controls.Though sexual content is prohibited on Roblox, the platform has received substantial criticism for the presence of sexually explicit games and imagery within it. This content includes items such as virtual sex clubs and nightclubs, with creators of said content largely communicating through third-party platforms which cannot be regulated by Roblox moderators. A 2020 investigation by Fast Company found that sexual content was still prevalent within Roblox, with attempts by moderators to remove it being likened to "whack-a-mole", though it was also found that the situation had generally improved in the recent years prior to the report. In an October 2022 interview, Roblox Chief Scientist Morgan McGuire stated that it's "a challenge to moderate 3D," and also compared moderating Roblox to shutting down speakeasys.Roblox has also been criticised for making it easy for children to spend large sums of money through microtransactions, leading to numerous instances where children have spent large sums of money on the platform without parents' knowledge, and deleting the accounts of players who file chargebacks or request refunds for Robux payments through their banks, card issuers or other third-party companies. Professor Jane Juffer at Cornell University accused Roblox of encouraging consumerism in children.Roblox has been accused by the investigative journalism YouTube channel People Make Games of "exploiting" child game developers by promising them huge amounts of money when they monetize their games, while only giving them little to no money in return by having high revenue cuts, an exchange rate in selling Robux lower than the rate for buying Robux, and lack of methods to make their games easily discoverable. This was likened to company scrip. In a discussion with Axios, Roblox’s chief product officer (CPO) Manuel Bronstein responded by saying that Roblox intends to give more money to its community developers. After Roblox requested the channel to take down the video, People Make Games released further accusations of practices endangering child safety, accusing the platform of practices such as a lack of oversight of developers and a method for people to address developer abuse, leading to child developers being exploited for labor on third-party platforms, allowing a developer to seemingly continue monetizing and having control of game development despite having their personal account banned for reportedly sexually preying on a child, running the collectibles market to function like gambling, and refusing to help a developer whose account was hacked and had its collectibles and assets stolen and encouraging children to seek unofficial and unsafe trading sites to easily obtain highly valuable items.In April 2022, Truth in Advertising filed a complaint against Roblox with the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive marketing, mainly failing to disclose when advertising is present, such as with advergames and brand ambassadors. As a response, in March 2023, Roblox started hiding advertisements from users under the age of 13. Games Due to its status as a games platform, Roblox has a variety of popular games. As of May 2020, the most popular games on Roblox had over 10 million monthly active players each. As of August 2020, at least 20 games had been played more than one billion times, and at least 5,000 have been played more than one million times. TechCrunch noted in March 2021 that Roblox games are largely distinct from established traditions in free-to-play video games, finding that successful Roblox games were geared towards immediate satisfaction, and finding that the addition of tutorials significantly decreased player engagement, contrary to established wisdom about free-to-play games. Companies have used Roblox as a platform for advergames promoting their products. Revenue During the 2017 Roblox Developers Conference, officials said that creators on the game platform, of which there were about 1.7 million as of 2017, collectively earned at least $30 million in 2017. The iOS version of Roblox passed $1 billion of lifetime revenue in November 2019, $1.5 billion in June 2020, and $2 billion in October 2020, making it the iOS app with the second-highest revenue. Several individual games on Roblox have accumulated revenues of over $10 million, while developers as a whole on the platform were collectively projected to have earned around $250 million over the course of 2020. It became the third highest-grossing game of 2020, with a revenue of $2.29 billion, below the Tencent titles PUBG and Honor of Kings. Toy lines In January 2017, toy fabricator Jazwares partnered with Roblox Corporation to produce toy minifigures based on user-generated content created by developers on the platform. The minifigures have limbs and joints similar to that of Lego minifigures, though they are about twice the size. The minifigures have limbs and accessories that are interchangeable. The sets included a code that was used to redeem virtual items, as well as blind boxes that contained random minifigures. In 2019, Jazwares released a new line of toys, branded as the "Roblox Desktop" series. On April 13, 2021, Roblox partnered with Hasbro to release Roblox-themed Nerf blasters and a Roblox-themed Monopoly edition. Official website

MedlinePlus is an online information service produced by the United States National Library of Medicine. The service provides curated consumer health information in English and Spanish with select content in additional languages. The site brings together information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations. There is also a site optimized for display on mobile devices, in both English and Spanish. In 2015, about 400 million people from around the world used MedlinePlus. The service is funded by the NLM and is free to users. MedlinePlus provides encyclopedic information on health and drug issues, and provides a directory of medical services. MedlinePlus Connect links patients or providers in electronic health record (EHR) systems to related MedlinePlus information on conditions or medications. PubMed Health was another NLM site that offered consumer health information, in addition to information for health professionals. However, "PubMed Health, a portal for systematic reviews as well as consumer health information, was discontinued on October 31, 2018. The same or similar content is being provided through other NLM resources, namely PubMed and Bookshelf (for systematic review content), and MedlinePlus (for consumer health information)." History The National Library of Medicine has long provided programs and services for professional medical scientists and health care providers, including MEDLINE and the various services that access it, such as PubMed and Entrez. By the 1990s, more members of the general public were using these services as Internet access became widespread. But nonprofessional users could benefit from reliable health information in a layperson-accessible format. The National Library of Medicine introduced MedlinePlus in October 1998, to provide a non-commercial online service similar, for example, to the commercial WebMD. In 2010 another NCBI service, PubMed Health, complemented MedlinePlus in offering curated consumer health information; PubMed Health focuses especially on finding information about clinical effectiveness of treatments.MedlinePlus initially provided 22 health topics in English, which expanded to almost 1000 health topics in English and Spanish, plus links to health information in over 40 languages. MedlinePlus was recognized by the Medical Library Association for its role in providing health information. The site scored 84 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for 2010.In 2000s, A.D.A.M.'s medical encyclopedia was incorporated into MedlinePlus. The "Animated Dissection of Anatomy for Medicine, Inc." is a NASDAQ-traded public company based in Atlanta, Georgia, that provides consumer health information and benefits technology products to healthcare organizations, employers, consumers, and educational institutions. Key features The MedlinePlus website provides information in text-based webpages as well as in videos and tools. Other ways to access to access MedlinePlus content include MedlinePlus Mobile, which is a point-of-care tool for clinicians, and MedlinePlus Connect, which connects to Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Official website

La Toma (Spanish: The taking) was a legal declaration made by Don Juan de Oñate on 30 April 1598 in present-day San Elizario, Texas. It stated that Spain was taking possession of all territory north of the Rio Grande for King Philip II of Spain. La Toma was the requerimiento legally justifying Oñate's subsequent conquest of the Pueblo villages as the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. W. H. Timmons. "Texas Historical Association - Oñate Expedition". Retrieved 2020-12-04.

Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerations or a written musical tradition. In this context, the terms "serious" or "cultivated" are frequently used to present a contrast with ordinary, everyday music (i.e. popular and folk music, also called "vernacular music"). Many cultures have art music traditions; in the Western world the term typically refers to Western classical music. Definition In Western literature, "Art music" is mostly used to refer to music descending from the tradition of Western classical music. Musicologist Philip Tagg refers to the elitism associated with art music as one of an "axiomatic triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics". He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. According to Bruno Nettl, "Western classical music" may also be synonymous with "art music", "canonic music", "cultivated music", "serious music", as well as the more flippantly used "real music" and "normal music". Musician Catherine Schmidt-Jones defines art music as "a music which requires significantly more work by the listener to fully appreciate than is typical of popular music". In her view, "[t]his can include the more challenging types of jazz and rock music, as well as Classical".The term "art music" refers primarily to classical traditions (including contemporary as well as historical classical music forms) that focus on formal styles, invite technical and detailed deconstruction and criticism, and demand focused attention from the listener. In strict western practice, art music is considered primarily a written musical tradition, preserved in some form of music notation, as opposed to being transmitted orally, by rote, or in recordings (like popular and traditional music). Popular music There have been continual attempts throughout the history of popular music to make a claim for itself as art rather than as popular culture, and a number of music styles that were previously understood as "popular music" have since been categorized in the art or classical category. According to the academic Tim Wall, the most significant example of the struggle between Tin Pan Alley, African-American, vernacular, and art discourses was in jazz. As early as the 1930s, artists attempted to cultivate ideas of "symphonic jazz", taking it away from its perceived vernacular and black American roots. Following these developments, histories of popular music tend to marginalize jazz, partly because the reformulation of jazz in the art discourse has been so successful that many (as of 2013) would not consider it a form of popular music.At the beginning of the 20th century, art music was divided into "serious music" and "light music". During the second half of the century, there was a large-scale trend in American culture toward blurring the boundaries between art and pop music. Beginning in 1966, the degree of social and artistic dialogue among rock musicians dramatically accelerated for bands who fused elements of composed music with the oral musical traditions of rock. During the late 1960s and 1970s, progressive rock bands represented a form of crossover music that combined rock with high art musical forms either through quotation, allusion, or imitation. Progressive music may be equated with explicit references to aspects of art music, sometimes resulting in the reification of rock as art music.While progressive rock is often cited for its merging of high culture and low culture, few artists incorporated literal classical themes in their work to any great degree, as author Kevin Holm-Hudson explains: "sometimes progressive rock fails to integrate classical sources ... [it] moves continuously between explicit and implicit references to genres and strategies derived not only from European art music, but other cultural domains (such as East Indian, Celtic, folk, and African) and hence involves a continuous aesthetic movement between formalism and eclecticism". See also List of classical and art music traditions Art song Music genre Progressive music Traditional music Further reading Church, Michael, ed. (2015). The Other Classical Musics: Fifteen Great Traditions. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-726-8. Miller, Terry E.; Sam, Sam-ang (Spring–Summer 1995). "The Classical Musics of Cambodia and Thailand: A Study of Distinctions". Ethnomusicology. 39 (2): 229–243. doi:10.2307/924427. JSTOR 924427. Rockwell, John (26 June 1983). "Popular Music Takes a Serious Turn". The New York Times. Media related to Art music at Wikimedia Commons

eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base founded in 1996 by doctors Scott Plantz and Jonathan Adler, and computer engineer Jeffrey Berezin. The eMedicine website consists of approximately 6,800 medical topic review articles, each of which is associated with a clinical subspecialty "textbook". The knowledge base includes over 25,000 clinically multimedia files. Each article is authored by board certified specialists in the subspecialty to which the article belongs and undergoes three levels of physician peer-review, plus review by a Doctor of Pharmacy. The article's authors are identified with their current faculty appointments. Each article is updated yearly, or more frequently as changes in practice occur, and the date is published on the article. eMedicine.com was sold to WebMD in January, 2006 and is available as the Medscape Reference. History Plantz, Adler and Berezin evolved the concept for eMedicine.com in 1996 and deployed the initial site via Boston Medical Publishing, Inc., a corporation in which Plantz and Adler were principals. A Group Publishing System 1 (GPS 1) was developed that allowed large numbers of contributors to collaborate simultaneously. That system was first used to create a knowledge base in emergency medicine with 600 contributing MDs creating over 630 chapters in just over a year. In 1997 eMedicine.com, Inc. was legally spun off from Boston Medical Publishing. eMedicine attracted angel-level investment from Tenet Healthcare in 1999 and a significant VC investment in 2000 (Omnicom Group, HIG Capital). Several years were spent creating the tables of contents, recruiting expert physicians and in the creation of the additional 6,100+ medical and surgical articles. The majority of operations were based out of the Omaha, Nebraska, office. In the early 2000s Plantz and Lorenzo also spearheaded an alliance with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to accredit eMedicine content for physician, nursing, and pharmacy continuing education. In 2005, eMedicine entered into discussions for acquisition. The board of directors unanimously recommended approval for sale of the company to WebMD. The sale was completed in January 2006. The site is free to use, requiring only registration. eMedicine content could also be accessed as an e-book, and could be downloaded into a palm top device.In 2018, the founders of eMedicine began StatPearls, an international collaboration to further improve medical education, with stated goal of creating a free, comprehensive, online medical educational database and providing medical professionals with affordable continuing medical education credits. Usage among specialists In 2012 Volsky et al. evaluated the most frequently used internet information sources by the public, (1) identifying the three most frequently referenced Internet sources; (2) comparing the content accuracy of each of the three sources and (3) ascertaining user-friendliness of each site; and (4) informing practitioners and patients of the quality of available information. They found Wikipedia, eMedicine, and MedlinePlus (United States National Library of Medicine (NLM)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) were the most referenced sources. For content accuracy, eMedicine scored highest (84%; p<0.05) over MedlinePlus (49%) and Wikipedia (46%). The highest incidence of errors and omissions per article was found in Wikipedia (0.98±0.19), twice more than eMedicine (0.42±0.19; p<0.05). Errors were similar between MedlinePlus and both eMedicine and Wikipedia. On ratings for user interface, which incorporated Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Level and Flesch Reading Ease, MedlinePlus was the most user-friendly (4.3±0.29). This was nearly twice that of eMedicine (2.4±0.26) and slightly greater than Wikipedia (3.7±0.3). All differences were significant (p<0.05). There were seven topics for which articles were not available on MedlinePlus. They concluded "Knowledge of the quality of available information on the Internet improves pediatric otolaryngologists' ability to counsel parents. The top web search results for pediatric otolaryngology diagnoses are Wikipedia, MedlinePlus, and eMedicine. Online information varies in quality, with a 46–84% concordance with current textbooks. eMedicine has the most accurate, comprehensive content and fewest errors, but is more challenging to read and navigate. Both Wikipedia and MedlinePlus have lower content accuracy and more errors; however, MedlinePlus is simplest of all to read, at a 9th grade level. Significantly for eMedicine, Laraway and Rogers used PubMed, Medline Medical Journals.com and eMedicine as primary sources of information. This is significant because Medline is the compendium of all NIH-sponsored research. eMedicine is made up of articles translating the body of current research in Medline into clinical practice guidelines from the perspective of each subspeciality.Cao, Liu, Simpson, et al revealed that Medline and eMedicine were used as primary resources in developing the online system AskHERMES. Physicians were asked to solve complex clinical problems using three different sources of information: AskHermes, Google and UpToDate. Surveys of the physicians who used all three systems were asked to score the three systems by ease of use, quality of answer, time spent, and overall performance.A 2009 study showed that "89.1% of ophthalmologist respondents accessed peer-reviewed material online, including Emedicine (60.2%)."A 2007 study showed that 12% of radiology residents used eMedicine as their first source when doing research on the Internet.A 2005 study ranking 114 sites rated it the second-highest Internet-based source of information for pediatric neuro-oncology, after the site of the National Cancer Institute.A 2002 study described the site's coverage of dermatology as "excellent and comprehensive."In 2000 an article in the Journal of Ear Nose and Throat by AD Meyers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, announced the unveiling of the ENT textbook online at emedicine.com. eMedicine website

The Chengdu J-10 Vigorous Dragon (Chinese: 歼-10 猛龙; pinyin: Jiān-10 Měnglóng; NATO reporting name: Firebird), is a medium-weight, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft capable of all-weather operations, configured with a delta wing and canard design, with fly-by-wire flight controls, and produced by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF). The J-10 is mainly designed for air-to-air combat, but can also perform strike missions. Development In 1981, PLAAF Commander Zhang Tingfa submitted a proposal to Deng Xiaoping for the development of a third-generation fighter for RMB 500 million; it was accepted later that year by the Central Military Commission (CMC). It was the first Chinese aircraft program to incorporate modern development and acquisition processes. In one departure from the past, the supplier was now responsible directly to the customer; this allowed the PLAAF to communicate its requirements and ensure they were met; previously suppliers were responsible to their managing agency, which could produce products that failed to meet end user requirements. Another difference was the selection of a design through competition, rather than allocating a project to an institute and using whatever design that institute created.Design proposals were made by the three major aircraft design institutes. Shenyang's proposal was based on its cancelled J-13 with a F-16-like strake-wing. Hongdu's proposal was MiG-23/Su-24-like with variable-sweep wing. Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute's (CADI) proposal was a Saab 37 Viggen-like design based on its cancelled J-9. CADI's proposal was selected in February 1984. The following month, CADI and Chengdu Fighter Factory were formally directed to develop and manufacture the aircraft, respectively. Song Wencong (宋文骢) became chief designer.The engine was selected during the design proposal stage. Candidates were an improved Woshan WS-6, the WP-15, or a new engine. The new engine, ultimately the Shenyang WS-10, was chosen in 1983.The State Council and the CMC approved the program in 1986, code-naming it "No. 10 Project". Interest waned in the following years which constrained funding and prolonged development. The Gulf War renewed interest and brought adequate resourcing. Unlike earlier programs, the J-10 avoided crippling requirement creep.Technical development was slow and difficult. The J-10 represented a higher level of complexity than earlier generations of Chinese aircraft. About 60% of the aircraft required new technology and parts, instead of - according to Chengdu - the usual 30% for new aircraft; the high proportion reflected both requirements and limited domestic capability. Development and modernization of China's aviation industry occurred alongside the J-10; the program was an early Chinese user of digital design, modelling, and testing including computer-aided design (CAD) and computational fluid dynamics. The J-10 was the first Chinese aircraft to make major use of computer-aided design (CAD) for its structural design, allowing the detailed design to be completed in 1994. The hydraulics system was tested with physical models because of limited digital modelling capabilities.The first J-10 was assembled in June 1997. Lei Qiang flew the first flight on 23 March 1998; Lei was chosen for his experience with modern, foreign, third-generation aircraft. PLA training units received the J-10 ahead of schedule starting in 2003. Weapons tests occurred in the fall of that year. The design was finalized in 2004. Rumors of crashes during flight testing were actually mishaps related to the AL-31 engine.The J-10 became operational in 2006. It was officially unveiled by the Chinese government in January 2007, when photographs were published by Xinhua News Agency.The Siberian Aeronautical Research Institute (SibNIA) from Russia was involved in the program by 2016. According to SibNIA, it was only observing and instructing as "scientific guides".According to the images posted by China National Radio of a PLAAF live-firing exercise at an unspecified location in May 2021, J-10C Vigorous Dragons were equipped with distinctive exhaust nozzles of the WS-10B Taihang turbofan engine. This marks the first time the WS-10 has been officially seen on an operational J-10. Disputed origins In 1988 Israel's defense minister denied a report by the Sunday Times of London that Israel and China had agreed to develop a fighter derived from the IAI Lavi, a project based on the F-16. In 2006, Russia's SibNIA engineers believed that the J-10 was "more or less a version" of the Lavi, incorporating "a melting pot of foreign technology and acquired design methods... but there are a number of other pieces of other aircraft or technologies that are part of the configuration that they have acquired from different sources." In 2008, Janes claimed that the J-10 benefited from technical information from the Israeli project, citing senior Russian engineers who said they had heard this from Chinese colleagues.The Chinese assert J-10's features claimed to be from the Lavi are from the manufacturer's own previous aircraft design, for example attributing the J-10's Lavi-like double canard configuration to Chengdu's work on the cancelled J-9 of the 1960s and 1970s; this view is supported by Song Wencong, who worked on the J-9 and became the J-10's chief designer, and PLAAF Major General Zhang Weigang. Design The J-10 was designed and developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (CADI), a subsidiary of Chengdu Aircraft Corporation. Airframe The airframe is constructed from metal alloys and composite materials for high strength and low weight, the airframe's aerodynamic layout adopts a "tail-less canard delta" wing configuration. A large delta wing is mid-mounted towards the rear of the fuselage, while a pair of canards (or foreplanes) are mounted higher up and towards the front of the fuselage, behind and below the cockpit. This configuration provides very high agility, especially at low speeds, and also reduces stall speed, allowing for a lower airspeed during instrument approaches. A large vertical tail is present on top of the fuselage and small ventral fins underneath the fuselage provide further stability.On J-10A, a rectangular air intake ramp and a splitter plate are located underneath the fuselage, providing the air supply to the engine. Newer variants, including J-10B and J-10C use a diverterless intake that does not require a splitter plate, and may reduce radar cross signature. Under the fuselage and wings are 11 hardpoints, used for carrying various types of weaponry and drop-tanks containing extra fuel. The retractable undercarriage comprises a steerable pair of nose-wheels underneath the air intake and two main gear wheels towards the rear of the fuselage. The cockpit is covered by a two-piece bubble canopy providing 360 degrees of visual coverage for the pilot. The canopy lifts upwards to permit cockpit entry and exit. The Controls take the form of a conventional centre stick and a throttle stick located to the left of the pilot. These also incorporate "hands on throttle and stick" (HOTAS) controls. A zero-zero ejection seat is provided for the pilot, permitting safe ejection in an emergency even at zero altitude and zero speed.Due to the J-10's aerodynamically unstable design, a digital quadruplex-redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS) aids the pilot in flying the aircraft. The FCS typically monitors pilot control inputs, preventing the pilot from accidentally exiting the flight envelope from applying too much control input during high performance flight situations. This is critical in canard wing aircraft, as they are capable of turning in a much tighter radius than conventional aircraft. The massive control surfaces are capable of moving so far that they can completely destroy the aircraft in flight at high airspeeds if not kept in check by the FCS. Avionics The cockpit has three liquid crystal (LCD) Multi-function displays (MFD) along with a Chinese developed holographic head-up display (HUD), all of which are fully compatible with a domestic Chinese advanced helmet mounted sight (HMS), claimed by Chinese to be superior to the HMS on the Sukhoi Su-27 sold to China. Radar According to Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation officials the J-10 uses a multi-mode fire-control radar designed in China. The radar has a mechanically scanned planar array antenna and is capable of tracking 10 targets. Of the 10 targets tracked, 2 can be engaged simultaneously with semi-active radar homing missiles or 4 can be engaged with active radar homing missiles.For J-10B, the nose cone is modified to accommodate an active phased array airborne radar (AESA) radar. The general designer of AESA for J-10B is Mr. Zhang Kunhui (张昆辉, 1963 -), the head of 607 Research Institute in Neijiang, Sichuan. Mr. Zhang Kunhui became the deputy head of 607th Research Institute in 1997, and four years later in 2001, he became the head of the institute, when the AESA program for J-10B started. The primary contractor of this AESA is the Radar and Electronic Equipment Research Academy of Aviation Industry Corporation of China located in Sichuan, formed in March 2004 by combining the 607th Research Institute and 171st Factory together with Mr. Zhang Kunhui was named as the head of the research academy. According to Chinese governmental media, the AESA for J-10B took 8 years to develop, finally completed in 2008, and Chinese fighter radars hence achieved a quantum leap in that it went from mechanically scanned planar slotted array directly into AESA, skipping the passive phased array PESA radar. Many suspected the radar is a PESA, but during its brief debuts in the 7th China International Defense Electronics Exhibition (CIDEX) in May 2010 and the 6th International Conference on Radar held in Beijing in Sept 2011, Chinese official sources have claimed it is an AESA. Propulsion The J-10 is powered by a single turbofan. The J-10A entered production with the Russian Salyut AL-31FN. The initial version generated a maximum static thrust of 12,500 kgf (123 kN; 28,000 lbf). In December 2013, Salyut reported it was testing an upgraded AL-31FN Series 3 for China with 250 hours more life and 1000 kg/f more thrust; the Series 3 would be equipped on the improved J-10B. Compared to the original Lyulka-Saturn AL-31F, the AL-31FN was fitted to the J-10 by rotating the gearbox and accessory pack to the underside.The J-10s intended engine is the Chinese Shenyang WS-10. The WS-10 suffered development difficulties and production of the aircraft went ahead with the Salyut AL-31FN as a substitute. A pre-production J-10C flew with a WS-10 at the 2018 China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition; the engine nozzle was modified for stealth and thrust vectoring (TVC). In March 2020, a video from Chinese state media showed a J-10C in PLAAF livery equipped with the WS-10B; WS-10B-powered aircraft were in service by November 2021. Weaponry and external loads The aircraft's internal armament consists of a Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 twin-barrel cannon, located underneath the port side of the intake. Other weaponry and equipment is mounted externally on 11 hardpoints, to which 5,600 kg (12,300 lb) of either missiles and bombs, drop-tanks containing fuel, or other equipment such as avionics pods can be attached.Air-to-air missiles deployed may include short-range air-to-air missiles such as the PL-8 and PL-10 (on J-10C), medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles such as the PL-12 and PL-15 (on J-10C), unguided and precision guided munitions such as laser-guided bombs, air-to-surface missile such as KD-88, anti-ship missiles such as the YJ-91A, and anti-radiation missiles such as the YJ-91. Operational history China The first aircraft were delivered to the 13th Test Regiment on 23 February 2003. The aircraft was declared 'operational' in December of the same year, after 18 years in development.The J-10C entered combat service in April 2018. Pakistan The J-10 are officially designated as "FC-20 Firebird for Pakistani acquisition by their Ministry of Defense (MoD). Negotiations for acquisitions for J-10A were started in 2006 when offered by China, but negotiations persisted into 2012 with the offer of the J-10B.In September 2020, it was reported that Pakistan was interested in the J-10C. In December 2021, Pakistan announced the purchase of 25 J-10CEs, with an option for 11 more; they were expected to enter service in March 2022. On 4 March 2022, the first batch of 6 J-10CEs for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) landed at PAF Base Minhas (Kamra) after a ferry flight from Chengdu, China. They were officially inducted into the PAF's No. 15 Squadron Cobras based at PAF Base Minhas (Kamra) on 11 March 2022. Exports to other countries In 2009, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) planned to offer the J-10 and the CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder for export. Flightglobal speculated an upgraded J-10B would be offered.In 2023, Saudi Arabia is in talks with China to potentially buy J-10C fighter jets. Egypt has also expressed interest in purchasing 12 J-10C jets. Variants J-10A: Single seat variant. The export designation is F-10A or FC-20. J-10AH: Naval version of J-10A. J-10S: Tandem-seated trainer variant of J-10A. J-10SH: Naval version of J-10S. J-10B: An upgraded J-10, initially identified as "Super-10". It features a lighter and stealthier diverterless supersonic inlet, a longer nose radome possibly housing an active electronically scanned array radar, an electro-optic targeting sensor (IRST, and laser rangefinder,) and a new electronic warning or countermeasures pod atop the vertical stabiliser. The aircraft is powered by the AL-31FN M1; one unit was flown with a WS-10A in July 2011 but that engine was not selected for the initial production batch. The aircraft's first flight occurred no later than December 2008. J-10B TVC Demonstrator: A prototype fighter based on J-10B that is equipped with WS-10B thrust-vectoring control engine. The fighter has supermaneuverability, capable of performing Cobra maneuver. J-10C: An upgraded version of J-10B, it is equipped with an indigenous AESA fire-control radar and is equipped with imaging infrared seeker (IIR) PL-10, WS-10B engine and PL-15 air-to-air missiles. J-10CE: Export version of J-10C. J-10D: Electronic warfare variant with straight, protruding dorsal spine in the central airframe, containing electronic countermeasure and warfare systems. Operators People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Liberation Army Air Force: 220 J-10A, 55 J-10B, 220 J-10C, 70 J-10S as of 2022 People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force: 16 J-10AH, 7 J-10SH as of 2021 PakistanPakistan Air Force: 36 J-10CE (14 delivered, 22 on order)PAF Base Minhas (Kamra)No. 15 Squadron Cobras (2022) Accidents and incidents On 12 November 2016, an August 1st Aerobatics Team training flight suffered a mid-air collision in Hebei. A twin-seat J-10 crashed. The pilot, Captain Yu Xu, and the co-pilot ejected, but Yu was struck by another J-10 and killed. Yu was the first woman certified to fly the J-10. Specifications (J-10C) Data from General characteristics Crew: 1 Length: 16.9 m (55 ft 5 in) Wingspan: 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in) Height: 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in) Wing area: 37 m2 (400 sq ft) Empty weight: 9,750 kg (21,495 lb) Gross weight: 14,000 kg (30,865 lb) Max takeoff weight: 19,227 kg (42,388 lb) Fuel capacity: 4950 L (3860 Kg) internal. 4000 L (3120 Kg) external with 3 drop tanks (2x1600L + 1x800L) Powerplant: 1 × WS-10B afterburning turbofan engines, 89.17 kN (20,050 lbf) thrust dry, 144 kN (32,000 lbf) with afterburnerPerformance Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 Stall speed: 200 km/h (120 mph, 110 kn) Range: 1,850 km (1,150 mi, 1,000 nmi) Combat range: 1,240 km (770 mi, 670 nmi) Ferry range: 4,600 km (2,900 mi, 2,500 nmi) Service ceiling: 18,000 m (59,000 ft) g limits: +9/-3 Rate of climb: 300 m/s (59,000 ft/min) Wing loading: 381 kg/m2 (78 lb/sq ft) Thrust/weight: 1.04Armament Guns: 1× Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 Hardpoints: 11 in total (6× under-wing, 2× under-intake and 3× under-fuselage) with a capacity of 5600 kg of external fuel and ordnance Rockets: 90 mm unguided rocket pods Missiles: Air-to-air missiles: PL-8PL-10 (J-10C)PL-12PL-15 (J-10C) Air-to-surface missiles: KD-88 standoff land attack missile YJ-91 anti-radiation missile Bombs: Laser-guided bombs: (LS-500J, LT-2)Glide bombs: (LS-6, GB3, GB2A, GB3A)Satellite-guided bombs: (FT-1)Unguided bombs: 250 kg, 500 kgOthers: Up to 3 external fuel drop-tanks (1× under-fuselage, 2× under-wing) for extended range and loitering timeAvionics Radar AESA radar(J-10C) Type 1473H pulse-doppler fire-control radar (J-10A) Externally mounted avionics pods: K/JDC01A targeting pod (on J-10A) Type Hongguang-I infra-red search and track pod (on J-10A) CM-802AKG targeting pod for KD-88 and YJ-91 (on J-10C) KG600 electronic countermeasure pod Blue Sky navigation/attack pod See also Related development Chengdu J-9 Shenyang J-13 List of fighter aircraft List of aircraft produced by ChinaAircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Dassault Rafale Eurofighter Typhoon General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon Mikoyan MiG-35 Mitsubishi F-2 Bibliography AirForceWorld.com J-10 article J-10B fighter jet article GlobalSecurity.org article on the J-10 SinoDefence.com J-10 factsheet and pictures Chinese Military Aviation at Stormpages.com Milavia.com J-10 article and pictures (includes J-10 specifications from Air Forces Monthly magazine) SinoDefence.com article on J-10B Jane's Defence article on J-10B

Orphanet is an organisation and knowledge base dedicated to rare diseases as well as corresponding diagnosis, orphan drugs, clinical trials and expert networks.Orphanet was founded in France in 1997 by Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. The website is managed by a network of academic establishments from 40 countries, led by Inserm, and is a European Union Health Programme Joint Action. It contains content for both physicians and patients. Its administrative office is in Paris and its official medical journal is the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases published on its behalf by BioMed Central. As of October 2020, the site provides information on over 6,100 rare diseases and 5,400 genes. Available information Orphanet is an online database with the goal of gathering, providing and improving knowledge on rare diseases and to improve the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients with rare diseases. By listing rare diseases, and maintaining a standard nomenclature of rare diseases (ORPHAcodes), Orphanet contributes to making them more visible in health and research information systems. The information is available in the following languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Czech. The website does not feature any advertising. Rare disease directory There are various possibilities to search for diseases affecting less than 1 person per 2000 (based on data from Europe). The search is either possible by entering the name of the disease, such as progeria for instance, to receive information about the prevalence and a definition. A specific disease can also be searched for by entering the ICD code, the OMIM code or the name of the gene associated with the disease. Diagnostic tests and testing facility directory Information on diagnostic tests conducted in order to establish a diagnosis of a rare disease and laboratories with the technical competence to carry them out can be found in the section diagnostic tests. Constitutional genetic tests are also registered for non-rare diseases, for diseases with a genetic susceptibility and for pharmacogenetics. Searches can be conducted either by country, speciality, objective, technique or purpose. Professional and institution directory Professionals Professionals working in the field of rare diseases can be found in this section, if they have agreed to be listed. It is possible to find consultants and physicians in charge of an expert centre, biologists in laboratories, researchers, patient organisation representatives, coordinators of networks, principal investigators of clinical trials, managers or contact persons of registries and biobanks. Institutions The list of institutions includes for example, institutions hosting expert centres, research or clinical laboratories, patient organisations, institutions hosting registries or biobanks. The information displayed is provided by the professionals working in the institution who have agreed to be listed. Expert centre directory By entering the respective rare disease one can find information on corresponding centres of expertise or networks of centres of expertise dedicated to the medical management and/or genetic counselling. The list comprises medical management centres officially designated by the health authorities in the country and centres offering genetic counselling and genetic consultations for any genetic disease or for a particular genetic disease or group of diseases. The results can be sorted either geographically or by specificity; it is also possible to specify medical management, genetic counselling or both, and to search for adult or pediatric clinics. Orphan drug directory The directory includes drugs (and substances) for the treatment of rare diseases at all stages of development. This includes all substances which have been granted an orphan designation for disease(s) considered rare in Europe or the USA. Drugs without the designation are also included, as long as they have been granted a marketing authorisation with a specific indication for a rare disease. Research and clinical trial directory Research projects Information is available on ongoing and unpublished research projects explicitly focused on a rare disease – either funded by regular national research funding or by a funding body with a scientific committee performing a competitive selection of research projects. Single-centre and national or international multicentric research projects are registered. Clinical trials The clinical trials listed on Orphanet comprise interventional studies aiming to evaluate a drug (substance, or combination) to treat (or prevent) a specific rare disease. The trials can be national or international and, regarding the phase they are in, either recruiting, ongoing or finished. Since beginning collaboration in 2018, the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and Orphanet intend to make clinical trials on rare diseases easily identifiable and findable, thus improving knowledge on rare diseases. Patient organisations Information on patient organisations, umbrella organisations and alliances dedicated to one particular rare disease or to a group of rare diseases are provided in this section. They can either be sorted geographically, or by specificity. Patient organisations should be active, responsive, provide support and information to patients, hold legal status according to the country's laws and have a designated head and/or contact person; however, Orphanet does not assume any responsibility if these requirements are not fulfilled. Activity Report and other publications On the Orphanet website Orphanet reports comprise a series of texts covering topics relevant to all rare diseases. New reports are regularly put online and some of these texts are periodically updated. The annual Activity Report is available as a PDF file of roughly 80 pages. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases The Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases is published in cooperation with Springer Nature. Numerous reports and features are available online. The offer is free of charge. See also European Organisation for Rare Diseases Official website Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases International Clinical Trials Registry Platform

ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO). It contains codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases. Work on ICD-10 began in 1983, became endorsed by the Forty-third World Health Assembly in 1990, and was first used by member states in 1994. It was replaced by ICD-11 on January 1, 2022.While WHO manages and publishes the base version of the ICD, several member states have modified it to better suit their needs. In the base classification, the code set allows for more than 14,000 different codes and permits the tracking of many new diagnoses compared to the preceding ICD-9. Through the use of optional sub-classifications, ICD-10 allows for specificity regarding the cause, manifestation, location, severity, and type of injury or disease. The adapted versions may differ in a number of ways, and some national editions have expanded the code set even further; with some going so far as to add procedure codes. ICD-10-CM, for example, has over 70,000 codes.The WHO provides detailed information regarding the ICD via its website – including an ICD-10 online browser and ICD training materials. The online training includes a support forum, a self-learning tool and user guide. Chapters The following table lists the chapter number (using Roman numerals), the code range of each chapter, and the chapter's title from the international version of the ICD-10. National adoptions Approximately 27 countries use ICD-10 for reimbursement and resource allocation in their health system, and some have made modifications to ICD to better accommodate its utility. The unchanged international version of ICD-10 is used in 117 countries for performing cause of death reporting and statistics.The national versions may differ from the base classification in the level of detail, incomplete adoption of a category, or the addition of procedure codes. Australia Introduced in 1998, ICD-10 Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) was developed by the National Centre for Classification in Health at the University of Sydney. It is currently maintained by the Australian Consortium for Classification Development.ICD-10-AM has also been adopted by New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Saudi Arabia and several other countries. Brazil Brazil introduced ICD-10 in 1996. Canada Canada began using ICD-10 for mortality reporting in 2000. A six-year, phased implementation of ICD-10-CA for morbidity reporting began in 2001. It was staggered across Canada's ten provinces, with Quebec the last to make the switch.ICD-10-CA is available in both English- and French-language versions. China China adopted ICD-10 in 2002. Czech Republic The Czech Republic adopted ICD-10 in 1994, one year after its official release by WHO. Revisions to the international edition are adopted continuously. The official Czech translation of ICD-10 2016 10th Revision was published in 2018. Denmark ICD-10 was first introduced into the psychiatric health service system on 1 January 1994. Estonia Estonia adopted ICD-10 from January 1, 1997, via a ministerial degree. However, chapter V "Mental and behavioural disorders" had already been in use from January 1, 1994, also via a ministerial degree. France France introduced a clinical addendum to ICD-10 in 1997. Germany Germany's ICD-10 German Modification (ICD-10-GM) is based on ICD-10-AM. ICD-10-GM was developed between 2003 and 2004, by the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information. Hungary Hungary introduced the use of ICD-10 from January 1, 1996, via a ministerial decree. Korea A Korean modification has existed since 2008. Netherlands The Dutch translation of ICD-10 is ICD10-nl, which was created by the WHO-FIC Network in 1994. There is an online dictionary. Russia The Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation ordered in 1997 to transfer all health organizations to ICD-10. South Africa ICD-10 was implemented in July 2005 under the auspice of the National ICD-10 Implementation Task Team which is a joint task team between the National Department of Health and the Council for Medical Schemes. Sweden The current Swedish translation of ICD-10 was created in 1997. Thailand The ICD-10-TM (Thai Modification) is a Thai language version based on the 2016 ICD-10. An unusual feature of the index of ICD-10-TM is that it is bilingual, containing both Thai and English trails. United Kingdom ICD-10 was first mandated for use in the UK in 1995. In 2010 the UK Government made a commitment to update the UK version of ICD-10 every three years. On 1 April 2016, following a year's delay, ICD-10 5th Edition replaced the 4th Edition as the mandated diagnostic classification within the UK, and remains the current version for use within the UK. United States For disease reporting, the US utilizes its own national variant of ICD-10 called the ICD-10 Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). A procedural classification called ICD-10 Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) has also been developed for capturing inpatient procedures. The ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS were developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). There are over 70,000 ICD-10-PCS procedure codes and over 69,000 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes, compared to about 3,800 procedure codes and roughly 14,000 diagnosis codes found in the previous ICD-9-CM.There was much controversy when the transition from the ICD-9-CM to the ICD-10-CM was first announced in the US. Many providers were concerned about the vast number of codes being added, the complexity of the new coding system, and the costs associated with the transition. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) weighed these concerns against the benefits of having more accurate data collection, clearer documentation of diagnoses and procedures, and more accurate claims processing. CMS decided the financial and public health cost associated with continuing to use the ICD-9-CM was too high and mandated the switch to ICD-10-CM.The deadline for the United States to begin using ICD-10-CM for diagnosis coding and Procedure Coding System ICD-10-PCS for inpatient hospital procedure coding was set at October 1, 2015, a year later than the previous 2014 deadline. Before the 2014 deadline, the previous deadline had been a year before that on October 1, 2013. All HIPAA "covered entities" were required to make the change; a pre-requisite to ICD-10-CM is the adoption of EDI Version 5010 by January 1, 2012. Enforcement of 5010 transition by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), however, was postponed by CMS until March 31, 2012, with the federal agency citing numerous factors, including slow software upgrades. The implementation of ICD-10-CM has been subject to previous delays. In January 2009, the date was pushed back to October 1, 2013, rather than an earlier proposal of October 1, 2011.Two common complaints in the United States about the ICD-10-CM are 1) the long list of potentially relevant codes for a given condition (such as rheumatoid arthritis) which can be confusing and reduce efficiency and 2) the assigned codes for seldom seen conditions (e.g. W55.22XA: Struck by cow, initial encounter; and V91.07XA: Burn due to water-skis on fire, initial encounter). Criticism The expansion of healthcare delivery systems and changes in global health trends prompted a need for codes with improved clinical accuracy and specificity. The alphanumeric coding in ICD-10 is an improvement from ICD-9 which had a limited number of codes and a restrictive structure. Early concerns in the implementation of ICD-10 included the cost and the availability of resources for training healthcare workers and professional coders. See also Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used in psychiatry DSM-5: its current version Official website ICD-10 online browser (WHO) ICD-10 online training direct access (WHO) ICD-10-CM (USA – modification) at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) ICD-11 Home Page

Event Viewer is a component of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system that lets administrators and users view the event logs on a local or remote machine. Applications and operating-system components can use this centralized log service to report events that have taken place, such as a failure to start a component or to complete an action. In Windows Vista, Microsoft overhauled the event system.Due to the Event Viewer's routine reporting of minor start-up and processing errors (which do not, in fact, harm or damage the computer), the software is frequently used by technical support scammers to trick the victim into thinking that their computer contains critical errors requiring immediate technical support. An example is the "Administrative Events" field under "Custom Views" which can have over a thousand errors or warnings logged over a month's time. Overview Windows NT has featured event logs since its release in 1993. The Event Viewer uses event IDs to define the uniquely identifiable events that a Windows computer can encounter. For example, when a user's authentication fails, the system may generate Event ID 672. Windows NT 4.0 added support for defining "event sources" (i.e. the application which created the event) and performing backups of logs. Windows 2000 added the capability for applications to create their own log sources in addition to the three system-defined "System", "Application", and "Security" log-files. Windows 2000 also replaced NT4's Event Viewer with a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. Windows Server 2003 added the AuthzInstallSecurityEventSource() API calls so that applications could register with the security-event logs, and write security-audit entries.Versions of Windows based on the Windows NT 6.0 kernel (Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008) no longer have a 300-megabyte limit to their total size. Prior to NT 6.0, the system opened on-disk files as memory-mapped files in kernel memory space, which used the same memory pools as other kernel components. Event Viewer log-files with filename extension evtx typically appear in a directory such as C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs\ Command-line interface Windows XP introduced set of three command-line interface tools, useful to task automation: eventquery.vbs – Official script to query, filter and output results based on the event logs. Discontinued after XP. eventcreate – a command (continued in Vista and 7) to put custom events in the logs. eventtriggers – a command to create event driven tasks. Discontinued after XP, replaced by the "Attach task to this event" feature. Windows Vista Event Viewer consists of a rewritten event tracing and logging architecture on Windows Vista. It has been rewritten around a structured XML log-format and a designated log type to allow applications to more precisely log events and to help make it easier for support technicians and developers to interpret the events. The XML representation of the event can be viewed on the Details tab in an event's properties. It is also possible to view all potential events, their structures, registered event publishers and their configuration using the wevtutil utility, even before the events are fired. There are a large number of different types of event logs including Administrative, Operational, Analytic, and Debug log types. Selecting the Application Logs node in the Scope pane reveals numerous new subcategorized event logs, including many labeled as diagnostic logs. Analytic and Debug events which are high frequency are directly saved into a trace file while Admin and Operational events are infrequent enough to allow additional processing without affecting system performance, so they are delivered to the Event Log service. Events are published asynchronously to reduce the performance impact on the event publishing application. Event attributes are also much more detailed and show EventID, Level, Task, Opcode, and Keywords properties. Users can filter event logs by one or more criteria or by a limited XPath 1.0 expression, and custom views can be created for one or more events. Using XPath as the query language allows viewing logs related only to a certain subsystem or an issue with only a certain component, archiving select events and sending traces on the fly to support technicians. Filtering using XPath 1.0 Open Windows Event Log Expand out Windows Logs Select the log file that is of interest (In the example below, the Security event log is used) Right-click on the Event Log and select Filter Current Log... Change the selected tab from Filter to XML Check the box to Edit query manually' Paste the query into the text box. Sample queries can be found below.Here are examples of simple custom filters for the new Window Event Log: Select all events in the Security Event Log where the account name involved (TargetUserName) is "JUser" *[EventData[Data[@Name="TargetUserName"]="JUser"]] Select all events in the Security Event Log where any Data node of the EventData section is the string "JUser" *[EventData[Data="JUser"]] Select all events in the Security Event Log where any Data node of the EventData section is "JUser" or "JDoe" *[EventData[Data="JUser" or Data="JDoe"]] Select all events in the Security Event Log where any Data node of the EventData section is "JUser" and the Event ID is "4471" *[System[EventID="4471"]] and *[EventData[Data="JUser"]] Real-world example for a package called Goldmine which has two @Names *[System[Provider[@Name='GoldMine' or @Name='GMService']]]Caveats: There are limitations to Microsoft's implementation of XPath Queries using XPath string functions will result in error Event subscribers Major event subscribers include the Event Collector service and Task Scheduler 2.0. The Event Collector service can automatically forward event logs to other remote systems, running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 R2 on a configurable schedule. Event logs can also be remotely viewed from other computers or multiple event logs can be centrally logged and monitored without an agent and managed from a single computer. Events can also be directly associated with tasks, which run in the redesigned Task Scheduler and trigger automated actions when particular events take place. See also List of Microsoft Windows components Microsoft Management Console Technical support scam Official sources: Event Viewer - Inside Show on Microsoft Learn Events and Errors (Windows Server 2008) on Microsoft Learn

Stable Diffusion is a deep learning, text-to-image model released in 2022 based on diffusion techniques. It is primarily used to generate detailed images conditioned on text descriptions, though it can also be applied to other tasks such as inpainting, outpainting, and generating image-to-image translations guided by a text prompt. It was developed by researchers from the CompVis Group at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Runway with a compute donation by Stability AI and training data from non-profit organizations.Stable Diffusion is a latent diffusion model, a kind of deep generative artificial neural network. Its code and model weights have been released publicly, and it can run on most consumer hardware equipped with a modest GPU with at least 8 GB VRAM. This marked a departure from previous proprietary text-to-image models such as DALL-E and Midjourney which were accessible only via cloud services. Development The development of Stable Diffusion was funded and shaped by the start-up company Stability AI. The technical license for the model was released by the CompVis group at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Development was led by Patrick Esser of Runway and Robin Rombach of CompVis, who were among the researchers who had earlier invented the latent diffusion model architecture used by Stable Diffusion. Stability AI also credited EleutherAI and LAION (a German nonprofit which assembled the dataset on which Stable Diffusion was trained) as supporters of the project.In October 2022, Stability AI raised US$101 million in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue Management. Technology Architecture Stable Diffusion uses a kind of diffusion model (DM), called a latent diffusion model (LDM) developed by the CompVis group at LMU Munich. Introduced in 2015, diffusion models are trained with the objective of removing successive applications of Gaussian noise on training images, which can be thought of as a sequence of denoising autoencoders. Stable Diffusion consists of 3 parts: the variational autoencoder (VAE), U-Net, and an optional text encoder. The VAE encoder compresses the image from pixel space to a smaller dimensional latent space, capturing a more fundamental semantic meaning of the image. Gaussian noise is iteratively applied to the compressed latent representation during forward diffusion. The U-Net block, composed of a ResNet backbone, denoises the output from forward diffusion backwards to obtain a latent representation. Finally, the VAE decoder generates the final image by converting the representation back into pixel space.The denoising step can be flexibly conditioned on a string of text, an image, or another modality. The encoded conditioning data is exposed to denoising U-Nets via a cross-attention mechanism. For conditioning on text, the fixed, pretrained CLIP ViT-L/14 text encoder is used to transform text prompts to an embedding space. Researchers point to increased computational efficiency for training and generation as an advantage of LDMs.With 860 millions of parameters in the U-Net and 123 millions in the text encoder, Stable Diffusion is considered relatively lightweight by 2022 standards, and unlike other diffusion models, it can run on consumer GPUs. Training data Stable Diffusion was trained on pairs of images and captions taken from LAION-5B, a publicly available dataset derived from Common Crawl data scraped from the web, where 5 billion image-text pairs were classified based on language and filtered into separate datasets by resolution, a predicted likelihood of containing a watermark, and predicted "aesthetic" score (e.g. subjective visual quality). The dataset was created by LAION, a German non-profit which receives funding from Stability AI. The Stable Diffusion model was trained on three subsets of LAION-5B: laion2B-en, laion-high-resolution, and laion-aesthetics v2 5+. A third-party analysis of the model's training data identified that out of a smaller subset of 12 million images taken from the original wider dataset used, approximately 47% of the sample size of images came from 100 different domains, with Pinterest taking up 8.5% of the subset, followed by websites such as WordPress, Blogspot, Flickr, DeviantArt and Wikimedia Commons. An investigation by Bayerischer Rundfunk showed that LAION's datasets, hosted on Hugging Face, contain large amounts of private and sensitive data. Training procedures The model was initially trained on the laion2B-en and laion-high-resolution subsets, with the last few rounds of training done on LAION-Aesthetics v2 5+, a subset of 600 million captioned images which the LAION-Aesthetics Predictor V2 predicted that humans would, on average, give a score of at least 5 out of 10 when asked to rate how much they liked them. The LAION-Aesthetics v2 5+ subset also excluded low-resolution images and images which LAION-5B-WatermarkDetection identified as carrying a watermark with greater than 80% probability. Final rounds of training additionally dropped 10% of text conditioning to improve Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance.The model was trained using 256 Nvidia A100 GPUs on Amazon Web Services for a total of 150,000 GPU-hours, at a cost of $600,000. Limitations Stable Diffusion has issues with degradation and inaccuracies in certain scenarios. Initial releases of the model were trained on a dataset that consists of 512×512 resolution images, meaning that the quality of generated images noticeably degrades when user specifications deviate from its "expected" 512×512 resolution; the version 2.0 update of the Stable Diffusion model later introduced the ability to natively generate images at 768×768 resolution. Another challenge is in generating human limbs due to poor data quality of limbs in the LAION database. The model is insufficiently trained to understand human limbs and faces due to the lack of representative features in the database, and prompting the model to generate images of such type can confound the model. Stable Diffusion XL (SDXL) version 1.0, released in July 2023, introduced native 1024x1024 resolution and improved generation for limbs and text.Accessibility for individual developers can also be a problem. In order to customize the model for new use cases that are not included in the dataset, such as generating anime characters ("waifu diffusion"), new data and further training are required. Fine-tuned adaptations of Stable Diffusion created through additional retraining have been used for a variety of different use-cases, from medical imaging to algorithmically generated music. However, this fine-tuning process is sensitive to the quality of new data; low resolution images or different resolutions from the original data can not only fail to learn the new task but degrade the overall performance of the model. Even when the model is additionally trained on high quality images, it is difficult for individuals to run models in consumer electronics. For example, the training process for waifu-diffusion requires a minimum 30 GB of VRAM, which exceeds the usual resource provided in such consumer GPUs as Nvidia's GeForce 30 series, which has only about 12 GB.The creators of Stable Diffusion acknowledge the potential for algorithmic bias, as the model was primarily trained on images with English descriptions. As a result, generated images reinforce social biases and are from a western perspective, as the creators note that the model lacks data from other communities and cultures. The model gives more accurate results for prompts that are written in English in comparison to those written in other languages, with western or white cultures often being the default representation. End-user fine-tuning To address the limitations of the model's initial training, end-users may opt to implement additional training to fine-tune generation outputs to match more specific use-cases. There are three methods in which user-accessible fine-tuning can be applied to a Stable Diffusion model checkpoint: An "embedding" can be trained from a collection of user-provided images, and allows the model to generate visually similar images whenever the name of the embedding is used within a generation prompt. Embeddings are based on the "textual inversion" concept developed by researchers from Tel Aviv University in 2022 with support from Nvidia, where vector representations for specific tokens used by the model's text encoder are linked to new pseudo-words. Embeddings can be used to reduce biases within the original model, or mimic visual styles. A "hypernetwork" is a small pretrained neural network that is applied to various points within a larger neural network, and refers to the technique created by NovelAI developer Kurumuz in 2021, originally intended for text-generation transformer models. Hypernetworks steer results towards a particular direction, allowing Stable Diffusion-based models to imitate the art style of specific artists, even if the artist is not recognised by the original model; they process the image by finding key areas of importance such as hair and eyes, and then patch these areas in secondary latent space. DreamBooth is a deep learning generation model developed by researchers from Google Research and Boston University in 2022 which can fine-tune the model to generate precise, personalised outputs that depict a specific subject, following training via a set of images which depict the subject. Capabilities The Stable Diffusion model supports the ability to generate new images from scratch through the use of a text prompt describing elements to be included or omitted from the output. Existing images can be re-drawn by the model to incorporate new elements described by a text prompt (a process known as "guided image synthesis") through its diffusion-denoising mechanism. In addition, the model also allows the use of prompts to partially alter existing images via inpainting and outpainting, when used with an appropriate user interface that supports such features, of which numerous different open source implementations exist.Stable Diffusion is recommended to be run with 10 GB or more VRAM, however users with less VRAM may opt to load the weights in float16 precision instead of the default float32 to tradeoff model performance with lower VRAM usage. Text to image generation The text to image sampling script within Stable Diffusion, known as "txt2img", consumes a text prompt in addition to assorted option parameters covering sampling types, output image dimensions, and seed values. The script outputs an image file based on the model's interpretation of the prompt. Generated images are tagged with an invisible digital watermark to allow users to identify an image as generated by Stable Diffusion, although this watermark loses its efficacy if the image is resized or rotated.Each txt2img generation will involve a specific seed value which affects the output image. Users may opt to randomize the seed in order to explore different generated outputs, or use the same seed to obtain the same image output as a previously generated image. Users are also able to adjust the number of inference steps for the sampler; a higher value takes a longer duration of time, however a smaller value may result in visual defects. Another configurable option, the classifier-free guidance scale value, allows the user to adjust how closely the output image adheres to the prompt. More experimentative use cases may opt for a lower scale value, while use cases aiming for more specific outputs may use a higher value.Additional text2img features are provided by front-end implementations of Stable Diffusion, which allow users to modify the weight given to specific parts of the text prompt. Emphasis markers allow users to add or reduce emphasis to keywords by enclosing them with brackets. An alternative method of adjusting weight to parts of the prompt are "negative prompts". Negative prompts are a feature included in some front-end implementations, including Stability AI's own DreamStudio cloud service, and allow the user to specify prompts which the model should avoid during image generation. The specified prompts may be undesirable image features that would otherwise be present within image outputs due to the positive prompts provided by the user, or due to how the model was originally trained, with mangled human hands being a common example. Image modification Stable Diffusion also includes another sampling script, "img2img", which consumes a text prompt, path to an existing image, and strength value between 0.0 and 1.0. The script outputs a new image based on the original image that also features elements provided within the text prompt. The strength value denotes the amount of noise added to the output image. A higher strength value produces more variation within the image but may produce an image that is not semantically consistent with the prompt provided.The ability of img2img to add noise to the original image makes it potentially useful for data anonymization and data augmentation, in which the visual features of image data are changed and anonymized. The same process may also be useful for image upscaling, in which the resolution of an image is increased, with more detail potentially being added to the image. Additionally, Stable Diffusion has been experimented with as a tool for image compression. Compared to JPEG and WebP, the recent methods used for image compression in Stable Diffusion face limitations in preserving small text and faces.Additional use-cases for image modification via img2img are offered by numerous front-end implementations of the Stable Diffusion model. Inpainting involves selectively modifying a portion of an existing image delineated by a user-provided layer mask, which fills the masked space with newly generated content based on the provided prompt. A dedicated model specifically fine-tuned for inpainting use-cases was created by Stability AI alongside the release of Stable Diffusion 2.0. Conversely, outpainting extends an image beyond its original dimensions, filling the previously empty space with content generated based on the provided prompt.A depth-guided model, named "depth2img", was introduced with the release of Stable Diffusion 2.0 on November 24, 2022; this model infers the depth of the provided input image, and generates a new output image based on both the text prompt and the depth information, which allows the coherence and depth of the original input image to be maintained in the generated output. ControlNet ControlNet is a neural network architecture designed to manage diffusion models by incorporating additional conditions. It duplicates the weights of neural network blocks into a "locked" copy and a "trainable" copy. The "trainable" copy learns the desired condition, while the "locked" copy preserves the original model. This approach ensures that training with small datasets of image pairs does not compromise the integrity of production-ready diffusion models. The "zero convolution" is a 1×1 convolution with both weight and bias initialized to zero. Before training, all zero convolutions produce zero output, preventing any distortion caused by ControlNet. No layer is trained from scratch; the process is still fine-tuning, keeping the original model secure. This method enables training on small-scale or even personal devices. Releases Major model releases include: V1.4, August 2022 V1.5, October 2022 V2.0, November 2022 V2.1, December 2022 SDXL 1.0, July 2023 Usage and controversy Stable Diffusion claims no rights on generated images and freely gives users the rights of usage to any generated images from the model provided that the image content is not illegal or harmful to individuals. The freedom provided to users over image usage has caused controversy over the ethics of ownership, as Stable Diffusion and other generative models are trained from copyrighted images without the owner’s consent. This also leads to large amounts of private and sensitive information in the training data. As visual styles and compositions are not subject to copyright, it is often interpreted that users of Stable Diffusion who generate images of artworks should not be considered to be infringing upon the copyright of visually similar works. However, individuals depicted in generated images may be protected by personality rights if their likeness is used, and intellectual property such as recognizable brand logos still remain protected by copyright. Nonetheless, visual artists have expressed concern that widespread usage of image synthesis software such as Stable Diffusion may eventually lead to human artists, along with photographers, models, cinematographers, and actors, gradually losing commercial viability against AI-based competitors.Stable Diffusion is notably more permissive in the types of content users may generate, such as violent or sexually explicit imagery, in comparison to other commercial products based on generative AI. Addressing the concerns that the model may be used for abusive purposes, CEO of Stability AI, Emad Mostaque, argues that "[it is] peoples' responsibility as to whether they are ethical, moral, and legal in how they operate this technology", and that putting the capabilities of Stable Diffusion into the hands of the public would result in the technology providing a net benefit, in spite of the potential negative consequences. In addition, Mostaque argues that the intention behind the open availability of Stable Diffusion is to end corporate control and dominance over such technologies, who have previously only developed closed AI systems for image synthesis. This is reflected by the fact that any restrictions Stability AI places on the content that users may generate can easily be bypassed due to the availability of the source code. Litigation In January of 2023, three artists: Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt, claiming that these companies have infringed the rights of millions of artists by training AI tools on five billion images scraped from the web without the consent of the original artists. The same month, Stability AI was also sued by Getty Images for using its images in the training data.In July 2023, U.S. District Judge William Orrick inclined to dismiss most of the lawsuit filed by Andersen, McKernan, and Ortiz but allowed them to file a new complaint. License Unlike models like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion makes its source code available, along with the model (pretrained weights). It applies the Creative ML OpenRAIL-M license, a form of Responsible AI License (RAIL), to the model (M). The license prohibits certain use cases, including crime, libel, harassment, doxing, "exploiting ... minors", giving medical advice, automatically creating legal obligations, producing legal evidence, and "discriminating against or harming individuals or groups based on ... social behavior or ... personal or personality characteristics ... [or] legally protected characteristics or categories". The user owns the rights to their generated output images, and is free to use them commercially. See also 15.ai Artificial intelligence art Craiyon Hugging Face Imagen (Google Brain) Stable Diffusion Demo Interactive Explanation of Stable Diffusion "We Are All Raw Material for AI": Investigation on sensitive and private data in Stable Diffusions training data

TD, Td, or td may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games and toys Tails Doll Toon Disney Tech Deck, a type of fingerboard Ten Desires, the thirteenth official game in the Touhou series Test Drive (1987 video game), a driving simulation game Total Distortion, a 1995 computer/mac adventure game Touchdown (abbreviated as TD) a scoring play in gridiron football Tournament director (chess) or Tournament controller, the organizer and arbiter of a tournament, responsible for enforcing the tournament rules and the laws of chess Tournament director (poker), the individual charged with running a poker tournament Tournament director, in duplicate bridge Tower defense, a genre of video games in which players repel enemies by strategically placing defensive towers Tower Dream, a Super Famicom video game Toronto Defiant, an Overwatch League team Music Tangerine Dream, a seminal German krautrock group Team Dresch, an American punk rock band Tenacious D, a comedy rock duo Throwdown (band), American straight edge heavy metal band "T.D" (song), a song by Lil Yachty from the album Lil Boat 3 Television Three Delivery, an American anime series on Nicktoons Network Total Drama, a Canadian animated series Businesses and organizations Atlantis European Airways (IATA designator TD) Toronto-Dominion Bank (or TD Bank Group) a financial services group with several retail banking divisions, including: TD Bank, N.A., its US consumer banking division TD Canada Trust, its Canadian consumer banking division Government and law TD status ("Treaty national's dependent", or "Trade NAFTA dependent"), the immigration status of relatives of a Canadian or Mexican citizen working in the US under the NAFTA agreement Teachta Dála, a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Irish Parliament Trust deed (real estate), a deed wherein legal title in real property is transferred to a trustee United States Department of the Treasury People Terrell Davis, an NFL running back for the Denver Broncos Places Buildings Australia Telstra Dome, an Australian Football League venue Canada TD Centre, corporate headquarters for the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Toronto, Ontario TD Place Arena, an indoor arena in Ottawa, Ontario TD Place Stadium, a football stadium in Ottawa, Ontario TD Stadium, a football stadium in London, Ontario United States TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, a baseball venue in Omaha, Nebraska TD Arena, an indoor arena in Charleston, South Carolina TD Bank Arts Centre, a theatre in Gloucester County, New Jersey TD Bank Ballpark, a baseball venue in Bridgewater, New Jersey TD Bank Sports Center, an indoor arena in Hamden, Connecticut TD Garden, an indoor arena in Boston, Massachusetts Inhabited places Chad (ISO 2-letter country code TD) Guatemala (ITU prefix TD or TG) TD postcode area, UK Trinidad and Tobago (NATO 2-letter country code TD) Science and technology Biology and medicine td, the first self-splicing group I intron discovered in E. coli Tardive dyskinesia, a term that refers to serious adverse effects usually caused by older antipsychotic drugs Tetanus and Diphtheria combination vaccine Thymidylate synthase, an enzyme Tibial dyschondroplasia, a metabolic poultry disease Traveler's diarrhea, an intestinal illness contracted by international travelers Troland, a unit of retinal illuminance Computing .td, top-level domain for Chad , an HTML table cell delimiter tag Borland Turbo Debugger, a product to debug x86 software introduced in 1989 Team Developer, a software development environment by Unify/Gupta Meteorology Dew point, the temperature when saturation occurs (100% relative humidity) Tropical depression, a weather system which is the predecessor of typhoon, cyclone or hurricane Tropical disturbance, a low pressure organization that is moderately likely to form to a tropical cyclone Other uses in science and technology TD programme, a series of satellites launched by ESRO Technical drawing, a term used in the design process Temporal difference learning, a prediction method Terrestrial Dynamical time, an obsolete name for Terrestrial Time Thermal desorption, a technology that utilizes heat to increase the volatility of contaminants Townsend (unit), a physical unit of reduced electric field Sports T. D. (mascot), an official mascot of the Miami Dolphins Technical decision, a result in boxing when a fight is stopped because of an accidental headbutt Touchdown, a means of scoring in Canadian and American football Trenton Devils, an ECHL ice hockey team formerly known as the Trenton Titans Transportation TD Midget, a T-type MG car manufactured in the United Kingdom between 1950 and 1953 SJ T44 (also known as Td), a Swedish diesel-powered locomotive Tank destroyer, a type of armoured fighting vehicle Turbodiesel, a diesel engine with turbocharger touchdown (tango delta), an alternate term for landing Other uses /r/The_Donald, an Internet forum on Reddit commonly abbreviated "T_D" TheDonald.win, a successor forum Technical director, usually the most senior technical person within a software or theatrical company, or television studio Territorial Decoration, a decoration awarded for twelve years' service in the British Territorial Army Timothy Dwight College, a residential college at Yale University Tracking (dog), a technique in which dogs are trained to locate certain objects by using the object's scent, for a variety of purposes All pages with titles containing t-d All pages with titles beginning with TD All pages with titles containing TD DT (disambiguation) Touchdown (disambiguation)

SC, Sc or sc may refer to: Arts and media Sim City, a city-building simulator game Snapchat, a multimedia messaging app Social club, a type of club. Soulcalibur, fighting video game series created by Namco SoundCloud, an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website SportsCenter, an American daily sports-news program broadcast on ESPN SportsCentre, a Canadian daily sports-news program broadcast on TSN Supreme Commander, a real-time strategy video game Businesses SC Paragliding, a defunct Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer SCTV (Indonesia) (Surya Citra Television), an Indonesian television network Shandong Airlines, IATA airline designation Standard Chartered, a multinational bank company headquartered in London England Education Scots College, Wellington, New Zealand Southland College, Philippines St. Christopher's School, Harare, Zimbabwe University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States South Carolina Gamecocks, the Division I athletic program University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States Southern California Trojans, the Division I athletic program Sierra Canyon School, California, United States Language Sc (digraph), a combination of letters used in the spelling of some languages "sc.", abbreviation for scilicet, Latin for "it is permitted to know"; See viz. Sardinian language, ISO 639 language code small caps Simplified Chinese characters Government, law, and military SC convoys, a series of Allied convoys that ran during the battle of the Atlantic during World War II Scheduled Castes, officially designated groups of historically disadvantaged people in India Security Check, a level of security clearance in the United Kingdom Post-nominal letters for Senior Counsel, or State Counsel in some countries Special constable, auxiliary police constable Star of Courage (Australia), an Australian decoration Star of Courage (Canada), a Canadian decoration Statutes of Canada, a compilation of all the federal laws passed by the Parliament of Canada since Confederation in 1867 The Supreme Court, the highest court in many legal jurisdictions United Nations Security Council Submarine chaser boat Sacrosanctum Concilium one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. SC radar, an American-made air and surface-search radar used during World War II Places Santa Catarina (state), ISO 3166-2 and Brazilian state abbreviation Saint Kitts and Nevis, NATO country code Secunderabad Railway Station, station code, Hyderabad, India Seychelles, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code Sichuan, Guobiao abbreviation SC, a province of China South Carolina, a state in the Eastern US Southern California, a US urban area centred on Los Angeles State College, a city in Pennsylvania, US Science and technology Computing .sc, the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Seychelles SC, a type of optical fiber connector, of a push-pull coupling style SC (complexity), a complexity class in computer science, named after Stephen Cook sc.exe, a "Service Control" utility for managing Microsoft Windows services sc (spreadsheet calculator), a text-based Unix spreadsheet program PC/SC, specification for smart-card integration into computers Scientific computation, a discipline in computing ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference, known as SC or Supercomputing Conference Other uses in science and technology Lexus SC, an automobile sc (elliptic function), one of Jacobi's elliptic functions Scandium, symbol Sc, a chemical element Schmidt number (Sc), in fluid dynamics × Sophrocattleya (abbreviation Sc), an orchid genus Subcutaneous injection or administration, abbreviation Superior colliculus, a brain region involved with eye movements Clayey sand, in the Unified Soil Classification System Sodium cyanide Switched capacitor, an electronic circuit element implementing a filter See also SCC (disambiguation) SC2 (disambiguation) SCSC (disambiguation)

Zhang Chunqiao (Chinese: 张春桥; 1 February 1917 – 21 April 2005) was a prominent Chinese political theorist, writer, and politician. He came to the national spotlight during the late stages of the Cultural Revolution, and was a member of the ultra-Maoist group dubbed the "Gang of Four". Zhang joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1938, later becoming a prominent journalist in charge of Jiefang Daily after the establishment of the People's Republic. He rose to prominence after his October 1958 article entitled “Destroy the Ideology of Bourgeois Right” caught the attention of Mao Zedong, who ordered its reproduction in People's Daily. With the onset of the Cultural Revolution, he was appointed as a member of the Cultural Revolution Group. In 1967, Zhang organized the Shanghai People's Commune and briefly became its chairman, effectively overthrowing the local Shanghai government and local party structures. Afterwards, he was appointed as the director of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee. He joined the Politburo in 1969, and its inner Standing Committee in 1973, reaching his zenith as the country's second-ranking vice premier in 1975. After Mao's death in 1976, Zhang was arrested along with the other members of what would become known as the Gang of Four. He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, later commuted to life imprisonment, and then further reduced to 18 years. He was released from prison in 1998 to undergo medical treatment, and died in 2005. Early life Born in Juye County, Shandong, Zhang worked as a writer in Shanghai in the 1930s, developing strong connections within the city. After attending a 1938 conference in Yan'an, he joined the Chinese Communist Party. People's Republic of China With the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, Zhang became a prominent Shanghai journalist, put in charge of the newspaper Jiefang Daily. Here, he met Jiang Qing. Zhang first came to prominence as the result of his October 1958 article in Jiefang Daily entitled “Destroy the Ideology of Bourgeois Right”. Mao Zedong took notice of the article, and ordered it to be reprinted in People’s Daily, along with an accompanying “Editor’s Note” expressing his mild approval. Zhang was seen as one of Mao's firmest supporters as the chairman engaged in an ideological struggle within party leadership with rival revolutionary Liu Shaoqi. Cultural Revolution Zhang spent much of the Cultural Revolution shuttling between Beijing and Shanghai. He arrived in Shanghai in November 1966 at representing the Cultural Revolution Group in their push to stop Cao Diqiu from dispersing workers in Anting. He signed the "Five-Point Petition of Workers", and in February 1967 organized the Shanghai People's Commune with Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan, essentially overthrowing the city government and local party structure, becoming chairman of the city's Revolutionary Committee, a title that essentially combined the former posts of mayor and party secretary. This structure would persist until the latter post was restored in 1971. In April 1969, he joined the Politburo, and in 1973 he was promoted to the Standing Committee therein. In January 1975, Zhang became the second-ranked Vice Premier, and penned "On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship Over the Bourgeoisie" to promote the theoretical study of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Deng Xiaoping was the first-ranked Vice Premier at the time, but was out of the office by 1976. Arrest and death Zhang was arrested along with the other members of the so-called "Gang of Four" in October 1976, as part of a conspiracy by Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian and the new party leader Hua Guofeng. He was expelled from the Communist Party in July 1977, and then sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1984, alongside Jiang Qing. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and was further reduced to 18 years in December 1997. In 1998, Zhang was released from prison to undergo medical treatment, and he lived in obscurity in Shanghai for the remainder of his life. Zhang died from pancreatic cancer in April 2005. Reading list Zhang Chunqiao Reference Archive "On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie"

Yao Wenyuan (January 12, 1931 – December 23, 2005) was a Chinese literary critic, politician, and member of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution. Biography Yao Wenyuan was born in Zhuji, Zhejiang, to an intellectual family. His father, Yao Pengzi (姚蓬子) was a writer, translator and art critic.He began his career in Shanghai as a literary critic, where he became known for his sharp attacks against colleagues, such as in June 1957 against the newspaper Wenhuibao. Since that time, he began to closely collaborate with leftist Shanghai politicians, including the head of the city's Propaganda Department, Zhang Chunqiao. His article "On the New Historical Beijing Opera 'Hai Rui Dismissed from Office'", published in Wenhuibao on November 10, 1965, launched the Cultural Revolution. The article was about a popular opera by Wu Han, who was deputy mayor of Beijing. Zhang Chunqiao and Jiang Qing feared the play could be counter-revolutionary because parallels could be drawn between the characters in the play and officials in the communist government. In the play, Hai Rui, a government official, speaks for the peasants against the imperial government, criticizing officials for hypocritically oppressing the masses while pretending to be virtuous men. Hai Rui is dismissed because of this. Yao claimed it was a coded attack on Mao for dismissing in 1959 then-minister of defense Peng Dehuai, a critic of Mao's Great Leap Forward. Confused by this unexpected attack, Beijing's party leadership tried to protect Wu Han, providing Mao the pretext for a full-scale "struggle" against them in the following year. Yao was soon promoted to the Cultural Revolution Group. Yao Wenyuan was an ideal candidate for the criticism for such an opera because of his consistent socialist background. In April 1969 he joined the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, working on official propaganda. A member of "Proletarian writers for purity" he was the editor of "Liberation Daily" Shanghai's main newspaper. He joined the state's efforts to rid China's writers union of the famous writer Hu Feng. On October 6, 1976, he was arrested for his participation in the Cultural Revolution and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 1981. He was released on October 5, 1996, and spent the remainder of his life writing a book and studying Chinese history. He lived in Huzhou and Shanghai and became the last surviving member of the Gang of Four after Zhang Chunqiao died in April 2005. According to China's official Xinhua news agency, he died of diabetes on December 23, 2005, aged 74. Publications Yao Wen-yuan: On the Social Basis Of The Lin Piao Antiparty Clique. Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1975. The Yao Wenyuan Archive at the Marxist Internet Archive.

Chang Po-ling (Chinese: 張伯苓; pinyin: Zhang Boling; April 5, 1876 – February 23, 1951) was a Chinese educator who, with Yan Xiu, founded Nankai University and the Nankai system of schools. Biography Chang Po-ling was born in Tianjin in 1876 during the last years of the Qing Dynasty. His younger brother was P.C. Chang, a philosopher and diplomat. He graduated from the Beiyang Naval Academy in 1894. He was a cadet officer in the Beiyang Fleet, but he abandoned his training after the fleet was destroyed during the First Sino-Japanese War. He attended and graduated from Saint John's University in Shanghai.After several years of teaching, Chang Po-ling organized funding for a private college preparatory school, Nankai High School, in Tianjin in 1904. In 1917 he briefly studied at Teachers College, Columbia University in the United States, where he was influenced by the American educator and reformer John Dewey. Afterwards, he expanded his school into a full university, Nankai University, in 1919. Under Chang's leadership, Nankai continued to expand for the next few years and became one of the most prestigious universities in China. In 1935, during an opening ceremony in Nankai University, Chang famously posed 3 questions which would later be known as the "Three Patriotic Questions 爱国三问", the reciting of which remains a university tradition during ceremonies. 你是中国人吗？你爱中国吗？你愿意中国好吗？ Are you Chinese? Do you love China? Do you wish for China to prosper? He was noted for his emphasis on athletics, which he believed would rid China of its image as the 'Sick man of Asia' in the early 1900s, quoting that 'only a good sportsman can be a good teacher'. He established a number of annual national athletic meets and the forerunner to the modern Chinese Olympic Committee. He established several smaller institutions, including a girls middle school (1923), experimental primary school (1928), institute of economics (1927), and of chemistry (1932). During the 1930s, Chang Po-ling anticipated the possibility of war with Japan and made preparations to evacuate Nankai University and Nankai High School from Tianjin to the Chinese interior. As part of these preparations, he founded the Chongqing Nankai Middle School in 1936. When the Second Sino-Japanese War began on July 7, 1937, Chang Po-ling evacuated the entire Nankai system of schools to Changsha, Hunan. As the Japanese military advanced towards the Chinese interior, Chang Po-ling organized a second evacuation to Kunming, Yunnan in 1938. In 1941, Zhang Boyu joined the Kuomintang and introduced the people as Jiang Zhongzheng.In Kunming, Nankai University joined with Peking University and Tsinghua University to form the National Southwestern Associated University, which continued to educate the top students in China until the war ended in 1945. Afterwards, Nankai University returned to Tianjin. June 4, 1946，Columbia University presented Chang Po-ling with the degree of Doctor Emeritus at its 192nd Commencement.On January 29, 1947, the president of the University of California wrote to Chang Po-ling, proposing to award him the degree of honorary doctor of law. On August 28, the UNESCO China Commission was established, with Chang Po-ling as a member.In June 1948, Jiang Zhongzheng nominated Chang Po-ling as the president of the Examination Yuan，The Control Yuan voted to agree，In July 1948, Chang Po-ling took office in Nanjing. Due to the regulations of the then Ministry of Education (Taiwan), the president of a state university could not hold a part-time job at the same time，But Chang Po-ling is unwilling to leave the cause of his life. To retain the position of the principal, In September 1948, Tianjin Mayor Du Jian will hired Chang Po-ling as a national Nankai University honorary principal, and Franklin Ho as the agent principal，and informed Chiang Kai-shek. On October 20, the executive officially released an order of Chang Po-ling resigned, and Franklin Ho was as New principal of Nankai, and did not transfer Chang Po-ling to his honorary principal. Franklin Ho wrote to the Ministry of Education (Taiwan), but not responded. At the end of the same year, Chang Po-ling left the Nanjing Examinations Institute on the pretext that she was weak and needed rest, and went back to live in Chongqing.In 1949, when the regime was changing in mainland China, both Kuomintang and the Communist Party were trying to win over Chang Po-ling because of her high social prestige. The Kuomintang hopes that Zhang Boyu leaves the mainland, goes to Taiwan or the United States, and promises to agree with any conditions, But Zhang Boling refused with the words "I don't want to leave Nankai School, leave my motherland".After Chang Po-ling refused Chiang Kai-shek's invitation to Taiwan and stayed in mainland China, he began to get a cold shoulder politically. Because of the protection of Zhou Enlai, Chang Po-ling was not liquidated and tried like other former military and political officials. In November, the Chinese People's Liberation Army moved into Chongqing, and the regime in Chongqing changed. In December, Chang Po-ling verified property, donated the private Chongqing Nankai Middle School, Primary School, and Kindergarten to the Chongqing Military Control Committee, and the Nankai University in Tianjin and other south series of schools also returned to the state.In the summer of 1950, Chang Po-ling hopes to return to Tianjin to Nankai University to live, specially solicited the Opinions of the Party Branch of Nankai University, but have not received any reply.On September 15, Chang Po-ling left for Tianjin. Zhou Enlai gave her a farewell dinner at the West Flower Hall in Zhongnanhai the day before her departure. Zhou said: "When I am in Europe, some people persuade the old gentleman, don't help Zhou Enlai, he participated in the Communist Party, but he said, Everyone has their own choice. He is the officer of the Qing Dynasty, can say this, I am very grateful. "Zhou Enlai learned that Chang Po-ling is returned to Tianjin, it may be stressed by the Tianjin authorities, and immediately said that the letter will inform Tianjin Municipal Government.After returning to Tianjin, Chang Po-ling's family has first lived in Nanhai Road and Ningjia Building. While on Nanhai Road, he was monitored by the Tianjin police, who were not removed until Zhou Enlai's letter arrived. Family Chang Po-ling's grandfather Chang Qian (张虔) was a student at the Imperial College (Beijing). He developed mental issues after failing multiple times to graduate and died at 38. Chang Po-ling's father Chang Yungae (张云藻) (courtesy name Jiuan 久庵) was an only child. He failed the imperial exam when he was young, but had a passion for music and mounted archery. Under a famous musician hired by his family, he was able to master different kinds of instrument. He was particularly talented at playing the lute, which earned him the nickname "Lute Chang" among people in Tianjin. Unfortunately, Chang's father's family wealth declined and he resorted to teaching at several private schools to support himself. When Chang's father was young, he married a woman surnamed Wu (胡). Wu died and Chang's father married another woman surnamed Yeung (杨). When Chang's father was 43, Chang was born.Chang's brother Peng Chun Chang (张彭春) (courtesy name Zhongshu 仲述) was a representative for the Republic of China at the United Nations and had taught at Nankai University, Tsinghua University and Columbia University in the City of New York.In 1895, Chang Po-ling married a woman surnamed Ang (安) from Yixingfu (宜兴埠), but she died of pulmonary tuberculosis five days after the wedding. The next year, Chang married Wang Shuzhen (王淑贞), who was usually referred to as Mrs. Wang. The two had seven sons and one daughter, but only four sons survived to adulthood. Four of his sons died during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the remaining three were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. Chang once said, "Though the universities I set up are privately owned, they are not profit-seeking organizations. Passing on one's values is more important than passing on one's wealth." This became the guiding principle for the Chang family.Chang Po-ling's eldest son Chang Xilu (张希陆) (birth name Chang Xilu 张锡禄) (Note both names have similar pronunciation in Chinese, hence the same Romanized name) was born in 1901 and was a mathematician. During the Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted and suffered tremendous mental and physical harm, leading to him being bed-ridden near the end of his life. He died in 1988. Chang's second son Chang Xiyang (张锡羊) was born in 1907. He was a businessman and also died of persecution during the Cultural Revolution. Chang's third son Chang Xizuo (张锡祚) was born in 1908. He was an accountant and suffered the same fate as his older brothers during the Cultural Revolution, dying in 1976. Chang's fourth son Chang Xihu (张锡祜) was born in 1913. He was an athlete. He died serving his country in 1937 when the bomber he was piloting crashed in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province while on its way to bomb the Japanese cruiser Izumo. Chang's oldest grandson Chang Yuanlong (张元龙) was born in 1948 to his third son Chang Xizuo (张锡祚). Chang Yuanlong (张元龙) once served as a member of the 11th and 12th National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Vice-president of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Vice-president of the National People's Committee in Tianjin, and President of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in Tianjin. Chang Po-ling's granddaughter Chang Yuanzhen (张媛贞) once served in the National People's Committee, the Revolutionary Central Committee and the Revolutionary Jiangsu Committee. She also once served as the Vice-secretary of Jiangsu Province's Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and as a professor in the School of Life Sciences in Nanjing University. Chang Yuanzhen (张媛贞) died of an illness in Nanjing on January 8, 2020. Death and remembrance Death and obituary On February 14, 1951 (January 9 in the Chinese Lunar Calendar), Lu Muzhai's (卢木斋) son Lu Kaiyuan (卢开源) visited Chang Po-ling and informed him that Beijing was planning to appoint him as Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Elated about his appointment, Chang personally walked Lu off his residence. At that time, it was freezing. The same night, Chang suffered a stroke, dying on February 23 at 75 years of age. When Chang was on the verge of dying, President of the Student Union of Nankai University Yan Ziheng (閻子亨) suggested writing Chang's obituary on his behalf. Recommended by everyone for the job was Huang Yusheng (黄钰生). After the draft was completed, it was edited by Zhang Qingchang (張清常), Professor of Chinese at Nankai University. Quoted below is a translation of Chang's obituary: In the year 1897, I was indignant at the humiliation of my country by Imperial Powers. Inspired by Yan Xiu (嚴修), I dedicated myself to education. For over 50 years, my dedication never flinched, but much remains to be done to promote moral values and patriotism as well as nurture talents in science and medicine. My students and I have been working to achieve those goals, encouraging each other in the process. Now under the leadership of the People's Government, my students will continue my work. The education institutions I dedicated my life to – Nankai University, Nankai High School and Chongqing Nankai Secondary School – will actively seek to reform themselves and develop rapidly. Today's People's Government has brought an unprecedented level of corruption-free, good governance to China. Its development of the manufacturing industry and pursuit of a friendly relationship with the Soviet Union suggest the People's Government is far-sighted and competent. My dear students, please do your utmost, be united, serve your people and your country, and support the People's Government in building a strong, prosperous new China. Our country has a bright future, a future I am looking forward to. My dear students, please strive towards that goal. Official memorial service in mainland China On February 24, 1951, Zhou Enlai (周恩来) went to Tianjin to attend a military meeting by the 20th Corps of the People's Volunteer Army. Once he arrived in Tianjin, he went to Chang's home to send his condolences and to deliver wreaths to pay his respects for Chang. On the ribbon, he wrote "Teacher Chang, may your teachings be passed down forever! Your student Zhou Enlai (周恩来) is here to pay his respects." On February 26, the Tianjin Daily posted a brief article that began with the title "Former President of Nankai University. Chang Po-ling Dies of Illness, His Obituary Stating that his Students should Continue to Support the People's Government". During the decades after his passing, Chang was virtually unmentioned by mainland Chinese newspapers. After Chang's death, Zhou Enlai (周恩来), an alumnus of Nankai University and the then Premier of the People's Republic of China, personally sent his condolences to Chang's family. Commenting on Chang, Zhou said during the memorial service, "A person should be judged based on the historical background and situation in his time, and we should not judge a person from the past by today's standards. President Chang was progressive and patriotic when he was alive, and his commitment to education has benefited the people. The People's Government was very concerned about him when he was sick and hoped that he would recover soon. Unfortunately, he passed away suddenly." Due to the political environment at the time of Chang's passing, most people were afraid of the political repercussions and remained silent throughout the memorial service. Official memorial service in Taiwan At that time, Taiwan also showed condolences for Chang's death. Another version of Chang's written obituary was circuiting on the island, but it was proven to have been falsified by Chang's eldest son, Chang Xilu (张希陆). On February 27, 1951, after learning of Chang's death, Chiang Chung-cheng (蔣中正) wrote in his memoir that words could not describe how sad he was about it. On March 31 the same year, organizations such as the Nankai University Taiwanese Student Association and the Chinese Kuomintang Reform Commission held a grand memorial service. Chiang Chung-cheng (蔣中正) presided over the ceremony and wrote the elegiac couplet "守正不屈，多士所宗" (Back translation: A man of uncompromising values, values people should follow). Attending the ceremony were Chang's close friends including Wang Chonghui (王寵惠), Chen Cheng (陳誠), Wang Shijie (王世杰), Zhang Lisheng (張厲生) and Zhang Jia (章嘉). Unofficial memorial services in mainland China Unlike Taiwan, which held a grand memorial service for Chang, Tianjin Nankai Girls' High School held a small one in its hall. There was not a sad vibe in it, and few attended the event. Because the event was not advertised to the wider public, very few knew of it. The small memorial service began with Nankai University Professor Situ Yuelan (司徒月兰) playing the piano. Alumni and Yan Ziheng (阎子亨), the organizer of the memorial service, read aloud Chang's obituary. A memorial speech was given by Huang Yusheng (黄钰生), and Yu Chuanjian (喻传鉴), Li Zhuchen (李烛尘), Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences Tao Menghe (陶孟和) and Yang Shixian (杨石先) also took turns to give their speeches to remember Chang. A year later, Yu Chuanjian (喻传鉴) presided over another memorial service for Chang in Chongqing, but attendance was also low. Burial Site As Chang wished to be buried on the campus of Nankai University, some attendees started discussing this issue after the small memorial service held by Tianjin Nankai Girls' High School. The Communist Party Committee of Nankai University suggested that Chang should not be buried there, justifying this with the lack of a close relationship between students of Nankai University and Chang around the time of his death and also with the students' belief that the university belonged to the Chinese people, not Chang alone. Because of that suggestion, Chang was buried instead in Tianjin Wujiakiln District Permanent Cemetery. Later, because the same site was rezoned, his grave was moved to Tianjin Eastern Suburb Yeung Family Cemetery. In 1962, Chang's wife died, and the two were buried in Tianjin Beicang First Public Cemetery. In 1975, the two's bodies were cremated, and their ashes were placed in the Beijing home of their eldest son Chang Xilu (张希陆). In 1979, an interment of ashes ceremony was held in Tianjin Water Park Martyrs Cemetery, after which Chang's ashes were placed there. Later, his ashes were moved to Beicang Martyrs Cemetery. Finally, the government again commended Chang for his contributions, and on October 16, 1989, Chang's and his wife's ashes were interred under Chang's bronze statue in the yard of Nankai University. Annual memorial services After China reformed and opened up, the political situation stabilized and discussions of Chang became less of a taboo in mainland China. The loss of political sensitivity around the topic led to increasingly more public remembrance of Chang and studies of his life. Studies of his life became increasingly popular, and has become one of the hot topics in research in modern education. Currently, Nankai University holds an annual memorial service for Chang on the eve of Ching Ming Festival. Evaluation After Chang Po-ling died, The two sides of the strait are very different from his evaluation because he was serviced by the government of the Republic of China. In Taiwan, Nankai alumni who moved to Taiwan with the government of the Republic of China commemorated Chang Po-ling's achievements in running the school with commemorative anthologies, memorials, biographies, and monographs, and held commemorative activities birthday every ten years of Chang Po-ling；In mainland China, Chang Po-ling 's name was once taboo before the country's reform and opening up. With the continuous political movement in mainland China, the criticism of Chang Po-ling from various departments of Nankai University has become increasingly vocal. Moreover, teachers in Nankai University were asked to express their opinions one by one, The "discordant voice" of the old staff in Nankai who had worked with Chang Po-ling，against criticism at Chang Po-ling was also drowned. In 1960, the History of Nankai University, which was published by Nankai University, totally denied Chang Po-ling. Until the 1980s, after the reform and opening up, the Chinese mainland officials reappraised and affirmed Chang Po-ling, and the evaluation of Zhang Boling on both sides of the Taiwan Straits tended to be consistent:Zhang Bo is not only the banner of Nankai but also a very unique success in the field of modern education in China. Removing Zhangboling In the early 1950s, private Tianjin Nankai Middle School, private Tianjin Nankai Girls' High School, and private Chongqing Nankai Middle School were all taken over by the government and renamed as Tianjin No. 15 High School, Tianjin No. 7 Girls' High School and Chongqing No. 3 High School respectively.The number sequence of the school name replaced the original "Nankai" school name. There is no trace of Chang Po-ling in a series of schools in Nankai. The school song of Nankai, the school color of blue lotus and purple, the school motto, and Chang Po-ling once became the symbol of "old Nankai", which was deliberately diluted. Chang Po-ling is no longer mentioned in the history of Nankai School. Only Yan Xiu founded Nankai School.In 1952, through the adjusted Nankai University, Nankai University held a meeting，It violates Chang Po-ling's plan to build a comprehensive university with four disciplines of liberal arts, science, engineering, and business，It has shrunk into liberal art and science university with only 9 departments of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, philosophy, Chinese, history, foreign languages, and economics.During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guard took the cemetery of Chang Po-ling, smashed the tombstone. Descendants sorted out the bones and cremate them, left the ashes in a closet at home."My grandparents died and had no place to be buried since then," laments Chang Po-ling, granddaughter of Chang Po-ling, a former member of the CPPCC Standing Committee. Memorial statues and buildings Nankai University, Tianjin Nankai Middle School, Chongqing Nankai Middle School, National Southwest Associated University site and other campuses have set up statues of Chang Po-ling to commemorate. Nankai University and Nankai Middle School both have buildings named by Chang Po-ling. In 1999, Po-ling Building was built on the campus of Nankai University. Tianjin Nankai Middle School was renamed its Po-ling Building, which was built in 1906, East Building.In October 2004, three bronze statues of Yan Xiu, Chang Po-ling, and Zhou Enlai were built in the Xiangyu Park in front of Nankai Middle School in Tianjin.On October 16, 2013, two bronze statues of Yan Xiu and Chang Po-ling were completed in the campus of Nankai Middle School in Tianjin, which were donated by alumni.In addition, MingDao University in Taiwan named its administrative center Po-ling Building because Chang Po-ling was regarded as an exemplar of educators who were committed to lifelong dedication. Literature In August 2005, the TV series " Chang Po-ling" broadcast in China CCTV. In 2017, the historical and humanistic documentary "There was a School named Nankai" was broadcast on CCTV and Tianjin TV successively. Further reading Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800–1985. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a slogan as "a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising." A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and appealing to the audience. Etymology The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish sluagh-ghairm (sluagh "army", "host" and gairm "cry"). Slogans vary from the written and the visual to the chanted and the vulgar. Their simple rhetorical nature usually leaves little room for detail, and a chanted slogan may serve more as social expression of unified purpose than as communication to an intended audience. George E. Shankel's (1941, as cited in Denton Jr., 1980) research states that, "English-speaking people began using the term by 1704." The term at that time meant "the distinctive note, phrase or cry of any person or body of persons." Slogans were common throughout the European continent during the Middle Ages; they were used primarily as passwords to ensure proper recognition of individuals at night or in the confusion of battle. Likability Crimmins' (2000, as cited in Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014) research suggests that brands are an extremely valuable corporate asset, and can constitute much of a business's total value. With this in mind, if we take into consideration Keller's (1993, as cited in Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014) research, which suggests that a brand is made up of three different components. These include, name, logo and slogan. Brands names and logos both can be changed by the way the receiver interprets them. Therefore, the slogan has a large job in portraying the brand (Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014). Therefore, the slogan should create a sense of likability in order for the brand name to be likable and the slogan message very clear and concise. Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas' (2014) research suggests that there are certain factors that make up the likability of a slogan. The clarity of the message the brand is trying to encode within the slogan. The slogan emphasizes the benefit of the product or service it is portraying. The creativity of a slogan is another factor that had a positive effect on the likability of a slogan. Lastly, leaving the brand name out of the slogan will have a positive effect on the likability of the brand itself. Advertisers must keep into consideration these factors when creating a slogan for a brand, as it clearly shows a brand is a very valuable asset to a company, with the slogan being one of the three main components to a brands' image. Usage The original usage refers to the usage as a clan motto among Gaelic armies. Marketing slogans are often called taglines in the United States or straplines in the United Kingdom. Europeans use the terms baselines, signatures, claims or pay-offs. "Sloganeering" is a mostly derogatory term for activity which degrades discourse to the level of slogans.Slogans are used to convey a message about the product, service or cause that it is representing. It can have a musical tone to it or written as a song. Slogans are often used to capture the attention of the audience it is trying to reach. If the slogan is used for commercial purposes, often it is written to be memorable/catchy in order for a consumer to associate the slogan with the product it is representing. A slogan is part of the production aspect that helps create an image for the product, service or cause it is representing. A slogan can be a few simple words used to form a phrase that can be used in a repetitive manner. In commercial advertising, corporations will use a slogan as part of promotional activity. Slogans can become a global way of identifying a good or service, for example Nike's slogan 'Just Do It' helped establish Nike as an identifiable brand worldwide.Slogans should catch the audience's attention and influence the consumer's thoughts on what to purchase. The slogan is used by companies to affect the way consumers view their product compared to others. Slogans can also provide information about the product, service or cause it is advertising. The language used in the slogans is essential to the message it wants to convey. Current words used can trigger different emotions that consumers will associate that product with. The use of good adjectives makes for an effective slogan; when adjectives are paired with describing nouns, they help bring the meaning of the message out through the words. When a slogan is used for advertising purposes its goal is to sell the product or service to as many consumers through the message and information a slogan provides. A slogan's message can include information about the quality of the product. Examples of words that can be used to direct the consumer preference towards a current product and its qualities are: good, beautiful, real, better, great, perfect, best, and pure. Slogans can influence that way consumers behave when choosing what product to buy. Slogans offer information to consumers in an appealing and creative way. A slogan can be used for a powerful cause where the impact of the message is essential to the cause. The slogan can be used to raise awareness about a current cause; one way is to do so is by showing the truth that the cause is supporting. A slogan should be clear with a supporting message. Slogans, when combined with action, can provide an influential foundation for a cause to be seen by its intended audience. Slogans, whether used for advertising purpose or social causes, deliver a message to the public that shapes the audiences' opinion towards the subject of the slogan. "It is well known that the text a human hears or reads constitutes merely 7% of the received information. As a result, any slogan merely possesses a supportive task." (Rumšienė & Rumšas, 2014). Looking at a slogan as a supportive role to a brand's image and portrayal is helpful to understand why advertisers need to be careful in how they construct their slogan, as it needs to mold with the other components of the brand image, being logo and name. For example, if a slogan was pushing towards "environmentally friendly", yet the logo and name seemed to show very little concern for the environment, it would be harder for the brand to integrate these components into a successful brand image, as they would not integrate together towards a common image. In Protest Slogans have been used widely in protests dating back hundreds of years, however increased rapidly following the advent of mass media, particularly with the creation the Gutenberg's printing press and later modern mass media in the early 20th century. Examples of slogans being used in the context of protest in antiquity include the Nika revolt, in which the cry "Nika!" (victory in Greek) was used as a rallying tool and nearly brought down the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I. The basis of slogans have been noted by many political figures and dictators have also noted its effectiveness, in Hitler's Mein Kampf he notes to tell and repeat the same talking points without any regard to if they have any philosophical or factual basis in reality, advising to state "big lies" in politics.The basis of this simple propaganda effect was used brutally by the Nazi and Soviet regimes as noted in their propaganda posters. In contrast, slogans are oftentimes used in liberal democracies as well as grassroot organisation, in a campaign setting. With the increasing speed and quantity of information in the modern age, slogans have become a mainstay of any campaign, often used by Unions while strike is called to make their demands immediately clear. This has been noted by many scholars, as an example Noam Chomsky notes of the worrying fusion of media and reality in Manufacturing Consent Chomsky discusses this basis as well the potential dangers of this, particularly towards the context of corporations and producing advertisements that either seek to empower or exclude the viewer to encourage an in-group mentality with the goal of getting the viewer to consume. While Manufacturing Consent addresses the use of slogans in the context of national propaganda, Chomsky argues that national and capitalist propaganda are inherently linked and are not clearly exclusive to each other. They are often used in disinformation campaigns, as quick immediate forms of propaganda suited well to modern forms of social media. Earlier writers such George Orwell notes the effective use of quick non-critical slogans to produce a servile population, written primarily in 1984 as a general critique of the manipulation of language. Politics and racism Slogans are often used as a way to dehumanize groups of people. In the United States as anti-communist fever took hold in the 1950s, the phrase "Better dead than Red" became popular anti-communist slogan in the United States, especially during the McCarthy era.Death to America is an anti-American political slogan and chant. It is used in Iran. Death to Arabs is an anti-Arab slogan which is used by some Israelis. Further reading Nigel Rees (2011). Don't You Know There's a War On?: Words and Phrases from the World Wars. Batsford. ISBN 978-1906388997. How to create a catchy slogan? Coronavirus slogans

Variable-geometry turbochargers (VGTs), occasionally known as variable-nozzle turbines (VNTs), are a type of turbochargers, usually designed to allow the effective aspect ratio of the turbocharger to be altered as conditions change. This is done with the use of adjustable vanes located inside the turbine housing between the inlet and turbine, these vanes affect flow of gases towards the turbine. The benefit of the VGT is that the optimum aspect ratio at low engine speeds is very different from that at high engine speeds. If the aspect ratio is too large, the turbo will fail to create boost at low speeds; if the aspect ratio is too small, the turbo will choke the engine at high speeds, leading to high exhaust manifold pressures, high pumping losses, and ultimately lower power output. By altering the geometry of the turbine housing as the engine accelerates, the turbo's aspect ratio can be maintained at its optimum. Because of this, VGTs have a minimal amount of lag, a low boost threshold, and high efficiency at higher engine speeds. History The rotating-vane VGT was first developed under Garrett and patented in 1953.One of the first production cars to use these turbochargers was the 1988 Honda Legend; it used a water-cooled VGT installed on its 2.0-litre V6 engine. The limited-production 1989 Shelby CSX-VNT, with only 500 examples produced, was equipped with a 2.2-litre Chrysler K engine with a Garrett turbo called the VNT-25 (because it used the same compressor and shaft as the fixed-geometry Garrett T-25). In 1991, Fiat incorporated a VGT into the Croma's direct-injected turbodiesel.The Peugeot 405 T16, launched in 1992, used a Garrett VAT25 variable-geometry turbocharger on its 2.0-litre 16-valve engine. The 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo has twin variable-geometry turbochargers on its 3.6-litre horizontally-opposed six-cylinder gasoline engine. The 2015 Koenigsegg One:1 (named after its power-to-weight ratio of 1:1) uses twin variable-geometry turbochargers on its 5.0-litre V8 engine, allowing it to produce 1361 horsepower. Common designs The two most common implementations of VGTs are as follows: For light-duty engines (passenger cars, race cars, and light commercial vehicles), the turbine's vanes rotate in unison, relative to its hub, to vary its pitch and cross-sectional area. For heavy-duty engines, the vanes do not rotate, but instead, their effective width is changed. This is usually done by moving the turbine along its axis, partially retracting the vanes within the housing. Alternatively, a partition within the housing may slide back and forth. The area between the edges of the vanes changes, leading to a variable-aspect-ratio system with fewer moving parts.VGTs may be controlled by a membrane vacuum actuator, electric servo, 3-phase electric actuation, hydraulic actuator, or pneumatic actuator using air brake pressure. Unlike fixed-geometry turbines, VGTs do not require a wastegate. Use VGTs tend to be much more common on diesel engines, as lower exhaust temperatures mean they are less prone to failure. Early gasoline-engine VGTs required significant pre-charge cooling to extend the turbocharger life to reasonable levels, but advances in technology have improved their resistance to high-temperature gasoline exhaust, and they have started to appear increasingly in gasoline-engined cars.Typically, VGTs are only found in OEM applications due to the level of coordination required to keep the vanes in the most optimal position for whatever state the engine is in. However, there are aftermarket VGT control units available, and some high-end aftermarket engine management systems can control VGTs as well. In trucks, VGTs are also used to control the ratio of exhaust recirculated back to the engine inlet (they can be controlled to selectively increase the exhaust manifold pressure until it exceeds the inlet manifold pressure, which promotes exhaust gas recirculation). Although excessive engine backpressure is detrimental to overall fuel efficiency, ensuring a sufficient EGR rate even during transient events (such as gear changes) can be sufficient to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions down to that required by emissions legislation (e.g., Euro 5 for Europe and EPA 10 for the USA). Another use for sliding-vane turbochargers is as a downstream exhaust brake, so that an extra exhaust throttle valve is not needed. The mechanism can also be deliberately modified to reduce the turbine efficiency in a pre-defined position. This mode can be selected to sustain a raised exhaust temperature to promote "light-off" and "regeneration" of a diesel particulate filter (this involves heating the carbon particles stuck in the filter until they oxidize away in a semi-self-sustaining reaction - rather like the self-cleaning process some ovens offer). Actuation of a VGT for EGR flow control, or to implement braking or regeneration modes in general, requires hydraulic actuators or electric servos. Manufacturers Several companies manufacture and supply rotating-vane variable-geometry turbochargers, including Garrett, BorgWarner, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. This design is mostly limited to small engines and light-duty applications (passenger cars, race cars and light commercial vehicles). The main supplier of sliding-vane VGTs is Holset Engineering. How does Variable Turbine Geometry Work? Variable Turbine Geometry (VTG) explanation with pictures Cummins Turbochargers & Air Handling

Daw or DAW may refer to: People and language Daw (given name) Daw (surname) Daw, an honorific used in Burmese names Dâw people, an indigenous people of Brazil Dâw language, a language of Brazil Davaoeño language, ISO 939-3 language code daw, Philippines Places Daw, an important city, possibly modern Gebel Adda, in the medieval kingdom of Dotawo Daw, Mauritania Daw Mill, a mine in Warwickshire, England Daw Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide Daw's Castle, a hill fort in Somerset, England Skyhaven Airport in Rochester, New Hampshire, with FAA location identifier DAW Organizations DAW Books, an American publisher German Equipment Works (Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke), an SS defense contractor Division for the Advancement of Women, part of UN Women Other uses daW, or decawatt, a unit meaning 10 Watts Daw or Western jackdaw, a bird species of the crow family "D.A.W.", an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (season 3) Digital audio workstation, a device for recording audio files DAW, "Dispense as written", an abbreviation used in medical prescriptions See also Dawe (disambiguation) Daou (disambiguation) Daws (disambiguation) All pages with titles beginning with Daw All pages with titles containing Daw

SkyTrain or Skytrain may refer to: Guided ground transport City mass transit SkyTrain (Vancouver), a metropolitan rapid transit network in Vancouver, Canada, that was originally mostly elevated SkyTrain (Metro Manila), a planned monorail line BTS Skytrain, an elevated rapid transit system in Bangkok, Thailand Skytrain, the elevated section of the Sydney Metro Northwest rapid transit line Accra Skytrain, a proposed automated transit system in Accra, Ghana Airport people movers ATL Skytrain, a people-mover at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Changi Airport Skytrain, an inter-terminal people-mover system at Singapore Changi Airport Soekarno–Hatta Airport Skytrain, an inter-terminal people-mover system at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta Düsseldorf SkyTrain, an automated inter-terminal people mover system at Düsseldorf International Airport Skytrain (Miami International Airport), a people mover at Miami International Airport PHX Sky Train, a people-mover system at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Air transport Douglas C-47 Skytrain also known as the Dakota, a military transport developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner McDonnell Douglas C-9 Skytrain II, a military transport developed from the Douglas DC-9 airliner Skytrain, a transatlantic service by Laker Airways Other uses Sky Train, a 1976 album by Barry Miles Skytrain Ice Rise, a large ice rise in the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf of Antarctica See also Aerotrain (disambiguation) SkyTran

Fly Away or Flyaway may refer to: Music Albums Fly Away (Banaroo album), 2007 Fly Away (Corrinne May album), 2001 Flyaway (Nutshell album), 1997 Fly Away (Paul Wright album), 2003 Fly Away (Voyage album), 1978 Fly Away, by All Angels, 2009 Fly Away, by Driver Friendly, 2004 Songs "Fly Away" (David Foster song), 1980 (popularized by Peter Allen) "Fly Away" (Haddaway song), 1995 "Fly Away" (Honey Ryder song), 2009 "Fly Away" (John Denver song), 1975 "Fly Away" (Lead song), 2003 "Fly Away" (Lenny Kravitz song), 1998 "Fly Away" (Loretta Lynn song), 1988 "Fly Away" (Seo In-guk song), 2013 "Fly Away" (5 Seconds of Summer song), 2015 "Fly Away" (Tones and I song), 2020 "Fly Away", by Asami Izawa from the TV series Eureka Seven "Fly Away", by The Black Eyed Peas from the album Elephunk, 2003 "Fly Away", by Blackfoot from the album Marauder, 1981 "Fly Away", by Cecilia from the album Inner Harmony, 1999 "Fly Away", by The Cheetah Girls from the soundtrack to the film The Cheetah Girls: One World, 2008 "Fly Away", by Daniel Powter from his album Under the Radar "Fly Away", by Dee Carstensen, 2005 "Fly Away", by DJ Company "Fly Away", by Lutricia McNeal from the album Whatcha Been Doing, 1999 "Fly Away", a song by Michael Jackson originally intended for the album Bad, 1987 (released 2001) "Fly Away", by Misia from the album Kiss in the Sky, 2002 "Fly Away", by Nelly from the soundtrack to the film The Longest Yard, 2005 "Fly Away", by Peter Andre from the album Angels & Demons, 2012 "Fly Away", by Sugarland from the album Twice the Speed of Life, 2004 "Fly Away", by T-Pain from the album Rappa Ternt Sanga, 2005 "Fly Away", by TeddyLoid from the soundtrack of the TV series Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, 2010 "Fly Away" by TheFatRat ft. Anjulie, 2017 "Last Dollar (Fly Away)", a 2007 song by Tim McGraw from the album Let It Go "Fly Away", dv4d Other Fly Away (film), a 2011 American dramatic film Flyaway (novel), a 1978 first-person narrative thriller novel by Desmond Bagley Flyaway, a 2012 novel by Lucy Christopher FlyAway (bus), a shuttle bus service created and funded by Los Angeles World Airports Fly Away (The Following), an episode of the television series The Following Flyaway, a type of cheap plastic football also known as a penny floater See also Fly (disambiguation)

Feature may refer to: Computing Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item (in performance, portability, or—especially—functionality) Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenomena being observed Science and analysis Feature data, in geographic information systems, comprise information about an entity with a geographic location Features, in audio signal processing, an aim to capture specific aspects of audio signals in a numeric way Feature (archaeology), any dug, built, or dumped evidence of human activity Media Feature film, a film with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program Feature length, the standardized length of such films Feature story, a piece of non-fiction writing about news Radio documentary (feature), a radio program devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures A feature as a guest appearance Music Feature (band), a British punk trio. The Features, an American rock band Linguistics Feature (linguistics), a property of a class of linguistic items which describes individual members of that class Distinctive feature, the most basic unit of structure that can be analyzed by phonetics and phonology Other uses The Feature, a film collaboration between filmmakers Michel Auder and Andrew Neel The Feature (originally named Give Me Something to Read), a standalone website that features a few high-quality, long-form, nonfiction articles every day from Instapaper's most frequently saved articles All pages with titles containing feature All pages with titles beginning with Feature Featurette

Ribbit King is a 2003 sports video game developed by Infinity and Jamsworks and published by Bandai for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The game is based on the fictional sport of Frolf (ケロフ), which is a golf-like game that is played with frogs. The frogs sit on catapults, which the player whacks with a hammer to send the frog flying into the air. It is the successor to Kero Kero King, released only in Japan in 2000 for the PlayStation. Gameplay The objective is to earn the most points possible by landing the frog in the course's hole in the quickest time possible. Players can also earn points by sending their frogs through various spheres scattered through the level. In addition, they can score points by having their frogs eaten by giant snakes, by having their frogs swim, or by any number of other things. North American versions of Ribbit King come packaged with a bonus disc called Ribbit King Plus!, which is an assortment of 28 short CGI films about Scooter and his friends. These films are unlocked during the main game. The main character of Ribbit King is a young carpenter named Scooter. Scooter is trying to become the Frolf Champion—or the namesake 'Ribbit King'—and in doing so win the 'Super Ribbinite', a fuel source his planet needs in order to survive. The game also includes such characters as a pile of rocks, a gumball machine, and a kung fu panda named Pan-Pan. Characters Scooter (プリプリ, Puripuri) Picwick (バスケットくん, Basuketto-kun) Sluggy (ぬるぽん, Nurupon) Pan-Pan (ペイペイ, Peipei) Princess Tippi (ダルひめ, Daruhime) Lunk (ゴルゴンゾーラ, Gorugonzōra) Pepe (グー, Gū), Pappy (チョキ, Choki) and Papoo (パー, Pā) Sir Waddlelot (ペンギンロボ, Penginrobo) Sparky (ポチ, Pochi) and Whoosh (タマ, Tama) Kosmo (アダムスキ, Adamusuki) Gumbah-Goo (ガシャポン・ムック, Gashapon Mukku) King Hippity-Hop (王様, Ōsama) Captain Oinka (ブーチン, Būchin) Ribbit King Plus! Ribbit King Plus! is the bonus disc included with North American versions of the game, featuring unlockable short animations and requiring saved data on the memory card to be able to view the shorts. It was initially transmitted in Japan as a 30-episode series of shorts on the TV Tokyo weekday morning children's show Oha Suta from 16 June to 25 July 2003 to promote the game, under the title Kero Kero King DX Plus (ケロケロキング デラックス プラス), before being released on a separate DVD at around the same time as the Japanese PlayStation 2 version of the game; however, three of the shorts were dropped from the North American version for unknown reasons. Exclusive to the disc is a two-minute video titled "Special", a montage of the various cutscenes from the story mode set to the main title theme of the game. Episodes Kero Kero King Kero Kero King (ケロケロキング) is the predecessor to Ribbit King, developed by Amedio and published by Media Factory. It was released exclusively in Japan on December 10th 2000 for the PlayStation. All of the unique art in the game and in the many FMVs featured inside the game are done by Japanese illustrator Yosuke Kihara.The gameplay follows a very similar formula as its sequel Ribbit King as it is a golf based game but uses a frog instead of the ball, allowing you to tweak the direction and height of the frog while also collection points throughout the courses. The frog is also able to jump off spider webs and jump to flies adding variance to the gameplay especially in versus mode. There are a total of 10 courses in the game with each game taking 10 rounds to complete and the person with the highest score wins.The story of Kero Kero King is summarized on its front cover as follows: ""Kerof" is the brand new exciting sports in the galaxy. The champion of the kerof is called "kerokeroking". But Nosukin, a little boy, is about to challenge him!!" The story also has Nosukin meeting many unique characters in games of kerof which you can unlock and use in versus mode. Reception The game received mixed reviews upon release. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the GameCube version 63.07% and 60/100 and the PlayStation 2 version 63.64% and 58/100. Former GameSpot journalist Ryan Davis gave the PlayStation 2 version 5.9 out of 10, saying that it focused more on the bizarre storyline than the gameplay, while Mary Jane Irwin of IGN gave the GameCube and the PlayStation 2 versions a score of five out of ten.In Japan, Famitsu gave Kero Kero King a score of 30 out of 40. Ribbit King Official Website Ribbit King at MobyGames

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a platform game developed by Argonaut Games and published by Fox Interactive. It was released in North America in September 1997 for the Sony PlayStation, and later that year for the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows. Taking place in the fictional setting of the Gobbo Valley, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos follows a young crocodile named Croc, who sets out to rescue a group of furry creatures known as Gobbos from the evil magician Baron Dante. The game initially started development shortly following a successful relationship between Argonaut and Nintendo, with the former creating a processing chip for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Super FX that was used in games such as Star Fox to display 3D polygonal environments. It was first pitched to Nintendo as a prototype for a 3D platform game in which the player controlled Yoshi from Nintendo's Super Mario series, but was ultimately rejected by Nintendo, ending the relationship and prompting Argonaut to retool the game as an original property. The game's characters and mechanics were designed by Simon Keating in his first-ever video game project. Justin Scharvona, Karin Griffin, and Martin Gwynn Jones composed the game's music, while Jonathan Aris provided the voice of Croc. Croc: Legend of the Gobbos received average reviews from critics; praise was directed towards the game's visuals, music and sound, while criticism was directed towards the controls and camera. It went on to become one of Argonaut's most successful releases, selling over 3 million copies for the PlayStation. A sequel to the game, titled Croc 2, was released in 1999, and a HD remaster is in development. Gameplay Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a third-person 3D platformer in which the player controls the main character, a green crocodile named Croc, through several courses taking place on various islands throughout Gobbo Valley. There are over seven realms. Levels are accessed through a world map, and consist of various different smaller sub-sections taking place both above land and underground (as well as occasionally taking place underwater) that are filled with various enemies and obstacles that try to impede Croc.The main goal of each level is to navigate through the stage and reach the gong located at the end of the level in order to transport Croc to the next, while also saving as many captured Gobbos imprisoned throughout the stage as possible. Certain stages also contain boss enemies known as "Guardians" that Croc must defeat in order to progress to the next stage. Various different collectibles are scattered throughout stages, including small, gray crystal orbs that act as Croc's health, and red hearts that give the player an extra life when collected. Also hidden across each stage are 6 Gobbos being held captive by the Dantini tribe that act as Croc's main objective throughout the length of the game. 5 of these Gobbos are hidden in various locations throughout the level, often collected by solving a puzzle or completing a challenge, whilst the 6th Gobbo is located in a bonus room hidden behind a set of doors that can only be reached by collecting 5 colored crystals hidden throughout the level. Rescuing every Gobbo before a boss level in each world unlocks a secret level that can be completed in order to collect a jigsaw puzzle piece. Subsequently, collecting every puzzle piece in the game unlocks an extra island containing more levels for the player to progress through. While collecting the Gobbos is not mandatory to completing the game, doing so is nonetheless necessary in order to face off against the game's final boss and unlock the game's true ending. Croc's maneuvering abilities are somewhat comparable to that of Mario's in Super Mario 64, with his primary methods of movement consisting of the abilities to run, jump, climb, and swim using either the analog stick or the D-pad, as well as touting the abilities to perform a sidestep and a 180-degree quick turn as other methods of maneuver. Croc's main method of attack consists of a full-circle tail swipe that is used to defeat enemies and bosses, as well as a hip drop move that can be used to break open crates containing collectibles. Croc's in-game health is represented by the crystals that the player collects throughout the game; when Croc is hurt by an enemy, all of his crystals are lost and scattered around him in several directions (similar to a mechanic commonly used in Sonic the Hedgehog games). If Croc is hurt while he has no crystals, the player loses a life and is sent back to the beginning of the segment of the level they are currently in. Plot King Rufus, the leader of a furry race of creatures called the Gobbos, is watching the sunrise over Gobbo Valley when he sees a large, woven basket carrying a baby crocodile floating down the river. Initially suspicious of the young crocodile but ultimately won over by its innocence, King Rufus and the Gobbos decide to raise it as one of their own and teach it in the ways of the Gobbo. The crocodile, named Croc, grows bigger over time, eventually becoming much larger than the Gobbos.One day, Baron Dante and his band of villains known as the Dantinis invade Gobbo Valley and begin terrorizing the Gobbos, capturing them and locking them in steel cages. Amidst the chaos, King Rufus summons a magical yellow bird named Beany, who uses her magical abilities to transport Croc to safety, immediately before Rufus is snatched by Baron Dante.By the time Croc has been brought to safety, the Dantinis have completely taken over all of Gobbo Valley, locked up all the Gobbos, and turned innocent creatures all across the valley into monsters to act as their minions. Croc sets out on a quest to free the Gobbos and defeat Baron Dante. Development Concept Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was developed by Argonaut Games, who were coming off of the heels of a successful relationship with Nintendo as a result of their development of the Super FX expansion chip used in Super Nintendo Entertainment System games such as Star Fox and Stunt Race FX. Early development of the game began in 1994, when Argonaut began experimenting with the concept of a platform game set in the third dimension. Under the tentative title "Yoshi Racing", the initial concept was a hybrid of several mechanics from the two video games Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart, with the player controlling the character Yoshi from Nintendo's Super Mario series. Argonaut created a prototype of Yoshi Racing and pitched it to Nintendo, who was initially enthusiastic about the game, according to San, with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressing particular fascination with the project. Despite this enthusiastic response, Nintendo ultimately rejected Argonaut's proposal, explaining that they already had a similar project in development. This, alongside the cancellation of the near-completed Star Fox 2, marked the end of Argonaut's relationship with Nintendo, prompting them to find another publisher who would finance and publish the game. After shopping the prototype around, Argonaut received offers from several publishers in 1996. Fox Interactive was chosen because the company had a solid plan for turning Croc into a multimedia franchise and was familiar to the staff at Argonaut, who were already working on a game for Fox (Alien Resurrection). According to Jez San, the prototype of Yoshi Racing that Argonaut had initially pitched to Nintendo was a large influence towards the creation and development of Super Mario 64, though in a 1997 interview he had stated that it was possible that the similarity between the games was completely coincidental.After being turned down by Nintendo, Argonaut sought the creation of a new character to take the place of Yoshi. Offering to design a new character was young computer artist Simon Keating, who "stumbled" into the game's development as his first job in the video game industry after hearing that the developers of the game needed a new main character. After having sketched out several different potential character designs, Keating ultimately came up with the final design of Croc as a result of Argonaut's request for him to design a character whose design looked marginally similar to that of Yoshi's. According to Keating, Croc was given a single fang protruding from his mouth in reference to his pet house cat at the time who shared the same characteristic.The team came up with the game's plot and the concept of the Gobbos out of a desire to give Croc "something to save" that was not a damsel in distress such as a princess, which the team thought would have been too bizarre for the game's setting and main character. According to Keating, the Gobbos were originally colored pink in early stages of development, but character animator Pete Day later changed the characters' fur color to brown in order to allow them to work better in a 3D environment. Design Croc's game mechanics were designed by Keating and lead designer Nic Cusworth. The game's levels were divided into several sub-sections due to hardware limitations at the time and Argonaut's desire to not have to deal with creating convincing depth perception. The team designed the game's levels with the mindset of making each individual room feel like its own individual puzzle that would give the player a sense of accomplishment whenever they completed it. Cusworth came up with the names for many of the levels, several of which were references to other pieces of popular culture; the game's first level, named "...And So The Adventure Begins", was a reference to the title card of the music video for the David Lee Roth song Yankee Rose, which Cusworth found in a video collection that he owned at the time. The level "Shouting Lava Lava Lava" was a play on words with the lyric "Shouting Lager Lager Lager" from the song Born Slippy by Underworld, which appeared in the British comedy film Trainspotting. Some snowboarding levels were created for the game but removed near the end of development because there was no time to finish them before the deadline, though San stated in an interview that they would be featured in the game's sequel.Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was programmed using a proprietary BASIC-style language called the "Argonaut Strategy Language", while the levels and mechanics were created using an in-house level editor titled "CrocEd" which was run using MS-DOS. The engine for Croc went on to be repurposed by Argonaut for several of their other games, including Alien: Resurrection, Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Although Croc supported use of the DualShock controller's analog stick for movement, the controller was not released until late into the game's production and the game was mostly developed with the Sega Saturn's directional pad control in mind; as a result of this, analog control was implemented into the game fairly late into its development. Audio The music for Croc was composed by Justin Scharvona, Karin Griffin and Martin Gwynn Jones. Scharvona had been composing music for several of Argonaut's games since 1988, and had worked in-house at the studio since 1994. The soundtrack was developed at the same time as the rest of the game, rather than being composed for an otherwise complete game. Scharvona tried to compose the game's songs so that people listening to the music would be able to "whistle along" with them. The game's title theme was inspired by a song included on a CD of Mexican music that Scharvona had listened to which featured a rhythmic piano riff and a solo trumpet as the lead. The ambient music playing during the cave levels took inspiration from several other popular pieces of music; the songs' rhythmic finger snaps and harpsichord were based on that of the title theme of The Addams Family, while the lead theremin was based on the horror-centric music from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials and the Hammond organ was derived from a cover of "Foxy Lady" that Scharvona had been composing for the video game Wayne's World at the time. According to Jez San, the composers created so many tunes for Croc that the audio had to be compressed 4:1 in order to fit it all on one disc.The voice samples for Croc were provided by British actor Jonathan Aris, who was friends with Argonaut's audio department at the time. Aris came in to Argonaut's studio to do the role and recorded all of his dialogue within an hour, according to Cusworth. Release Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was announced by Fox Interactive in May 1997, and was first shown off at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June as one of 4 games presented by Fox. The game was released for the Sony PlayStation in North America on 29 September, and in Europe in October. It was also released for the Sega Saturn in North America and Europe in 1997. A Microsoft Windows port of the game was released in North America on 26 November 1997. The PlayStation version of the game was rereleased under Sony's Greatest Hits banner in late September 1998. The game was released in Japan on 18 December 1997 for the PlayStation and on 26 March 1998 for the Sega Saturn as Croc! Pau Pau Island, where it was published by Mitsui MediaQuest. Promotion A commercial for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was featured at the beginning of the VHS release of Casper: A Spirited Beginning as well as a VHS release of Power Rangers in Space. In November 1997, a promotional sweepstakes contest was held by Electronic Gaming Monthly, in which contestants mailed in via postcard in order to win a copy of the game along with various different pieces of Croc-themed apparel, including a suede/wool jacket, a leather backpack, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. An official strategy guide for the game, written by Anthony James, was published by Prima Games in 1997. Reception Croc: Legend of the Gobbos received average reviews from critics. The PlayStation version of the game held an aggregated review score of 79.14% on the review website GameRankings at the time of the site's 2019 closure.Critics almost unanimously commented that the game is very derivative, shamelessly taking elements from earlier platformers such as Tomb Raider (hanging onto ledges, pushing blocks), Sonic the Hedgehog (losing collected items when hit), Gex (the tail whip attack), and Super Mario 64 (the butt stomp, the free-roaming 3D, the visual style), but most concluded that these secondhand elements were blended in a way that yielded an at least moderately entertaining experience with some feel of its own. Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly, for example, concluded that "Most features seem borrowed from other titles, but the mixture works pretty well." Game Informer stated that "We enjoy everything that has been taken from the different games, and we're sure you will too. Croc uses all of these ideas and adds its own flavor to it."Critics further remarked that the game's similar graphics and scope to Super Mario 64 made it an impressive technical achievement for both the PlayStation and the Saturn, which were widely thought to be not as powerful as the Nintendo 64. Reviews for the Saturn version remarked that, while it is inferior to the PlayStation version, the differences between them are impressively minor. All four of Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviewers gave a 7.5 out of 10 to both versions.Reviews also widely praised the catchy music, the atmospheric sound effects, and the added optional challenge of accessing secret areas. Sega Saturn Magazine summarized that "Argonaut has produced an audio experience that must be pumped through full surround sound speakers to be fully appreciated. Combining digitized speech, foot-tapping tunes and some frighteningly realistic ambient effects, Croc's many worlds boast an atmosphere that few developers ever both with."The controls were more controversial. While some described them as solid and refined, others found they suffered from inconsistent responsiveness and illogical configuration. GamePro elaborated that "Inexplicably, pulling Down on the analog controller makes Croc take a step forward to swing around in an arc, plunging him off any ledges if he's too close." Most critics also found the camera to be a serious problem, making it difficult to judge jumps, especially in the later stages of the game. Joe Fielder of GameSpot said that this makes the game "frustratingly hard to play."A lack of variety in the gameplay and environmental design was another widely cited problem. IGN praised the graphics and controls, while criticizing the lack of variation and noting its similarities to Super Mario 64. Next Generation also had an overall subdued response, judging that "the game provides just enough pretty, painless entertainment to keep gamers pacified, but there's not enough challenge to certify Croc a niche next to the classics it so readily seeks to emulate. It's just enough to avoid having its name used against it."Reviews for the PC version were generally more negative than those for the console versions. Josh Smith of GameSpot criticized the graphics, camera and controls, and ultimately deemed the game "a generic 3D platformer." PC Gamer noted that 3D platformers are difficult to do right because the roaming camera adds complications to the precision jumping the genre demands, and assessed that "The resulting gameplay can be anywhere from occasionally irritating to disastrous, and unfortunately, Fox Interactive’s newest 3D platformer Croc falls somewhere in between."In 2014, GamesRadar included Croc on their list of the best Sega Saturn games of all time, noting that the game "gave players on Sega and Sony's machines a chance to explore 42 brightly colored levels' worth of Argonaut's take on the Mushroom Kingdom, earning the company a bestseller of its own in the process."Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was considered a commercial success for Argonaut, with the PlayStation version of the game selling over a million copies in the U.S. and becoming a console bestseller in the UK for two months. By September 1998, the game had sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide; over 2 million copies of the game had been shipped by May 1999, and by March 2000 it had sold over 2.4 million units. The game went on to become one of Argonaut Games' best-selling titles, with the PlayStation version of the game selling over 3 million copies worldwide. Sequels and spin-offs A sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was first teased on the back of the Sega Saturn version of the game's manual. Initially advertised for a Christmas 1998 release, Croc 2 was released in June 1999 for the Sony PlayStation, and later for Microsoft Windows and the Game Boy Color. A Sega Saturn release was also advertised but never released, and a Sega Dreamcast port of the game was ultimately cancelled. The game follows Croc as he once again ventures to defeat Baron Dante, who has captured an old inventor Gobbo, while simultaneously searching for his long-lost parents. The game makes numerous gameplay changes from the first game, including the addition of a health counter, more mission-based levels, and an open hub area for navigating levels. A 2D side-scrolling port of the game for the Game Boy Color, simply titled Croc, was released in June 2000. Three mobile phone games based on the game, developed by Morpheme, were released through the mid-2000s, titled Croc Mobile: Jungle Rumble, Croc Mobile Pinball, and Croc Mobile: Volcanic Panic!. On 6 June 2023, Argonaut Software founder Jez San announced via Twitter/X that an HD Croc game was currently in early development.Due to the success of the original game and its successor, Fox Interactive considered creating an animated TV series based on the games, a plan which never came into fruition. Official website (archive) Croc: Legend of the Gobbos at MobyGames

Croc 2 is a platform game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. The sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, it revolves around the title character going on a quest to search for his missing parents, as well as saving the Inventor Gobbo from a revived Baron Dante. Croc 2 was released for the Sony PlayStation in 1999, and later for Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Color in 2000 and 2001, respectively. A port of the game for the Dreamcast was also planned but ultimately cancelled. The game's release was accompanied by a heavy advertising campaign, with Fox cross-promoting the game alongside Nabisco's "Gummi Savers" brand of candy. Croc 2 received mixed reviews, with critics particularly praising the game's graphics while criticizing its camera and difficulty. Gameplay Croc 2 features gameplay similar to its predecessor; the player controls Croc through various open-ended levels in order to complete various missions. The game's levels are split across 4 Gobbo "villages" and are accessed through an open HUB world. The missions involve helping other Gobbos with a certain task, such as rescuing another Gobbo who is trapped within a steel cage and chasing a Dantini through a stage in order to retrieve a stolen sandwich. After completing a certain number of levels in a village, a boss level is opened up, which allows access to the next village when completed. There's also levels requiring players to control vehicles such as; a go-kart, a speedboat, a hang glider, a hot air balloon and a giant snowball among others.Levels contain various collectible items, including 100 crystals and 5 multicolored crystals scattered throughout the stage. The colored gems are hidden in different places throughout the stage, and require completing a platform challenge or completing a puzzle in order to be retrieved. Finding all 5 colored gems makes a golden trophy appear at the end of the level that is collected by traversing through a small platforming challenge. Collecting every trophy in a village allows access to an extra level that can be completed in order to collect a Jigsaw puzzle piece; collecting these pieces is required in order to access the game's fifth and final world consisting of remixed level segments. Several items can be purchased at the HUB worlds from Swap Meet Pete, an anthropomorphic cat, some of which are needed to access certain areas and secrets within the game. Among these items are heart pots, which lengthen Croc's maximum life count, Gummi Savers Jumps, which can be used as a trampoline in order to reach certain ledges, and the Clockwork Gobbo, a small wind-up robot that can be controlled to collect items by being used on a certain pedestal. Croc is controlled using the D-pad or the analog stick, and maneuvers levels by running, jumping, climbing and swimming; new to the game are the abilities to perform a triple jump and a flip jump, both of which allow Croc to reach higher altitudes than he can by jumping normally. Croc attacks enemies by swinging his tail in a full 360-degree motion, and can also perform a downward hit drop in order to defeat enemies as well as destroy wooden crates containing items. Croc's health is represented by a set life count that can be extended by purchasing certain items; upon running out of "hearts", he is sent back to the HUB world of the respective level he's in. Croc's life can be refilled by collecting large hearts located throughout stages, as well by collecting a certain amount of crystals in a stage. Croc 2 features an additional control option titled "OmniPlay", which gives two people split control over Croc's movements and abilities for cooperative gameplay. Inputs for movement, attacking, jumping, sidestepping, camera, inventory as well as feedback through vibration can individually be toggled to be shared between two controllers or to be exclusively tied to the first player's controller. Plot The game's plot is set several months after Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and begins with Professor Gobbo being captured by the Dantinis while he was witnessing Baron Dante's resurrection. Back at Gobbo Valley, Croc is playing on a beach and finds a message in a bottle. The message explains that the senders are looking for their child. Croc is surprised when he sees a crocodile's footprint on it, and takes the message to King Rufus, who reads it and tells Croc that he needs to look for other Gobbos far off, who may be able to help him in finding the crocodiles who sent the message. A large number of Gobbos make a see-saw. Croc stands on one end and a Gobbo pushes a boulder on to the other end to propel Croc to the distant Mainland, where his search begins. Croc's reputation precedes him on the Mainland. Most of the Gobbo villagers speak with Croc as if they have previously established a rapport. There is little reference to the main point of Croc's quest until the player reaches the final village. Meanwhile, Baron Dante purposely sends his minions out to stop Croc in the form of boss battles. Each Gobbo village has a different biome and cultural theme. Croc's goal is to defeat the various Dantinis that are plaguing each community, as well as the major minions the Baron sends to crush each village and prevent Croc from reaching his goal. At the end of the Inca Village, Croc fights Baron Dante in a small airplane crafted by Professor Gobbo before rescuing the latter in the Dungeon of Defright. Eventually, Croc comes face-to-face with Baron Dante one last time, while protecting Professor Gobbo from the Baron's attacks so he can summon a portal to send him back to the dimension he had previously been banished to. The main plot of the game ends with Croc and Professor Gobbo flying to a small island to meet Croc's long-lost family before pivoting to another part of the island where Croc's parents' eggs can be seen being stolen by Baron Dante. After collecting each Jigsaw Piece in every secret area of the villages with the aid of the Golden Gobbos collected throughout the levels, Croc ventures to Baron Dante's Secret World, which consists of the villages (except the Inca Village) that Croc had previously visited, inhabited by Dantinis instead of Gobbos. Croc must collect five Colored Crystals in each village to retrieve one egg. Three eggs must be retrieved to beat the game. Development A Dreamcast port of the game was planned, having been mentioned in the UK print of the Dreamcast Monthly magazine and touted for release in Q3 of 2000, but was cancelled in light of Argonaut's decision to stop developing Dreamcast games due to the declining commercial performance of the system. Promotion and release Croc 2 was originally advertised in the instruction manual of the original game for a release on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn for a Christmas 1998 release; however, the game was later delayed to a summer 1999 release, and the Sega Saturn version of the game was ultimately never released. A Dreamcast port was also planned yet cancelled in mid-2000. It also got a 2D platformer of the same name released in 2001 on Game Boy Color. The game was heavily advertised during its release, with a multi-million advertisement campaign entailing television commercials, retail support, and customer incentives. A cross-promotional brand deal was held with Nabisco to promote the game alongside the company's Gummi Savers line of gummy candy. Alongside the candy being prominently featured as a usable item within the game, over 6.5 million candy wrappers were printed with Croc 2 logos on them. A promotional sweepstake competition, called the "Croc 2 Down Under" sweepstakes, was held during the game's release, with the contest's grand prize consisting of a family trip to Australia, as well as a copy of the game, a PlayStation console, and a copy of the game's strategy guide being featured as the other obtainable prizes. Reception Croc 2 received mixed or average reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Nintendo Power gave the Game Boy Color version an average review, over four months before it was released Stateside. Many other reviewers gave the PlayStation version positive to mixed to unfavorable reviews, months before it was released Stateside.IGN praised the voice acting, graphics, soundtrack and size of the PlayStation version, but criticised its difficulty and camera angles. GameSpot gave the PlayStation and PC versions poor ratings, also criticizing the camera angles and the difficulty. Matthew House of AllGame criticised the PlayStation version for its camera angles and difficulty, while also criticizing the game's graphics. Nash Werner of GamePro was also negative, saying of the PC version: "After weeks of playing Croc 2, I was praying each new level would be Croc 2's last, but it just kept dragging on and on." However, Scary Larry called the PlayStation version "an acquired taste. While not as edgy and fast-paced as Crash Bandicoot: Warped or as well-oiled as Spyro, Croc 2 deserves a place on the same platform as your other platform games. With a little practice and patience, you'll find that Croc 2 provides plenty of ditzy diversion." Next Generation called the same PlayStation version "one of the better 3D platformers [...] if just by a claw." In Japan, where the same console version was ported and published by Koei under the name Croc Adventure (クロックアドベンチャー, Kurokku Adobenchā) on 2 September 1999, Famitsu gave it a score of 26 out of 40.Suzi Sez of GameZone gave the PC version 7.5 out of 10, calling it "a game you will want to play over and over again just to find things you missed when you last played." She later gave the Game Boy Color version 8.5 out of 10, saying that it was "one game that you will have a hard time putting down!" Alan Lackey of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave the PC version three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "With its cute storyline, Croc 2 is an entertaining but fairly unremarkable romp, especially suited for the younger gamer in the family."The game sold around 500,000 copies. Croc 2 at MobyGames Croc 2 (Game Boy Color) at MobyGames

The Apple II (stylized as apple ][) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-molded plastic case, Rod Holt developed the switching power supply, while Steve Jobs's role in the design of the computer was limited to overseeing Jerry Manock's work on the plastic case. It was introduced by Jobs and Wozniak at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, and marks Apple's first launch of a personal computer aimed at a consumer market—branded toward American households rather than businessmen or computer hobbyists. Byte magazine referred to the Apple II, Commodore PET 2001, and TRS-80 as the "1977 Trinity". As the Apple II had the defining feature of being able to display color graphics, the Apple logo was redesigned to have a spectrum of colors.The Apple II is the first model in the Apple II series, followed by Apple II+, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, Apple IIc Plus, and the 16-bit Apple IIGS—all of which remained compatible. Production of the last available model, Apple IIe, ceased in November 1993. History By 1976, Steve Jobs had convinced product designer Jerry Manock (who had formerly worked at Hewlett Packard designing calculators) to create the "shell" for the Apple II—a smooth case inspired by kitchen appliances that concealed the internal mechanics. The earliest Apple II computers were assembled in Silicon Valley and later in Texas; printed circuit boards were manufactured in Ireland and Singapore. The first computers went on sale on June 10, 1977 with an MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1.022 MHz (Approx. 2⁄7 of the NTSC color subcarrier), two game paddles (bundled until 1980, when they were found to violate FCC regulations), 4 KiB of RAM, an audio cassette interface for loading programs and storing data, and the Integer BASIC programming language built into ROMs. The video controller displayed 24 lines by 40 columns of monochrome, uppercase-only text on the screen (the original character set matches ASCII characters 20h to 5Fh), with NTSC composite video output suitable for display on a TV monitor or on a regular TV set (by way of a separate RF modulator). The original retail price of the computer with 4 KiB of RAM was US$1,298 (equivalent to $6,268 in 2022) and with the maximum 48 KiB of RAM it was US$2,638 (equivalent to $12,739 in 2022) To reflect the computer's color graphics capability, the Apple logo on the casing had rainbow stripes, which remained a part of Apple's corporate logo until early 1998. Perhaps most significantly, the Apple II was a catalyst for personal computers across many industries; it opened the doors to software marketed at consumers.Certain aspects of the system's design were influenced by Atari's arcade video game Breakout (1976), which was designed by Wozniak, who said: "A lot of features of the Apple II went in because I had designed Breakout for Atari. I had designed it in hardware. I wanted to write it in software now". This included his design of color graphics circuitry, the addition of game paddle support and sound, and graphics commands in Integer BASIC, with which he wrote Brick Out, a software clone of his own hardware game. Wozniak said in 1984: "Basically, all the game features were put in just so I could show off the game I was familiar with—Breakout—at the Homebrew Computer Club. It was the most satisfying day of my life [when] I demonstrated Breakout—totally written in BASIC. It seemed like a huge step to me. After designing hardware arcade games, I knew that being able to program them in BASIC was going to change the world." Overview In the May 1977 issue of Byte, Steve Wozniak published a detailed description of his design; the article began, "To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use, and inexpensive."The Apple II used peculiar engineering shortcuts to save hardware and reduce costs, such as: Taking advantage of the way the 6502 processor accesses memory: it occurs only on alternate phases of the clock cycle; video generation circuitry memory access on the otherwise unused phase avoids memory contention issues and interruptions of the video stream; This arrangement simultaneously eliminated the need for a separate refresh circuit for DRAM chips, as video transfer accessed each row of dynamic memory within the timeout period. In addition, it did not require separate RAM chips for video RAM, while the PET and TRS-80 had SRAM chips for video; Apart from the 6502 CPU and a few support chips, the vast majority of the semiconductors used were 74LS low-power Schottky chips; Rather than use a complex analog-to-digital circuit to read the outputs of the game controller, Wozniak used a simple timer circuit, built around a quad 555 timer IC called a 558, whose period is proportional to the resistance of the game controller, and he used a software loop to measure the timers; A single 14.31818 MHz master oscillator (fM) was divided by various ratios to produce all other required frequencies, including microprocessor clock signals (fM/14), video transfer counters, and color-burst samples (fM/4). A solderable jumper on the main board allowed to switch between European 50 Hz and USA 60 Hz video.The text and graphics screens have a complex arrangement. For instance, the scanlines were not stored in sequential areas of memory. This complexity was reportedly due to Wozniak's realization that the method would allow for the refresh of dynamic RAM as a side effect (as described above). This method had no cost overhead to have software calculate or look up the address of the required scanline and avoided the need for significant extra hardware. Similarly, in high-resolution graphics mode, color is determined by pixel position and thus can be implemented in software, saving Wozniak the chips needed to convert bit patterns to colors. This also allowed for subpixel font rendering, since orange and blue pixels appear half a pixel-width farther to the right on the screen than green and purple pixels.The Apple II at first used data cassette storage, like most other microcomputers of the time. In 1978, the company introduced an external 5+1⁄4-inch floppy disk drive, called Disk II (stylized as Disk ][), attached through a controller card that plugs into one of the computer's expansion slots (usually slot 6). The Disk II interface, created by Wozniak, is regarded as an engineering masterpiece for its economy of electronic components.The approach taken in the Disk II controller is typical of Wozniak's designs. With a few small-scale logic chips and a cheap PROM (programmable read-only memory), he created a functional floppy disk interface at a fraction of the component cost of standard circuit configurations. Case design The first production Apple II computers had hand-molded cases; these had visible bubbles and other lumps in them from the imperfect plastic molding process, which was soon switched to machine molding. In addition, the initial case design had no vent openings, causing high heat buildup from the PCB and resulting in the plastic softening and sagging. Apple added vent holes to the case within three months of production; customers with the original case could have them replaced at no charge. PCB revisions The Apple II's printed circuit board (PCB) underwent several revisions, as Steve Wozniak made modifications to it. The earliest version was known as Revision 0, and the first 6,000 units shipped used it. Later revisions added a color killer circuit to prevent color fringing when the computer was in text mode, as well as modifications to improve the reliability of cassette I/O. Revision 0 Apple IIs powered up in an undefined mode and had garbage on-screen, requiring the user to press Reset. This was eliminated in later board revisions. Revision 0 Apple IIs could display only four colors in hi-res mode, but Wozniak was able to increase this to six hi-res colors on later board revisions. The PCB had three RAM banks for a total of 24 RAM chips. Original Apple IIs had jumper switches to adjust RAM size, and RAM configurations could be 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 36, or 48 KiB. The three smallest memory configurations used 4kx1 DRAMs, with larger ones using 16kx1 DRAMs, or mix of 4-kilobyte and 16-kilobyte banks (the chips in any one bank have to be the same size). The early Apple II+ models retained this feature, but after a drop in DRAM prices, Apple redesigned the circuit boards without the jumpers, so that only 16kx1 chips were supported. A few months later, they started shipping all machines with a full 48 KiB complement of DRAM. Unlike most machines, all integrated circuits on the Apple II PCB were socketed; although this cost more to manufacture and created the possibility of loose chips causing a system malfunction, it was considered preferable to make servicing and replacement of bad chips easier. The Apple II PCB lacks any means of generating an interrupt request, although expansion cards may generate one. Program code had to stop everything to perform any I/O task; like many of the computer's other idiosyncrasies, this was due to cost reasons and Steve Wozniak assuming interrupts were not needed for gaming or using the computer as a teaching tool. Display and graphics Color on the Apple II series uses a quirk of the NTSC television signal standard, which made color display relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. The original NTSC television signal specification was black and white. Color was added later by adding a 3.58-megahertz subcarrier signal that was partially ignored by black-and-white TV sets. Color is encoded based on the phase of this signal in relation to a reference color burst signal. The result is that the position, size, and intensity of a series of pulses define color information. These pulses can translate into pixels on the computer screen, with the possibility of exploiting composite artifact colors. The Apple II display provides two pixels per subcarrier cycle. When the color burst reference signal is turned on and the computer attached to a color display, it can display green by showing one alternating pattern of pixels, magenta with an opposite pattern of alternating pixels, and white by placing two pixels next to each other. Blue and orange are available by tweaking the pixel offset by half a pixel-width in relation to the color-burst signal. The high-resolution display offers more colors by compressing more (and narrower) pixels into each subcarrier cycle. The coarse, low-resolution graphics display mode works differently, as it can output a pattern of dots per pixel to offer more color options. These patterns are stored in the character generator ROM, and replace the text character bit patterns when the computer is switched to low-res graphics mode. The text mode and low-res graphics mode use the same memory region and the same circuitry is used for both. A single HGR page occupied 8 KiB of RAM; in practice this meant that the user had to have at least 12 KiB of total RAM to use HGR mode and 20 KiB to use two pages. Early Apple II games from the 1977–79 period often ran only in text or low-resolution mode in order to support users with small memory configurations; HGR not being near universally supported by games until 1980. Sound Rather than a dedicated sound-synthesis chip, the Apple II has a toggle circuit that can only emit a click through a built-in speaker or a line-out jack; all other sounds (including two-, three- and, eventually, four-voice music and playback of audio samples and speech synthesis) are generated entirely by software that clicked the speaker at just the right times. Similar techniques are used for cassette storage: cassette output works the same as the speaker, and input is a simple zero-crossing detector that serves as a relatively crude (1-bit) audio digitizer. Routines in machine ROM encode and decode data in frequency-shift keying for the cassette. Programming languages Initially, the Apple II was shipped with Integer BASIC encoded in the motherboard ROM chips. Written by Wozniak, the interpreter enabled users to write software applications without needing to purchase additional development utilities. Written with game programmers and hobbyists in mind, the language only supported the encoding of numbers in 16-bit integer format. Since it only supported integers between -32768 and +32767 (signed 16-bit integer), it was less suitable to business software, and Apple soon received complaints from customers. Because Steve Wozniak was busy developing the Disk II hardware, he did not have time to modify Integer BASIC for floating point support. Apple instead licensed Microsoft's 6502 BASIC to create Applesoft BASIC. Disk users normally purchased a so-called Language Card, which had Applesoft in ROM, and was sat below the Integer BASIC ROM in system memory. The user could switch between either BASIC by typing FP or INT in BASIC prompt. Apple also offered a different version of Applesoft for cassette users, which occupied low memory, and was started by using the LOAD command in Integer BASIC. As shipped, Apple II incorporated a machine code monitor with commands for displaying and altering the computer's RAM, either one byte at a time, or in blocks of 256 bytes at once. This enabled programmers to write and debug machine code programs without further development software. The computer powers on into the monitor ROM, displaying a * prompt. From there, Ctrl+B enters BASIC, or a machine language program can be loaded from cassette. Disk software can be booted with Ctrl+P followed by 6, referring to Slot 6 which normally contained the Disk II controller. A 6502 assembler was soon offered on disk, and later the UCSD compiler and operating system for the Pascal language were made available. The Pascal system requires a 16 KiB RAM card to be installed in the language card position (expansion slot 0) in addition to the full 48 KiB of motherboard memory. Manual The first 1,000 or so Apple IIs shipped in 1977 with a 68-page mimeographed "Apple II Mini Manual", hand-bound with brass paper fasteners. This was the basis for the Apple II Reference Manual, which became known as the Red Book for its red cover, published in January 1978. All existing customers who sent in their warranty cards were sent free copies of the Red Book. The Apple II Reference Manual contained the complete schematic of the entire computer's circuitry, and a complete source listing of the "Monitor" ROM firmware that served as the machine's BIOS. An Apple II manual signed by Steve Jobs in 1980 with the inscription "Julian, your generation is the first to grow up with computers. Go change the world." sold at auction for $787,484 in 2021. Operating system The original Apple II provided an operating system in ROM along with a BASIC variant called Integer BASIC. The only form of storage available was cassette tape which was inefficiently slow and, worse, unreliable. In 1977 when Apple decided against the popular but clunky CP/M operating system for Wozniak's innovative disk controller design, it contracted Shepardson Microsystems for $13,000 to write an Apple DOS for the Apple II series. At Shepardson, Paul Laughton developed the crucial disk drive software in just 35 days, a remarkably short deadline by any standard. Apple's Disk II 5+1⁄4-inch floppy disk drive was released in 1978. The final and most popular version of this software was Apple DOS 3.3. Apple DOS was superseded by ProDOS, which supported a hierarchical filesystem and larger storage devices. With an optional third-party Z80-based expansion card, the Apple II could boot into the CP/M operating system and run WordStar, dBase II, and other CP/M software. With the release of MousePaint in 1984 and the Apple IIGS in 1986, the platform took on the look of the Macintosh user interface, including a mouse. Apple released Applesoft BASIC in 1977, a more advanced variant of the language which users could run instead of Integer BASIC for more capabilities. Some commercial Apple II software booted directly and did not use standard DOS disk formats. This discouraged the copying or modifying of the software on the disks, and improved loading speed. Third-party devices and applications When the Apple II initially shipped in June 1977, no expansion cards were available for the slots. This meant that the user did not have any way of connecting a modem or a printer. One popular hack involved connecting a teletype machine to the cassette output. Wozniak's open-architecture design and Apple II's multiple expansion slots permitted a wide variety of third-party devices, including peripheral cards, such as serial controllers, display controllers, memory boards, hard disks, networking components, and real-time clocks. There were plug-in expansion cards—such as the Z-80 SoftCard—that permitted Apple II to use the Z80 processor and run programs for the CP/M operating system, including the dBase II database and the WordStar word processor. The Z80 card also allowed the connection to a modem, and thereby to any networks that a user might have access to. In the early days, such networks were scarce. But they expanded significantly with the development of bulletin board systems in later years. There was also a third-party 6809 card that allowed OS-9 Level One to be run. Third-party sound cards greatly improved audio capabilities, allowing simple music synthesis and text-to-speech functions. Apple II accelerator cards doubled or quadrupled the computer's speed. Early Apple IIs were often sold with a Sup'R'Mod, which allowed the composite video signal to be viewed in a television. The Soviet Union radio-electronics industry designed Apple II-compatible computer Agat. Roughly 12,000 Agat 7 and 9 models were produced and they were widely used in Soviet schools. Agat 9 computers could run "Apple II" compatibility and native modes. "Apple II" mode allowed to run wider variety of (presumably pirated) Apple II software, but at the expense of less RAM. Because of that Soviet developers preferred native mode over "Apple II" compatibility mode. Reception Jesse Adams Stein wrote, "As the first company to release a 'consumer appliance' micro-computer, Apple Computer offers us a clear view of this shift from a machine to an appliance." But the company also had "to negotiate the attitudes of its potential buyers, bearing in mind social anxieties about the uptake of new technologies in multiple contexts. The office, the home and the 'office-in-the-home' were implicated in these changing spheres of gender stereotypes and technological development." After seeing a crude, wire-wrapped prototype demonstrated by Wozniak and Steve Jobs in November 1976, Byte predicted in April 1977, that the Apple II "may be the first product to fully qualify as the 'appliance computer' ... a completed system which is purchased off the retail shelf, taken home, plugged in and used". The computer's color graphics capability especially impressed the magazine. The magazine published a favorable review of the computer in March 1978, concluding: "For the user that wants color graphics, the Apple II is the only practical choice available in the 'appliance' computer class."Personal Computer World in August 1978 also cited the color capability as a strength, stating that "the prime reason that anyone buys an Apple II must surely be for the colour graphics". While mentioning the "oddity" of the artifact colors that produced output "that is not always what one wishes to do", it noted that "no-one has colour graphics like this at this sort of price". The magazine praised the sophisticated monitor software, user expandability, and comprehensive documentation. The author concluded that "the Apple II is a very promising machine" which "would be even more of a temptation were its price slightly lower ... for the moment, colour is an Apple II".Although it sold well from the launch, the initial market was to hobbyists and computer enthusiasts. Sales expanded exponentially into the business and professional market, when the spreadsheet program VisiCalc was launched in mid-1979. VisiCalc is credited as the defining killer app in the microcomputer industry. During the first five years of operations, revenues doubled about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980, annual sales grew from $775,000 to $118 million. During this period the sole products of the company were the Apple II and its peripherals, accessories, and software. Additional documentation in Bitsavers PDF Document archive Apple II on Old-computers.com Online Apple II Resource Apple2History.org

Shift JIS (Shift Japanese Industrial Standards, also SJIS, MIME name Shift_JIS, known as PCK in Solaris contexts) is a character encoding for the Japanese language, originally developed by a Japanese company called ASCII Corporation in conjunction with Microsoft and standardized as JIS X 0208 Appendix 1. As of October 2022, 0.2% of all web pages used Shift JIS, a decline from 1.3% in July 2014.Shift JIS is the second-most popular character encoding for Japanese websites, used by 5.8% of sites in the .jp domain. UTF-8 is used by 94.5% of Japanese websites. Description Shift JIS is based on character sets defined within JIS standards JIS X 0201:1997 (for the single-byte characters) and JIS X 0208:1997 (for the double-byte characters). The lead bytes for the double-byte characters are "shifted" around the 64 halfwidth katakana characters in the single-byte range 0xA1 to 0xDF. The single-byte characters 0x00 to 0x7F match the ASCII encoding, except for a yen sign (U+00A5) at 0x5C and an overline (U+203E) at 0x7E in place of the ASCII character set's backslash and tilde respectively. The single-byte characters from 0xA1 to 0xDF map to the half-width katakana characters found in JIS X 0201. HTML written in Shift JIS can still be interpreted to some extent when incorrectly tagged as ASCII, and when the charset tag is in the top of the document itself, since the important start and end of HTML tags and fields, <, >, /, ", &, ; are coded by the same single bytes as in ASCII, and those bytes won't appear in two-byte sequences. Shift JIS is possible to use in string literals in programming languages such as C, but a few things must be taken into consideration. Firstly, that the escape character 0x5C, normally backslash, is the half-width yen sign (¥) in Shift JIS. If the programmer is aware of this, it would be possible to use printf("ハローワールド¥n"); (where ハローワールド is Hello, world and ¥n is an escape sequence), assuming the I/O system supports Shift JIS output. Secondly, the 0x5C byte will cause problems when it appears as second byte of a two-byte character, because it will be interpreted as an escape sequence, which will mess up the interpretation, unless followed by another 0x5C. Shift JIS requires an 8-bit clean medium for transmission. It is fully backwards compatible with the legacy JIS X 0201 single-byte encoding, meaning it supports half-width katakana and that any valid JIS X 0201 string is also a valid Shift JIS string. For two-byte characters, however, Shift JIS only guarantees that the first byte will be high bit set (0x80–0xFF); the value of the second byte can be either high or low. Appearance of byte values 0x40–0x7E as second bytes of code words makes reliable Shift JIS detection difficult, because same codes are used for ASCII characters. Since the same byte value can be either first or second byte, string searches are difficult, since simple searches can match the second byte of a character and the first byte of the next, which is not a real character. String search algorithms must be tailor-made for Shift JIS. On the other hand, the competing 8-bit format EUC-JP, which does not support single-byte halfwidth katakana, allows for a much cleaner and direct conversion to and from JIS X 0208 code points, as all high bit set bytes are parts of a double-byte character and all codes from ASCII range represent single-byte characters. Unicode also does not have some of the disadvantages of Shift JIS. Unicode does not have ambiguous versions: new characters are assigned to unused places by a single organization while private use areas are clearly designated, will never be used for standard characters, and are rarely needed due to the comprehensive nature of Unicode. For Shift JIS, companies work in parallel. UTF-8-encoded Unicode is backwards compatible with ASCII also for 0x5C, and does not have the string search problem. For a double-byte JIS sequence j 1 j 2 {\displaystyle j_{1}j_{2}} , the transformation to the corresponding Shift JIS bytes s 1 s 2 {\displaystyle s_{1}s_{2}} is: s 1 = { ⌊ j 1 + 1 2 ⌋ + 112 if 33 ≤ j 1 ≤ 94 ⌊ j 1 + 1 2 ⌋ + 176 if 95 ≤ j 1 ≤ 126 {\displaystyle s_{1}={\begin{cases}\left\lfloor {\frac {j_{1}+1}{2}}\right\rfloor +112&{\mbox{if }}33\leq j_{1}\leq 94\\\left\lfloor {\frac {j_{1}+1}{2}}\right\rfloor +176&{\mbox{if }}95\leq j_{1}\leq 126\end{cases}}} s 2 = { j 2 + 31 + ⌊ j 2 96 ⌋ if j 1 is odd j 2 + 126 if j 1 is even {\displaystyle s_{2}={\begin{cases}j_{2}+31+\left\lfloor {\frac {j_{2}}{96}}\right\rfloor &{\mbox{if }}j_{1}{\mbox{ is odd }}\\j_{2}+126&{\mbox{if }}j_{1}{\mbox{ is even }}\end{cases}}} Multiple versions Many different versions of Shift JIS exist. There are two areas for expansion: Firstly, JIS X 0208 does not fill the whole 94×94 space encoded for it in Shift JIS, therefore there is room for more characters here – these are really extensions to JIS X 0208 rather than to Shift JIS itself. Secondly, Shift JIS has more encoding space than is needed for JIS X 0201 and JIS X 0208 (see § Shift JIS byte map below), and this space can and is used for yet more characters. Windows-932 / Windows-31J The most popular extension is Windows code page 932 (a CCSID also used for IBM's extension to Shift JIS), which is registered with the IANA as "Windows-31J", separately from Shift JIS. This was popularized by Microsoft, although Microsoft itself does not recognize the Windows-31J name and instead calls that variation "shift_jis". IBM's code page 943 includes the same double-byte codes as Microsoft's code page 932, while IBM's code page 932 includes fewer extensions (excluding those which Microsoft incorporates from NEC), and retains the character order from the 1978 edition of JIS X 0208, rather than implementing the character variant swaps from the 1983 standard.Windows-31J assigns 0x5C to U+005C REVERSE SOLIDUS (the backslash), and 0x7E to U+007E TILDE, following US-ASCII. However, most localised fonts on Windows display U+005C as a Yen sign for JIS X 0201 compatibility. It includes several extensions, namely "NEC special characters (Row 13), NEC selection of IBM extensions (Rows 89 to 92), and IBM extensions (Rows 115 to 119)", in addition to setting some encoding space aside for end user definition.Windows codepage 932 is the version used in the W3C/WHATWG encoding standard used by HTML5, which includes the "formerly proprietary extensions from IBM and NEC" from Windows-31J in its table for JIS X 0208, and also treats the label "shift_jis" interchangeably with "windows-31j" with the intent of being "compatible with deployed content". MacJapanese The version of Shift-JIS originating from the classic Mac OS (known as x-mac-japanese, Code page 10001 or MacJapanese) assigned the tilde to 0x7E (following US-ASCII, not JIS X 0201 which assigns the overline here), but the Yen sign to 0x5C (as in JIS X 0201 and standard Shift JIS). It also extended JIS X 0201 by assigning the backslash to 0x80 (corresponding to 0x5C in US-ASCII), the non-breaking space to 0xA0, the copyright sign to 0xFD, the trademark symbol to 0xFE and the half-width horizontal ellipsis to 0xFF. It also added extended double byte characters; including 53 vertical presentation forms in the Shift_JIS range 0xEB41–0xED96, at 84 JIS rows down from their canonical forms, and 260 special characters in the Shift_JIS range 0x8540–0x886D. This variant was introduced in KanjiTalk version 7.However, certain Mac OS typefaces used other variants. Sai Mincho and Chu Gothic use a "PostScript" variant of MacJapanese, which included additional vertical presentation forms and a different set of extended special characters, based on the NEC special characters, some of which were only available in the printer versions of the fonts. Older versions of Maru Gothic and Hon Mincho from System 7.1 encoded vertical presentation forms at 10 (not 84) JIS rows down from their canonical forms, and did not include the special character extensions, this was subsequently changed. The typical variant used with KanjiTalk version 6 placed the vertical presentation forms 10 rows down, and also used the NEC extension layout for row 13. Shift_JISx0213 and Shift_JIS-2004 The newer JIS X 0213 standard defines an extended variant of Shift_JIS referred to as Shift_JISx0213 (in a previous version of the standard) or Shift_JIS-2004. It is a superset of standard Shift JIS.In order to represent the allocated rows on both planes of JIS X 0213, Shift_JIS-2004 uses the following method of mapping codepoints. s 1 = { ⌊ k + 257 2 ⌋ if m = 1 and 1 ≤ k ≤ 62 ⌊ k + 385 2 ⌋ if m = 1 and 63 ≤ k ≤ 94 ⌊ k + 479 2 ⌋ − ⌊ k 8 ⌋ × 3 if m = 2 and k = 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 8 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ⌊ k + 411 2 ⌋ if m = 2 and 78 ≤ k ≤ 94 {\displaystyle s_{1}={\begin{cases}\left\lfloor {\frac {k+257}{2}}\right\rfloor &{\mbox{if }}m=1{\mbox{ and }}1\leq k\leq 62\\\left\lfloor {\frac {k+385}{2}}\right\rfloor &{\mbox{if }}m=1{\mbox{ and }}63\leq k\leq 94\\\left\lfloor {\frac {k+479}{2}}\right\rfloor -\left\lfloor {\frac {k}{8}}\right\rfloor \times 3&{\mbox{if }}m=2{\mbox{ and }}k=1,3,4,5,8,12,13,14,15\\\left\lfloor {\frac {k+411}{2}}\right\rfloor &{\mbox{if }}m=2{\mbox{ and }}78\leq k\leq 94\end{cases}}} s 2 = { t + 63 if k is odd and 1 ≤ t ≤ 63 t + 64 if k is odd and 64 ≤ t ≤ 94 t + 158 if k is even {\displaystyle s_{2}={\begin{cases}t+63&{\mbox{if }}k{\mbox{ is odd and }}1\leq t\leq 63\\t+64&{\mbox{if }}k{\mbox{ is odd and }}64\leq t\leq 94\\t+158&{\mbox{if }}k{\mbox{ is even }}\end{cases}}} In the above, s 1 s 2 {\displaystyle s_{1}s_{2}} is a two-byte Shift_JIS-2004 sequence, m {\displaystyle m} is the plane (面, men, surface) number (1 or 2), k {\displaystyle k} is the row (区, ku, ward) number (1-94) and t {\displaystyle t} is the cell (点, ten, point) number (1-94). The ku and ten numbers are equivalent to j 1 − 32 {\displaystyle j_{1}-32} and j 2 − 32 {\displaystyle j_{2}-32} respectively, where j 1 j 2 {\displaystyle j_{1}j_{2}} is a two-byte JIS sequence referencing a given plane. The same set of characters can represented by EUC-JIS-2004, the EUC-JP based counterpart. Some of the additions collide with popular Shift JIS extensions, including Windows codepage 932 which is used in web standards (see above). For example, compare plane 1 row 89 in JIS X 0213 (beginning 硃, 硎, 硏...) to row 89 in the JIS X 0208 variant defined in web standards (beginning 纊, 褜, 鍈...). In addition, some of the characters map to Unicode characters beyond the BMP. Other variants The space with lead bytes 0xF5 to 0xF9 (beyond the region used for JIS X 0208) is used by Japanese mobile phone operators for pictographs for use in E-mail. KDDI goes further and defines hundreds more in the space with lead bytes 0xF3 and 0xF4.Beyond even this, there have been numerous minor variations made on Shift JIS, with individual characters here and there altered. Most of these extensions and variants have no IANA registration, so there is much scope for confusion, if the extensions are used. A variant is the one that must be used if wanting to encode Shift JIS in source code strings of C and similar programming languages. This variant doubles the byte 0x5C if it appears as second byte of a two-byte character, but not if it appears as a single "¥" (ASCII: "\") character, because 0x5C is the beginning of an escape sequence. The best way of handling this is a special editor which encodes Shift JIS this way. Shift JIS byte map As defined in JIS X 0208:1997 The chart below gives the detailed meaning of each byte in a stream encoded in standard Shift JIS (conforming to JIS X 0208:1997). With vendor or JIS X 0213 extensions Some of the bytes which are not used for single-byte codes or initial bytes in JIS X 0208:1997 are used by certain extensions, resulting in the layout detailed in the chart below. Footnotes See also Japanese language and computers Code page 932 (Microsoft Windows) Mojibake Shift JIS art Shift-JIS Kanji Table – a table of the non-ASCII part of the codeset "Windows Codepage 932". Microsoft. May 1, 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-03-07. – Microsoft's definition Forms of Shift-JIS in ICU (International Components for Unicode) ibm-942 (sjis78) ibm-943 (contains the \u00A5 ↔ \x5C mapping) Shift JIS (contains the \u005C ↔ \x5C mapping)

The Graphic Artists Guild is a guild of graphic designers, illustrators, and photographers and is organized into seven chapters around the United States. It is a member of the international organization Icograda. History In the mid-1960s most automobile advertising contained illustrations, not photographs. Many of the illustrators who worked for the advertising agencies servicing the automobile industry were unhappy with their pay and working conditions. Many were members of the Society of Illustrators, but they were told that the Society did not do advocacy work. So those artists banded together to form the Guild as a union of artists. On November 2, 1967, the Graphic Artists Guild charter, based on the Screen Actors Guild constitution, was signed in Detroit, Michigan, by 113 artists. After the Detroit chapter, and the first national office (eventually located in New York City), were founded, artists organized chapters in Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and San Francisco, California.In 1970, the Detroit chapter called a strike against Campbell-Ewald, the advertising agency that serviced Chevrolet. Guild members struck for better wages and the right of Campbell-Ewald's freelance graphic artists to accept work from other clients. The strike failed when Campbell-Ewald hired scabs to break the strike. With the failure of the strike the Detroit chapter declined and the Guild's headquarters was moved to New York.Over the years, the Guild has merged with several other artists groups, including the Illustrators Guild in 1976, the Graphic Artists for Self-Preservation and the Creative Designers Guild in 1978, the Textile Designers Guild in 1979, the Cartoonist Guild in 1984, the Coalition of Designers in 1987, and the Society of Professional Graphic Artists in Seattle became the Guild’s Seattle chapter in 1993.In December 2008, the Guild sued the Illustrators Partnership of America and five individuals for libel regarding what the Guild considered defamatory public comments in connection with the IPA's effort to form a separate illustrators rights-collecting society with 13 organizations, the American Society of Illustrators Partnership. In 2011, Judge Debra James of the Supreme Court, Civil Branch, New York County, dismissed this US$1 million-dollar tortious interference and defamation lawsuit. The Guild filed a motion to appeal. UAW Affiliation For most of its history, the Graphic Artists Guild has been an independent union, negotiating its first collective bargaining contract for artists at the Children’s Television Workshop in 1986. In 1993 the Guild became the collective bargaining agent for the graphic artists employed at Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) primary member station, WNET. After years of negotiations with the American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, and the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Guild in 1999 voted to affiliate with the UAW, becoming Local 3030. Affecting the Guild's decision were the experiences of the National Writers Union, which had seen 50% membership growth under UAW auspices.As Guild membership declined from 2,083 in 1999 to 1,832 in 2003, the Guild's affiliation with UAW became economically unfeasible. In 2004, a majority of the Guild members voted to disaffiliate at the end of the five-year agreement. Advocacy In the 1970s, Guild lobbying helped sway the Copyright Royalty Tribunal to raise fees and improve reporting procedures regarding use of previously published art for PBS and its affiliate stations.In 1979, the Guild began a long-term campaign to stop work-for-hire contracts, where the art buyer assumes control over a freelance artist's work. A 1989 Supreme Court decision, Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, followed the Guild's position to rule that a company obtaining the services of a freelancer cannot compel a work-for-hire situation, or assume one is in place, unless both parties sign a written contract agreeing to such an arrangement.In 1980, the Guild represented a group of textile designers, terminated by Print-a-Pattern for trying to form a union, in an unfair labor practices action before the National Labor Relations Board.In the early 1980s, artists' fair-practices law based on the Guild's model law were passed in California, New York, and Oregon. In response to Guild opposition, the IRS withdrew a proposed rule that would have disallowed a home studio deduction where the artist had a primary source of income at another location and from another type of work.In 1985, the Boston chapter succeeded in passing the Arts Preservation Act in Massachusetts, which states, "No person, except an artist who owns or possesses a work of fine art which the artist has created, shall intentionally commit, or authorize the intentional commission of any physical defacement, mutilation, alteration, or destruction of a work of fine art."Under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, writers and artists were barred from deducting expenses except in the year in which they booked the income for those expenses. The Graphic Artists Guild and 44 other artists groups successfully lobbied to have that provision repealed in 1988.In 2002 the Northern California Chapter lobbied the state's Board of Equalization on behalf of illustrator Heather Preston. This effort resulted in a ruling that virtually exempts sales tax on all on the artwork of graphic artists.In April 2010, the Graphic Artists Guild filed suit against Google to halt further development of the Google Books Library Project. The issue in the lawsuit is Google’s digitization of millions of books for the benefit of Google Books. The books in dispute include protected visual works, such as photographs, illustrations, and charts. Google had previous negotiated a settlement with text authors and other rights holders whose work was unlawfully digitized, but that agreement did not address the rights of visual artists.In August 2019 the National Press Photographers Association and the American Society of Media Photographers filed an amicus brief in support of Jim Olive in University of Houston System vs. Jim Olive Photography, D/B/A Photolive, Inc. The brief was joined by the North American Nature Photography Association, Graphic Artists Guild, American Photographic Artists, and Professional Photographers of America. "The case began when Texas photographer Jim Olive discovered that the University of Houston was using one of his aerial photographs for marketing purposes without permission. When Olive asked the University to pay for the use, they refused and told him they were shielded from suit because of sovereign immunity, which protects state government entities from many lawsuits." After a negative ruling from a Texas appellate court Olive hopes to continue his fight. In 2019 the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Allen v. Cooper, raising the question of whether Congress validly abrogated state sovereign immunity via the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act in providing remedies for authors of original expression whose federal copyrights are infringed by states. Thirteen amici including; the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Copyright Alliance, the Software and Information Industry Association, the Graphic Artists Guild and the National Press Photographers Association, filed briefs in support of Allen. Those briefs proposed various doctrines under which the CRCA could validly abrogate sovereign immunity and variously re-asserted and supported the reasons why Congress examined and enacted CRCA, claiming that Congress was fair in finding that states had abused immunity and that an alternative remedy was needed. On November 5, 2019 the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Allen v. Cooper. A decision in the case is expected in the late spring of 2020. Publishing The Graphic Artists Guild published the first edition of its Pricing & Ethical Guidelines in 1973. Pricing & Ethical Guidelines began as a 20-page pamphlet and has grown into a 400-page book.Up through the 1990s, the Guild also published the Directory of Illustration and a Corporate and Communication Design annual. Graphic Artists Guild

The Westfalenhütte is an industrial site in the northeast of Dortmund, Germany. It was established by the steel company Hoesch AG in 1871. At the peak of the so-called Wirtschaftswunder approximately 25,000 people were working there. Following changes in the steel industry and a consolidation process in the sector, activities on the Westfalenhütte were reduced to a few, economically sustainable core areas. Today more than 1,000 people are working on the site of the Westfalenhütte. The Westfalenhütte stretches over approximately five kilometers from east to west, and nearly four kilometers from north to south. The territory is now owned by the ThyssenKrupp AG and is the largest abandoned industrial area in Europe. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Westfalenhütte in 1989 and spoke in front of 8,500 steel workers. The Westfalenhütte had its own railway stop, called Dortmund-Hoesch, which was in use until 1992. A light rail station from the U44 line is still called Westfalenhütte. The Hoeschpark, a recreational area for industrial workers of the Hoesch AG, was established in 1937 on the site of the Weisse Wiese, the first home stadium of football club Borussia Dortmund. History and pictures of the Westfalenhütte (in German) industriedenkmal.de map ca. 1973 Daniel Hinze: Westfalenhütte (in German) dubtown.de Harald Finster: Phönix / Westfalenhütte / Die Westfalenhütte und das Stahlwerk 'Phönix' in Dortmund (in German) Ingo Bornemann: Thyssen-Krupp / Westfalenhütte Dortmund Hoesch-Arbeiter jubelten Gorbatschow zu (in German) Ruhr-Nachrichten 15 June 2009

X bar, x̄ (or X̄) or X-bar may refer to: X-bar theory, a component of linguistic theory Arithmetic mean, a commonly used type of average An X-bar, a rollover protection structure Roman numeral 10,000 in vinculum form See also X-bar chart, a type of control chart

PSR B1257+12 C, alternatively designated PSR B1257+12 d and also named Phobetor, is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting the pulsar Lich approximately 2,315 light-years (710 parsecs; 22 quadrillion kilometres) away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo. It was one of the first planets ever discovered outside the Solar System. It was discovered using the pulsar timing method, where the regular pulses of a pulsar are measured to determine if there is a planet causing variations in the data. In July 2014 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) launched NameExoWorlds, a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Phobetor for this planet. The winning name was submitted by the Planetarium Südtirol Alto Adige in Karneid, Italy. Phobetor is, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, one of the thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep) who appears in dreams in the form of beasts. Characteristics Mass, radius and temperature Phobetor is a super-Earth, an exoplanet that has a radius and mass larger than that of Earth. It has an equilibrium temperature of 567 K (294 °C; 561 °F). It has a mass of 3.9 M🜨 and a likely radius of 1.5 R🜨, based on its mass. Host star The planet orbits a pulsar named Lich. The stellar remnant has a mass of 1.4 M☉ and a radius of around 0.000015 R☉ (10 kilometres). It has a surface temperature of ≤28,856 K and is one billion years old, with a small margin of error. In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old and has a surface temperature of 5,778 K.The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 12.2. Therefore, it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye. Orbit Phobetor orbits its host star about every 98 days at a distance of 0.46 AU (close to the orbital distance of Mercury from the Sun, which is 0.38 AU). Formation When Phobetor and its neighbors were discovered, scientists were puzzled on how the planets formed. Normally, planets orbiting around a massive star would evaporate when its host star exploded in a supernova due to the intense heat (up to 1,000,000 K) and radiation. Several theories have been proposed for how the planets around Lich formed. One theory suggested that the planets actually had existed before the host star exploded in a supernova about 1 billion years ago; however, this is inconsistent as the ejected material from a supernova would be enough to vaporize any planets close to the star. Also, multiple issues arise with this theory that debates nearly impossible steps on how the planets ended up in their current places. Thus, the scenario has been dropped.One scenario proposed a massive binary system in which the planets formed around, with the more massive companion exploding in a supernova. The neutron star would then orbit the secondary companion (forming an X-ray binary) until the now-red supergiant exceeded its Roche lobe and began spilling material onto the neutron star, with the transfer being so dramatic that it forms a Thorne–Żytkow object. However, this doesn't explain how the pulsar would reach a spin rate of 6 milliseconds, so the model is still being questioned.Another model stated that the planets might have formed from a fallback disk from the supernova remnant. The main problem is that the resulting pulsar would be a radio pulsar, not the kind of pulsar that PSR B1257+12 is. Thus, it is unlikely that this was how the planet formed.The most widely accepted model for the planets around Lich is that they were a result of two white dwarfs merging. The white dwarfs would be in a binary orbit, with the orbit slowly decaying until the lighter white dwarf star filled its Roche lobe. If the mass ratio is large, the lighter companion would be disrupted, forming a disk around the more massive companion. The star would accrete this material, and would result in its mass increasing until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit, in which it would experience core collapse and turn into a rapidly rotating neutron star, or, to be precise, a pulsar. After the explosion, the disk around the pulsar would still be massive enough (about 0.1 M☉) to form planets, which would likely be terrestrial, due to them being composed of white dwarf material such as carbon and oxygen. Nomenclature Phobetor, the common name for the planet, is the name of a character in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Latin, phobetor literally means "frightener". On its discovery, the planet was designated PSR 1257+12 C and later PSR B1257+12 C. It was discovered before the convention that extrasolar planets receive designations consisting of the star's name followed by lowercase Roman letters starting from "b" was established. However, it is listed under the latter convention on astronomical databases such as SIMBAD and the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia. Hence the alternative designation PSR B1257+12 d. The convention that arose for designating pulsars was that of using the letters PSR (Pulsating Source of Radio) followed by the pulsar's right ascension and degrees of declination. The modern convention prefixes the older numbers with a B meaning the coordinates are for the 1950.0 epoch. All new pulsars have a J indicating 2000.0 coordinates and also have declination including minutes. Pulsars that were discovered before 1993 tend to retain their B names rather than use their J names, but all pulsars have a J name that provides more precise coordinates of its location in the sky. Wolszczan, A.; Frail, D. (1992). "A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12". Nature. 355 (6356): 145–147. Bibcode:1992Natur.355..145W. doi:10.1038/355145a0. S2CID 4260368. Pulsar Planets

P600 may refer to: P600 (neuroscience), an event-related potential or peak in electrical brain activity measured by electroencephalography P600 NEMA contact ratings, the contact rating of smaller NEMA contactors and relays Sendo P600, a model of mobile phone manufactured by Sendo An identifier for Interleukin 13, a cytokine protein P600 (mountain), a classification for mountains, used in the British Isles

Shih Hsin University (SHU; Chinese: 世新大學; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sè-sin Tāi-ha̍k) is a private university known for its mass communication departments in Taiwan, founded in Muzha, Taipei in 1956. SHU ranked 22nd overall among top 30 liberal arts Universities in Taiwan in 2020 and secured the top 20 spot in 2021. SHU featured in the special category universities in 2022. History Shih Hsin University was re-established in Taiwan in 1956 as Shih Hsin School of Journalism by the journalists and publishers Cheng Shewo and Yeh Ming-hsun. Originally an institution devoted to training professional journalists, the school became a full-fledged university in August 1997. Now it has four colleges, including the College of Journalism and Communication, the School of Management, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Law, and with an enrollment of around 10,000 students.In Chinese, shih means "the world", and hsin means "new" or "news". Schools and programs With four colleges, Shih Hsin University has 19 departments and three graduate institutes; 19 offer bachelor's degrees, 17 offer master's degrees, and three offer PhD degrees. College of Journalism and CommunicationCommunications (PhD) Journalism (BA, MA) Radio, TV & Film (BA, MA) PR & Advertising (BA, MA) Graphic Communication (BA, MA) Speech Communication (BA, MA) Information Communication (BA, MA) Digital Multimedia Arts (BA, MA) Communication Management (BA, MA)College of ManagementInformation Management (BA, MA) Tourism (BA, MA)(ranked top in Taiwan in TSSCI) Finance (BA, MA) Public Policy and Management (only innovative Management specialization-oriented Undergraduate PPM course in Taiwan, including Management Mathematics and Finite Mathematics)(BA, MA, PhD) Business Management (BA, MA)College of Humanities and Social SciencesEconomics (BA, MA) Graduate Institute for Social Transformation (MA) Graduate Institute for Gender Studies (MA) Social Psychology (BA, MA) English (BA, MA) Chinese Literature (BA, MA, PhD) Japanese (BA)College of LawGraduate Institute for Intellectual Property Rights (BA, MA) Law (BA, MA) Cooperative/Sister schools Shih Hsin University's notable sister/cooperative schools include but are not limited to: Japan Hiroshima University Ritsumeikan University Saitama University Kokugakuin University Meisei University Tsurumi University Meijo University Kansai University of International Studies Mejiro University Rissho University Prefectural University of Hiroshima Keisen University University of Shimane Tohoku Gakuin University Tohoko University of Community Service and Science Korea Sungkyunkwan University SungKungHoe University Myeongji University Keimyung University Busan University of Foreign Studies Chung-Ang University Gimcheon University Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (library partnership) City University of Hong Kong Chu Hai College of Higher Education Hang Seng Management College Malaysia One World Hanxing College of Journalism & Communication New Era University College Han Chiang University College of Communication Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman In-House Multimedia College Europe Griffith College Tomas Bata University in Zlín Roma Tre University Nicolaus Copernicus University University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów Lomonosov Moscow State University ISTC Strategies and Communications University of the West of England Liepaja University Pan-European University University of Presov USA University of South Florida John Marshall Law School University of Missouri University of Kansas California State University at Fullerton California State University at Los Angeles Juniata College University of Wisconsin-River Falls Southern New Hampshire University Saginaw Valley State University State University of New York at Fredonia Chiao Hsin Chinese Language School Oceania Swinburne University of Technology Notable alumni Bianca Bai, model and actress Chen Chu, President of Control Yuan Claire Kuo, singer and television host Justin Chou, member of Legislative Yuan (2005–2012) Lai Shin-yuan, Minister of Mainland Affairs Council (2008–2012) and Chinese Taipei's representative to the World Trade Organization (2012–2016) Lee Chia-fen, educator and politician Lin Shu-fen, member of 7th, 8th and 9th Legislative Yuan Megan Lai, actress and singer Sandrine Pinna, actress Wang Shaw-lan, businessperson University presidents Chang Shewo (1956–1975) Hung Wei-pu (1975–1980) Chou Liang-yen (1980–1981) Chang Kai-yuan (1981–1990) Lin Nien-sheng (1990–1991) Cheng Chia-ling (1991–2001) Mu Tzunn-tsan (2001–2008) Lai Ting-ming (2008–2014) Wu Yung-chien (2014–present) Chorus The Shih Hsin University Chorus was established on March 22, 1965. It offers scholastic performances, a Winter Music Camp, external performances in spring vacation, and annual performances in June. Transportation Main campus MRT Taipei Metro Wanfang Hospital station Taipei Metro Jingmei station Taipei Metro Dapinglin station Taipei Metro Guozikou station Shanghai college MRT Shanghai Metro Line 10/ Line 11 Jiaotong University station See also List of universities in Taiwan U9 League Official site

The Japanese language has a system of honorific speech, referred to as keigo (Japanese: 敬語, literally "respectful language"), parts of speech that show respect. Their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank. Japanese honorific titles, often simply called honorifics, consist of suffixes and prefixes when referring to others in a conversation. The system is very extensive, having its own special vocabulary and grammatical forms to express various levels of respectful, humble, and polite speech. It closely resembles other honorifics systems found in the East Asian cultural sphere, such as honorifics in Korean. Introduction Japanese uses honorific constructions to show or emphasize social rank, social intimacy or similarity in rank. The choice of pronoun used, for example, will express the social relationship between the person speaking and the person being referred to, and Japanese often avoids pronouns entirely in favor of more explicit titles or kinship terms.Honorific speech is often longer, and sometimes much longer, than more direct speech. Some extreme, but not uncommon, examples include the following: When asking a question: the first is casually between friends, the second is a junior person asking a superior in a formal meeting: 聞いていい？Kiite ii? Ok to ask (a question)?聞かせていただけると嬉しいのですが。Kikasete-itadakeru to ureshii no desu ga. I would, however, be delighted if I may be permitted to ask (a question).When asking for cooperation: the first is usual and polite, the latter is very formal, but often found in writing, especially in posters or flyers. ご協力下さい。Go-kyōryoku-kudasai. Your cooperation, please.ご協力の程お願い申し上げます。Go-kyōryoku no hodo o-negai mōshiagemasu. We respectfully request the favor of a measure of your cooperation.This latter example includes two honorific prefixes, nominalization of a verb (for formality), a respectful form, and two humble forms. Types of honorifics Honorifics in Japanese, or keigo (Japanese: 敬語), fall under three main categories: polite language (Japanese: 丁寧語, Hepburn: teineigo), respectful language (Japanese: 尊敬語, Hepburn: sonkeigo), and humble language (Japanese: 謙譲語, Hepburn: kenjōgo), also translated as modest language. Linguistically the first is an addressee honorific, used for someone being talked to, and the latter two are referent honorifics, used for someone being talked about. Sometimes two more categories are also used, for a total of five categories: "courteous language" (Japanese: 丁重語, Hepburn: teichōgo) and "word beautification" (Japanese: 美化語, Hepburn: bikago), but more often these are included in the above three: teichōgo as a kind of humble language, bikago as a kind of polite language. These two other categories use the same forms as the general categories, but are used in different contexts, and therefore are differentiated by some linguists. Each type of speech has its own vocabulary and verb endings. For example, the standard form of the verb "to do" is suru (する). This form is appropriate with family members and close friends. The polite form of suru (する), the addressee honorific, is shimasu (します). This form is appropriate in most daily interactions. When showing respect, such as when talking about a customer or a superior, however, the respectful word nasaru (なさる) and its polite form nasaimasu are used, and when referring to one's own actions or the actions of a group member, the humble word itasu and its polite form itashimasu are used. These respectful and humble words are referent honorifics, and thus can coexist with addressee honorific -masu. Polite language Polite language (Japanese: 丁寧語, Hepburn: teineigo) is characterized by the use of the sentence ending desu (です) and the verb ending masu (ます) and the use of prefixes such as o (お) and go (ご) towards neutral objects. Television presenters invariably use polite language, and it is the form of the language first taught to most non-native learners of Japanese. Polite language can be used to refer to one's own actions or those of other people. Respectful language Respectful language (Japanese: 尊敬語, Hepburn: sonkeigo) is a special form or alternative word used when talking about superiors and customers. It is not used to talk about oneself. For example, when a Japanese hairdresser or dentist requests their client to take a seat, they say "O-kake ni natte kudasai" (「お掛けになってください」) to mean "Please sit down". However, they would use the verb suwaru (座る) rather than "O-kake ni naru" (「お掛けになる」) to refer to themselves sitting down. The respectful version of language can only be used to refer to others. In general, respectful language is directed at those in positions of power; for example, a superior at work, or a customer. It also implies that the speaker is acting in a professional capacity. It is characterized by lengthy polite expressions. Common verbs may be replaced by more polite alternative verbs, for example, する, suru (do) by なさる, nasaru, or 話す, hanasu (talk) by おっしゃる ossharu when the subject is a person of respect. Some of these transformations are many-to-one: 行く, iku (go), 来る, kuru (come), and いる, iru (be) all become いらっしゃる, irassharu, and 食べる, taberu (eat) and 飲む, nomu (drink) both become 召し上がる, meshiagaru. Verbs may also be changed to respectful forms. One respectful form is a modification of the verb with a prefix and a polite suffix. For example, 読む, yomu (read) becomes o-yomi ni naru, with the prefix o- added to the i-form of the verb, and the verb ending ni naru. The verb ending -(r)areru can also be used, such as yomareru. Nouns also undergo substitution to express respect. The normal Japanese word for person hito (人) becomes kata (方) in respectful language. Thus, a customer would normally be expected to be referred to as a kata rather than a hito. Humble language In general, humble language is used when describing one's actions or the actions of a person in one's in-group to others such as customers in business. Humble language tends to imply that one's actions are taking place in order to assist the other person. Humble language (謙譲語, kenjōgo) is similar to respectful language, in substituting verbs with other forms. For example: suru (do) becomes itasu, and morau (receive) becomes itadaku. These two verbs are also seen in set phrases such as dō itashimashite (you're welcome) and itadakimasu (いただきます—a phrase said before eating or drinking). Similar to respectful language, verbs can also change their form by adding a prefix and the verb "suru" or "itasu". For example, motsu (carry) becomes o mochi shimasu. The use of humble forms may imply doing something for the other person; thus a Japanese person might offer to carry something for someone else by saying o mochi shimasu. This type of humble form also appears in the set phrase o matase shimashita, "I am sorry to have kept you waiting", from mataseru (make wait) with the addition of o and shimasu. Similarly, o negai shimasu, "please [do this]", from negau (request or hope for), again with the addition of o and shimasu. Even more politely, the form motasete itadaku literally means "humbly be allowed to carry". This phrase would be used to express the idea that "I will carry it if you please." The same forms may also be used when the speaker is not the agent, as a courtesy to the listener, as in the common phrase 電車が参ります (densha ga mairimasu "a train is arriving") at rail stations. In the case, the announcer him or herself is not arriving, but he or she is simply being courteous. Some linguists distinguish this from kenjōgo (where the speaker is the agent), calling it instead teichōgo (丁重語) "courteous language", and defining it formally as: Honorifics by which the Speaker shows consideration to the hearer through all expressions of the subject matter.This category was first proposed by Hiroshi Miyachi (宮地裕). Teichōgo, as an addressee honorific, is always used with the teineigo (-masu) form, the politeness sequence (using "go" as an example) being 行く, 行きます, 参ります (iku, ikimasu, mairimasu). In humble language, name suffixes are dropped when referring to people from inside one's group. Thus, Japanese-speaking company executives would introduce themselves and their team by saying "I am Gushiken, the president, and this is Niwa, the CEO." Similarly to respectful language, nouns can also change. The word hito (人), meaning "person", becomes mono (者). The humble version is used when referring to oneself or members of one's group, such as one's company. Respectful verbs 1 The distinction between these three verbs is lost in some respectful forms. 2 Both are the humble form of もらう (morau, receive); it can also be used for related verbs like 食べる (taberu, eat) and 飲む (nomu, drink). Word beautification Word beautification (bikago, 美化語, "beautified speech", in tanka also sometimes gago, 雅語, "elegant speech") is the practice of making words more polite or "beautiful". This form of language is employed by the speaker to add refinement to one's manner of speech. This is commonly achieved by adding the prefix o- or go- to a word and used in conjunction with the polite form of verbs. In the following example, o- before cha and senbei and the polite form of the verb are used to this effect. Generally o- is used before native Japanese words and go- is used before Sino-Japanese words, but there are exceptions. お茶にお煎餅、よく合いますね O-cha ni o-senbei, yoku aimasu ne Tea and rice crackers go well (together), don't they?In finer classifications, the above example is classified as word beautification—rather than honorific speech—as the speaker is voicing a general opinion regarding tea and rice crackers and is not intentionally deferential towards the listener. In the following example, the speaker is directly referring to the listener and items received by them and is regarded as honorific language: お宅様からいただいたお菓子は大変おいしゅうございました O-taku-sama kara itadaita okashi wa taihen oishuugozaimashita The sweets you gave me were most delectable.See the section on honorific prefixes, below, for further discussion. Usage Business Honorifics are considered extremely important in a business setting. Training in honorifics usually does not take place at school or university, so company trainees are trained in correct use of honorifics to customers and superiors. In groups and out groups When using polite or respectful forms, the point of view of the speaker is shared by the speaker's in-group (内 uchi), so in-group referents do not take honorifics. For example, members of one's own company are referred to with humble forms when speaking with an external person; similarly, family members of the speaker are referred to humbly when speaking to guests. Similarly, the out-group (外 soto) addressee or referent is always mentioned in the polite style (though not necessarily with honorifics). Mastery of politeness and honorifics is important for functioning in Japanese society. Not speaking politely enough can be insulting, and speaking too politely can be distancing (and therefore also insulting) or seem sarcastic. Children generally speak using plain informal speech, but they are expected to master politeness and honorifics by the end of their teenage years. Recent trends indicate that the importance of proper politeness is not as high as before, particularly in metropolitan areas. The standards are inconsistently applied towards foreigners, though most textbooks attempt to teach the polite style before considering to teach any of the other styles. Intrafamilial address Similar to how titles are used instead of personal pronouns when addressing a person of higher status, roles and kinship terms are used in intrafamilial settings where one can refer to other family members by using their role in relation to the speaker instead of a personal pronoun. For example, older relatives cannot be addressed as anata, kimi or simply by their name alone. Instead, a term denoting their relationship with the speaker or their name suffixed by an appropriate kinship term is used, such as otōsan when speaking to one’s father. Those younger than the speaker can generally be addressed by using personal pronouns or their name. Thus, the choice of whether a family member can be addressed by using a personal pronoun, their name or their role is dependent on the position of the speaker within the family. Gender differences Depending on the situation, women's speech may contain more honorifics than men's. In particular, in informal settings, women are more likely to use polite vocabulary and honorific prefixes, such as gohan o taberu to mean "eat rice", whereas men may use less polite vocabulary such as meshi o kū with exactly the same meaning. This is part of a general pattern of speech differences by sex. However, in many settings, such as in customer service, there will be little or no difference between male and female speech. Grammatical overview Japanese has grammatical functions to express several different pragmatic registers. Not only politeness but also respectfulness, humility and formality can be expressed. Expressing politeness There are three levels of politeness, plain or direct (普通体 futsūtai or 常体 jōtai), polite or distal (敬体 keitai or 丁寧 teinei), and formal (generally, 敬語 keigo or 最敬体 saikeitai). Formal and polite can be combined. For example, for the sentence "This is a book", The informal style is used among friends, the distal or polite style by inferiors when addressing superiors and among strangers or casual acquaintances, and the formal style generally in writing or prepared speeches. The plain formal and informal styles of verbs are nearly identical, with a few grammatical differences, such as the verb de aru being used as a formal copula, and the preferential usage of verb stems to connect clauses instead of the "te form". Formal language in Japanese also uses different vocabulary and structures from informal language. In some contexts, where both the imperfective (incomplete: present/future) and perfective (complete: past) tenses are acceptable, the perfective is considered more polite. This is only at the completion of an activity; common examples are ありがとうございました arigatō gozaimashita "thank you (for a completed favor)", ご馳走様でした go-chisō-sama deshita "it was a feast (for a completed meal)", 失礼しました shitsurei shimashita "I have been rude (when leaving, after a visit)". For example, when entering someone's office, one conventionally says 失礼します shitsurei shimasu, as the visit is not complete yet, while when exiting one may say either shitsurei shimasu or, more politely, 失礼しました shitsurei shimashita. Many phrases cannot be used in the perfective in this way, as the referent is as yet incomplete. For example, the standard greeting お早うございます ohayō gozaimasu "Good morning" (lit. "It is early") cannot be said as ×お早うございました *ohayō gozaimashita "It was early", as it is used only during the morning. Expressing respect Further to this, there is another factor, respect, which is indicated in yet other ways. For each politeness level there are two respectful forms (敬語, keigo). The respect language (尊敬語, sonkeigo) form shows respect to the subject of the sentence. The humble language (謙譲語, kenjōgo) form gives respect to the (direct or indirect) object by a variety of means, the most common being to humble the speaker.These respectful forms are represented by different verb endings. Since verbs come at the end of the sentence in Japanese, most of the factors of formality, politeness, and respect are expressed at the very end of each sentence. The o-machi-suru humble forms carry an implication that the waiting or other activity is being (humbly) done by the speaker for the benefit of the person being addressed. Thus a humble sentence is unlikely to take a third person subject. For example, a sentence like jon ga sensei o o machi suru (John waits for the teacher) is unlikely to occur. Honorific titles Honorific suffixes and prefixes are used when referring to others in a conversation. They reflect not only the level of politeness chosen, but also the relative social rank or the degree of intimacy between people. For example, a person might refer to their classmate or colleague as Asada-san ("Mr./Ms. Asada"), but to their little son as Hideyo-chan ("lil' Hideyo"). Referring to somebody without using a honorific is a sign of great informality or intimacy. The most common honorifics include: Requests Japanese requests and commands have many set forms depending on who is being addressed by whom. For example, the phrase "I ask your favor" (よろしくお願いします, yoroshiku o-negai shimasu), can take various forms. At the bottom of the scale comes よろしく頼む yoroshiku tanomuwhich might be used between male friends. Its more polite variant よろしく頼みます yoroshiku tanomimasumight be used towards less familiar people or to superiors. Going up in politeness, the phrase よろしくお願いします yoroshiku o-negai shimasumeans the same thing, but is used in business settings. It is possible to go further, replacing the polite shimasu (します) with the humble itashimasu (致します), to get よろしくお願い致します yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu.In extremely formal Japanese, such as that used on New Year's greeting cards, this may be replaced with an even more polite expression よろしくお願い申し上げます yoroshiku o-negai mōshiagemasu.When making requests, at the bottom of the politeness scale comes the plain imperative "tabero" (「食べろ」) or "kue" (「食え」), literally "Eat!", a simple order to be said to an inferior or someone considered to have no choice, such as a prisoner. This form might convey anger. Similarly, the no/n da (の・ん だ) suffix can make an order: "taberu n da" (「食べるんだ」), or "kū n da" (「食うんだ」), "Eat!". To express anger, the suffix yagaru (やがる) also exists: "kuiyagare" (「食いやがれ」), an extremely forceful and angry instruction to eat, expressing contempt for the addressee. Negatives are formed by adding suffix na: taberu na "do not eat", gomi o suteru na: "do not throw away rubbish". Similarly, the negative of da, ja nai, can be used: taberu n ja nai. More polite, but still strict, is the nasai suffix, which attaches to the i-form of the verb. This originates in the polite verb nasaru. Tabenasai thus is an order perhaps given by a parent to a child. This is often colloquially shortened to na, hence tabena. This form has no grammatical negative. Requests can also be formed by adding to the "te" form of a verb. The plainest form adds kure, an irregular form of the verb kureru, to the te form. For example, tabete kure or kutte kure: "eat it", less forceful than "tabero". Negatives are made by using the negative "te" form: tabenaide kure or kuwanaide kure "don't eat it". Going up one scale in politeness, the more polite verb kudasai is added. For example, tabete kudasai. With this polite form, the rough kū verb is unlikely to be used. Similarly, tabenaide kudasai: "please don't eat it". A similar entry on the scale of politeness is made by using the imperative form of a polite verb. For example, meshiagaru, the polite verb for "to eat", when turned into meshiagare, the imperative, becomes the response to the set phrase itadakimasu. Further, more polite forms are also possible. These involve the "i-form" of the verb rather than the "te form", and an honorific prefix (see honorific prefixes: verbs, below). Beyond simply increased politeness, this form is more formal, and is used when addressing a group, or as a general instruction, rather than directed at a particular person. For example, tsukau, "use", becomes o tsukai kudasai: "please use this". In the case of phrasal verbs the honorific o appears before the entire phrase, not simply the verb, as in o-ki (w)o tsuke-kudasai (お気を付け下さい), from ki (w)o tsukeru (気を付ける). Politeness can be carried even further by conjugating kudasaru into its masu form and using the imperative, which becomes "o tsukai kudasaimase." The most polite form of this would probably be along the lines of "o tsukai ni natte itadakimasen deshou ka." "You will probably not bestow the favor of honorably using this?" Language like this, however, is rarely used. Other ways to increase politeness involve indirection of the request: kore o tsukau you ni o negai shimasu: "I humbly request that you think about using this". Honorific prefixes The bikago (beautifying) prefixes o- (お〜) and go- (ご〜) (both written with the character 御- in kanji) are honorific prefixes which are applied to nouns and in some contexts to verbs. In general, go- (the on'yomi) precedes Sino-Japanese words (that is, words borrowed from Chinese or made from Sino-Japanese elements), while o- (the kun'yomi) precedes native Japanese words. There are many exceptions, however, where the o- prefix is used for Sino-Japanese words, including お茶 o-cha "tea", お大事に o-daiji-ni "get well", お電話 o-denwa "telephone", お稽古 o-keiko "practice", お宅 o-taku "home/you", and many others. There is also one common exception for the go- prefix, ごゆっくり go-yukkuri "slowly", where the main word is clearly not of Chinese origin. These prefixes are used for two purposes: to speak respectfully about a stranger or social superior's family, belongings, or actions (as part of 尊敬語, sonkeigo); or to speak in a generally refined or polite way (敬語 keigo generally, specifically 美化語, bikago). Prefix usage Although these honorific prefixes are often translated into English as "honorable" ("o-denwa," for example, would be given as "the honorable telephone") this translation is unwieldy and cannot convey the true feeling of their use in Japanese. These prefixes are essentially untranslatable, but their use indicates a polite respect for the item named or the person to or about whom one is speaking. A shorter translation is "dear"—for example, o-ko-san, お子さん, translates idiomatically as "your dear child"—and a similar sentiment is expressed in such English expressions as "Would you care for a spot of tea?" or "Would you care for a little tea?" (as opposed to the plain "Would you like some tea?"). As with honorific word forms and titles, honorific prefixes are used when referring to or speaking with a social superior, or speaking about a superior's actions or possessions, but not usually when referring to oneself or one's own actions or possessions, or those of one's in-group. For example, when referring to one's own order at a restaurant, one would use chūmon, but when referring to a customer's order, the restaurant staff would use go-chūmon. Similarly, kazoku means "my family," while go-kazoku means "your family" (or, broadly speaking, someone else's family). There are some words which frequently or always take these prefixes, regardless of who is speaking and to whom; these are often ordinary items which may have particular cultural significance, such as tea (o-cha) and rice (go-han). The word meshi, the Japanese equivalent of Sino-Japanese go-han, is considered rough and masculine (男性語). The honorific o- is also sometimes attached to verb stems (連用形, ren'yōkei, continuative form, -masu stem—see stem forms) of native verbs (hence native o-) to refer to a specific item associated with the verb, as in oshibori (お絞り、絞る) "hot towel", and onigiri/omusubi (お握り、握る and お結び、結ぶ) "rice ball". In rare cases, both a base form and honorific are in use with different readings. A notable example is 利益 ri-eki "benefit, profit (e.g., business)" and 御利益 go-ri-yaku "divine favor, grace"; plain ri-yaku is sometimes used, but go-ri-eki is generally not. The former, an everyday term, uses the usual kan-on reading, while the later, a specialized religious term, uses the older go-on reading. Honorific prefixes can be used for other items, possibly for a comic or sarcastic effect (for example, o-kokakōra, "honorable Coca-Cola"). Overuse of honorific prefixes may be taken as pretentious or simpering, and, as with other polite speech, they are more used by women than men. In tea ceremony, common ingredients and equipment always take the honorific o- or go-, including water (o-mizu), hot water (o-yu), and tea bowls (o-chawan). However, these terms are often heard in daily life as well. Foreign loanwords (gairaigo, except those that come from Chinese; see above) seldom take honorifics, but when they do o- seems to be preferable to go-. Examples are o-bīru (bīru: beer), which can sometimes be heard at restaurants, o-kādo (kādo: card, as in credit card or point card), which is often heard at supermarkets and department stores, and o-sōsu (sōsu: sauce). Verbs For verbs, a respectful request—or rather a polite command—addressed to a group may be formed by using 御〜, followed by the masu-stem (連用形), followed by kudasai (下さい, please). For Chinese verbs (kango + suru), the prefix is generally pronounced go-, while for native Japanese verbs the prefix is pronounced o-. This is generally written in kana. The most commonly heard use is go-chūi-kudasai (ご注意ください, please be careful) (Chinese verb), which is used pervasively in recorded announcement in Japan (escalators, trains and subways, turning trucks), but other verbs are also used frequently, such as o-suwari-kudasai (お座りください, please sit down) (Japanese verb). The respectful prefix can also be used in honorific verbs, when speaking about a superior, in which case it is formed by o-, followed by the masu-stem, followed by -ni-naru (〜になる) (suitably conjugated), as in o-kaeri-ni-narimashita (お帰りになりました, went home). Female names O- was also commonly used as an honorific prefix to female given names in pre-war Japan, particularly in combination with dropping common suffixes such as -ko (-こ) (-子, literally "child"). For example, Hanako (花子) would be referred to as O-hana (お花), Harumi (春美) would become O-haru (お春), Yuki (雪) would become O-yuki (お雪), and so on. This was a less polite honorific than "san". For example, a female servant named Kikuko would be referred to as O-kiku rather than Kikuko-san. This usage has disappeared in current Japanese, and has been replaced by using the diminutive suffix -chan instead (compare to male -kun), as in Aki-chan for Akiko. Rare forms There is also a rarer prefix mi- (kun'yomi), which is mostly used in words related to gods and the emperor, such as mi-koshi (御輿, "portable shrine" in Shinto) and mi-na (御名, "the Holy Name" in Christianity). However, in this context it is often replaced by 神 ("god", also pronounced mi-), and then a further 御 (pronounced お-, o-) may be added, as in 御神輿 (o-mi-koshi). Sometimes the reading is ambiguous—for example, 御霊屋 "mausoleum" may be pronounced either mi-tama-ya or o-tama-ya. When pronounced as mi-, the prefix is usually written in kanji (unlike o- and go-, which are very frequently hiragana), but in some case it is written in hiragana, with a notable example being mi-hotoke (御仏, "Lord Buddha") often being written as み仏, partly to avoid confusion with the incorrect reading *go-butsu. The honorific prefix generally does not fall in the middle. In compounds, where the honorific would fall in the middle, the honorific is almost always dropped. For example, お茶／御茶 o-cha "tea", but 麦茶 mugi-cha "barley tea", not ×麦お茶／麦御茶 *mugi-o-cha. There are exceptions, however, such as 乾御門 inui-go-mon "northwest gate (to imperial palace)"; note that 乾門 inui-mon "northwest gate (generally)" is also used. Rarely, 御 is used instead as an honorific suffix, notably in 甥御 oigo "your nephew" and 姪御 meigo "your niece". The character 御 has other readings, notably on (kun'yomi) and gyo (on'yomi), as seen in on-sha (御社, your company, literally "honorable company") and gyo-en (御苑, imperial garden, literally "honorable garden"), but these are not productive (they are not used to form new words, but only in existing words). Another prefix, pronounced o- and potentially confused with 御〜 when written in hiragana, is 阿〜 o-, which also has affectionate connotations, but is a separate term and not productive. It was previously used for endearment for women's names, and today is most notable in 阿多福／阿亀 (o-ta-fuku, o-kame, "moon-faced woman, homely woman"), which are frequently written as お多福／お亀, which may be mistaken (partially) for hiragana forms of ×御多福／×御亀. The character 阿 is more frequently pronounced a, and used especially in words and names from Sanskrit, such as the a in the syllable "aum", hence unfamiliar in this use, creating the potential for confusion. In one case, a triple honorific prefix may used, namely in the word o-mi-o-tsuke, a polite term for miso soup, which is ordinarily referred to as miso-shiru (味噌汁, miso soup). This may be spelt in kanji in multiple ways, including (御御御汁, honorable-honorable-honorable soup), but also as (御味御汁, honorable flavor honorable soup) (味 = mi, flavor), and the 御御御〜 spelling may be considered ateji, punning on 御 and 味 both having the reading mi. English analogs While English has different registers, its levels of formality and politeness are not as formalized or as clearly defined as in Japanese. However, they can be instructive in gaining a feel for Japanese speech. English imperatives range from very blunt ("Give me the book"), to very indirect and elaborate ("If it's not too much trouble, could you please be so kind as to pass me the book?"—note the use of potential form, as in Japanese). Similarly, changes in word use can make language more flowery or respectful—rather than "Do you know?", one might say "Are you familiar with?" or "Are you acquainted with?", which convey some of the feel of 知る shiru versus ご存知だ go-zonji da. In English, words of Germanic origin are generally plainer, those from French are generally more flowery (compare "drink" versus "beverage"), and those from Latin are more formal and technical (see Anglish and related articles); similarly in Japanese, words of Japanese origin are plainer, while words of Chinese origin are more formal. These are not hard-and-fast rules, but they give a feel for the gradations. Humble language is less common in modern English, but is found in some contexts, such as guests saying "I am honored to be here," (rather than "I am glad to be here" or "I am happy to be here") and in various valedictions such as "Sincerely", which were formerly more formal and humble, with such forms as "I am, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant," and the like. Some scholars argue that while honorific usage is necessarily affected by culturally specific values systems, the linguistic principles regulating its usage are not necessarily distinct from those of other languages, including honorific-poor languages such as English. Manual keigo Some convenience stores and fast-food restaurants teach their young and part-time employees to verbally interact with customers in strictly prescribed ways laid down in instruction manuals. These forms of speech are known as マニュアル敬語 (manyuaru keigo, "manual keigo") or バイト敬語 (baito keigo, "part-timer keigo"). Manual keigo includes forms which would be considered incorrect or at least non-standard in terms of traditional usage (keigo and otherwise). A common example is udon ni narimasu (literally "[this] becomes udon", "[this] will be udon") as a polite form of udon desu ("[this] is udon"), instead of the standard udon de gozaimasu ("[this] is udon (polite)")—this manual keigo form is often criticized on the basis that the udon is not "becoming" anything, and therefore ni naru is incorrect, both as keigo and more generally. See also Aizuchi (相槌 aizuchi) Japanese grammar Japanese language Japanese names Japanese pronouns Korean honorifics Honorifics (linguistics) Thai honorifics Japanese etiquette jeKai article on keigo Keigo Examples SIL Glossary of linguistic terms - What is an honorific? Keigo Practice Quizzes 29 Useful Keigo Phrases for the Japanese Workplace [1]

Amy Linnéa Deasismont (born 15 April 1992), previously known under the stage name Amy Diamond, is a Swedish singer. She is known for her single "What's in It for Me". The song was a 2005 hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. It was the most-played song in Poland that year; it remained in the top ten for four months. She has released six studio albums and performed on television as a singer, actress and hostess.To date, her biggest hits have been "What's in It For Me", "Welcome To The City", "Don't Cry Your Heart Out", "It Can Only Get Better", "Stay My Baby", "Is It Love", "Up" and "Thank You". She is also the youngest person in Sweden to have released a greatest hits album. Biography Early life Deasismont was born in Norrköping, Sweden as Amy Linnéa Deasismont, the second child of an English father, Lee, and a Swedish mother, Chrisbeth. When she was ten months old, the family moved to the UK. The family moved back to Sweden when she was four-and-a-half years old, this time to Jönköping. She has an older sister, Danielle; three younger sisters Lisa, Holly, and Lily; and a younger brother, Charlie.Deasismont started figure skating at age six and won multiple gold medals. She practiced six times a week before embarking on her singing career. She went to a dance and theater school called Blandgodis, and participated in theater and TV productions which gave her experience in public performing. She also appeared in a small television role on the show De drabbade. Deasismont has loved singing since she was one year old. One of her first public performances was at the age seven on the talent show Småstjärnorna. She dressed as Belinda Carlisle and lip synced to "Heaven is a Place on Earth", finishing third in the competition. In 2004, she participated in talent competitions such as Minimelodifestivalen in Jönköping and Swedish TV4's Super Troupers, winning most of them. On Mix Megapol Summer Idol she won the main prize: to record a song in a real studio. During recording, she was offered a commercial recording contract. Soon after, she recorded her debut single "What's in It for Me". Markus Sepehrmanesh, one of the songwriters for her albums, said in an interview that she sang perfectly. "What's in It for Me" was recorded in ninety minutes and the single was released the following February. Success as a singer "What's in It for Me" was a commercial success, although some Swedish TV stations refused to show the music video, arguing that Deasismont was too young (turned 13 soon after the release) for the song's theme about romantic relationships. Deasismont, though, didn't see the theme as a romantic relationship – in her eyes it was relationships between friends. Nevertheless, the song received extensive radio airplay while she simultaneously went on tour with Elin Lanto. "What's in It for Me" reached number one on the Swedish singles chart in March and eventually went platinum.Before long, she appeared on Swedish TV4 and used her artist name for the first time. Although she sang to a pre-recorded backing track in the studio, on the program she sang her single and Alicia Keys' song "If I Ain't Got You" while accompanied by a live band. The band included a drummer, guitarist, bassist, background singer and a keyboard player, who also sang backgrounds. Due to the success of the single, a full album was commissioned, and This Is Me Now was released in May 2005. The album sold more than 150,000 copies, which was triple the requirement for gold record certification in Sweden at the time. The success led to television appearances, such as on the weekly chart show Trackslistan and on the children's competition show Vi i femman. By the end of 2005, she had appeared live on more than 20 television shows. A concert tour in Sweden was organized for her in the summer, and some of the shows were also televised.Although Deasismont's fans are typically school children, the album cannot be described as children's music. The style of This Is Me Now is mainly happy pop music with synthesizer backgrounds, but it includes the theme song "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie and a live recording of the song "If I Ain't Got You". The songs in the album were made by the producer team Tysper (Tommy Tysper), Mack (Marcus Sepehrmanesh) and Grizzly (Gustav Jonsson), who are all from Stockholm. They form the core of the production company TEN Production and have produced successful pop tracks before working with Deasismont. Other Ten Production songs seeing popularity were performed by the A Teens and Helena Paparizou. Deasismont's albums were published through Bonnier Amigo Music Group. Deasismont is a talented live singer and doesn't lip sync in her public performances. Her debut album included a live version of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You", which was described in a review as "sweet and impressive at the same time". She reached the finals in Super Troupers, where she reached the final by singing Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes". She was 12 years old. A review in Svenska Dagbladet described her voice as fine and secure, and her record label advertised it as "shining and characteristic". Outside Sweden Deasismont signed a distribution deal with Warner in July in order to promote the album internationally. She never appeared with her band again, instead performing with a background track and dancers. The album became popular also in other Nordic countries and Poland during the following summer. "What's in It for Me" was heard frequently on the radio, becoming the 19th most played song of 2005 in Finland and 16th best songs of 2005 in Poland. More singles from the albums "Welcome to the City" and "Champion" were released in the summer. A special edition of the album was released for the Central European market. It contained two previously-unreleased songs which would later appear on Still Me Still Now. She was sent on a promotional tour throughout Central Europe in late 2005. Her record deal allowed the whole family to travel with her whenever the concerts were abroad. She performed on television in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and the Netherlands. Deasismont was nominated for several awards in 2005. At 13, she was the youngest person in history to receive the Nordic Music Award for the best Nordic hit "What's in It for Me". Further, she is the youngest artist to receive two simultaneous NRJ Radio Awards and the youngest to be nominated for the Swedish Grammy Awards. At the Grammy Awards, she won Best Swedish Female Artist, Song of the Year, and Newcomer of the Year. She received a Nickelodeon award for Hit of the Year, and had nominations for the Swedish Rockbjörnen. In 2010 she won again award for the best Swedish music/group at Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. Second album Deasismont started recording her second album in February 2006. Her producers sent her songs and she chose which ones she wanted included on the album. The album was recorded over four weekends at a pace of two to three songs per weekend. The album Still Me Still Now was published in May and the first single "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was released a couple of weeks prior to the general album distribution.Although not much was heard from her in the spring, the second album was highly anticipated. Two days before the announced release date, she was interviewed on Nyhetsmorgon, a morning talk show, on TV4. The host surprised her by handing her a gold record for the album; it had already sold enough copies on pre-orders alone to be certified. "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was a radio hit in Sweden. Still Me Still Now continued in the same style as the previous album, being mostly light-pop music. "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was radio-friendly pop, but songs such as "Diamonds" and "No Regrets" were arranged in a style reminiscent of musicals. Some reviews wondered about the song selections, but Deasismont's voice was praised nevertheless. The selected songs were alleged by some to be unsuitable for Deasismont and her audience, but her potential was appreciated.In mid-2006, Deasismont took part in the Diggiloo tour, where she performed, among other songs, Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien". Although Still Me Still Now wasn't as big a success outside Sweden as This Is Me Now, it was still popular in her home country. She also held concerts beyond the Diggiloo tour; readers of the largest evening newspaper, Aftonbladet, voted her 2006 Summer Tour Queen. She released two more singles in late 2006, "Big Guns" and "It Can Only Get Better", and continued to appear on television, including appearances on such prime-time shows as Sommarkrysset, Go'kväll, and Vinterkrysset. In January 2007, she started a fan club that publishes a quarterly fan magazine called Amy Diamond Fanzine. Lastly, in September 2007 she sang "In The Ghetto" on Elvis – The Original Cast. Third album Throughout the second half of 2007, Deasismont recorded her third album, Music in Motion. The album contains tracks done by some renowned producers such as Max Martin and Alexander Kronlund, who previously worked with Britney Spears. The first single, called "Is It Love?", from the album was released on 26 September 2007. She performed the song on some TV shows like Bobster and Bingolotto, and won "Best Female Artist" at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. The album was released on 28 November 2007 and her second single "Stay My Baby" (from the new album), written by Max Martin and Tommy Tysper, was released on 23 November. Deasismont entered Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, in February 2008. Her song was called "Thank You", and it earned her 8th place in the final round. The song was later included on the re-release of her album, entitled Music in Motion – Gold Edition. Deasismont received yet another gold disc for this album. Christmas album On 19 November 2008, Deasismont released a Christmas album called En Helt Ny Jul ("A Brand New Christmas"), comprising traditional Swedish Christmas carols. It is described as being a classic style Christmas album, but with a dose of pop. This is her first album sung completely in Swedish. The album went Gold. Melodifestivalen 2009 and fifth album In December 2008 it was confirmed that Deasismont would once again enter the Swedish Song Contest (Melodifestivalen) in 2009, with the electro-pop song "It's My Life" written by Alexander Bard, Bobby Ljunggren and Oscar Holter. On 14 February 2009, she competed in the 2nd semi-final of Melodifestivalen and was nominated to be the first finalist, but eventually lost to H.E.A.T. with "1000 Miles". She was also awarded the international jury's wildcard nomination of the evening. On 7 March, she took part in the second chance round in Norrköping but lost the first knock-out round to Star Pilots with "Higher" and also lost the international jury wildcard to Sofia with "Alla", thus failing to reach the final. Her fifth album (including the singles "It's My Life", "Up", "Brand New Day" and "Bittersweet") titled Swings and Roundabouts, released in Scandinavia on 21 October, also reached Gold status. Deasismont was one of seven celebrity choir leaders in the third season of the Swedish TV4 show Körslaget ("Clash of the Choirs"), leading a choir team from her hometown of Jönköping. From December 2009 to March 2010, she starred as Alice in Alice in Wonderland at the Maxim theatre in Stockholm. It was going to tour Sweden in 2011, but in December 2010 the production company 3Sagas was unable to finance the tour and it was cancelled. Deasismont is the Swedish voice of the film Princess Lillifee, which premiered in Swedish cinemas on 10 September. She also sings a few songs in the movie. Greatest hits In the spring of 2010, Bonnier Amigo Music Group released information about Deasismont's greatest hits album. The album includes twenty songs from the previous four years as well as four new songs, including covers of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors", "Only You" by Yazoo and "Perfect" by Fairground Attraction. On 6 September 2010 it was announced the album would be released on 3 November 2010, but at the beginning of October, Bonnier changed the release date to 29 October 2010. On 31 October it was confirmed that she is the youngest Swedish artist to release a greatest hits album. The first single, "Only You", was released on 24 September 2010. On 16 October 2010, Deasismont featuring Mikael Rickfors sang a duet version of "True Colors" on the Swedish programme Dansfeber. On 2 November 2010, she performed "Only You" and "True Colors" on XL Live. The same day, she performed "What's in It for Me" (acoustic version) on Swedish morning programme Rix MorronZoo on radio RIX FM. At beginning of November the label released information about a new and last single – "True Colors". In December 2010 some radio stations started playing her song "Ready to Fly" as a promo single, but it wasn't released officially. New music At the end of 2012 Deasismont started working on her new music. For the first time in her career she wrote most of the songs herself. Her new song "Your Love" was released on 16 October 2013. The composers were Deasismont and George Nakas. In May 2016 Deasismont released a new single called "One" under her real name, Amy Deasismont. In August she released her next single "Forgive". She has since released a third single called "This is How We Party". Life outside music Deasismont keeps her private life separate from her singing career. She took the stage name of Amy Diamond when she released her first single, "What's in It for Me". She has said that she chose Diamond because it's her birthstone.When Deasismont was a child, she went to school, in spite of her singing career, and she only rarely missed a day. According to her, there were promotional jobs only every now and then and most were on weekends. If there were gigs on the weekdays, she did the schoolwork as homework. She has mentioned in interviews that math, PE, and sewing were her favorite subjects in school. She regarded her education as important, as it would allow her to do something else if the music didn't work out or if she didn't want to sing anymore; she had said that she wanted to sing as long as it was fun. She had mentioned hairdressing as her future dream hobby. Despite her gigs, she had time to have holidays and she said the entertainment business hadn't been harsh on her. Her manager-father dealt with the business side, and her parents supported her in her career.In 2006, Deasismont received requests to do print modeling and television work in addition to her musical career. She appeared in a mail-order catalogue for Ellos, and did promotional work for Statoil and the sport store chain Stadium. In December, she appeared as an ice princess on Lassemajas detektivbyrå, a Swedish Christmas series. The show allowed her to demonstrate her figure skating skills. She was the Swedish Spokesperson for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that year where she gave 12 points to the winners that year (Tolmachevy Sisters with Vesenniy Jazz). In May 2008, the jewelry maker Tussilagosmycken launched a product called "Amy's Diamond". The piece is made of silver and has a diamond in the middle, and Deasismont's autograph on the back. She has recently done a single for the Barbie CGI feature "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" called "Connected".In the summer of 2010 she hosted a 2nd season of 16 episodes for the SVT programme Bulldogg. This is a programme where kids can spend time with a dog when their parents don't want any animals in the home. The episode premiered on 16 January 2011 on SVT. In the spring of 2011 Deasismont recorded the 3rd season of 16 Bulldogg. Personal life Deasismont was in a relationship with actor Charlie Gustafsson from 2015 to 2022. Discography Albums 2005: This Is Me Now 2006: Still Me Still Now 2007: Music In Motion 2008: Music in motion (Gold Edition) 2008: En Helt Ny Jul 2009: Swings And Roundabouts 2010: Amy Diamond: Greatest Hits Filmography 2003: De Drabbade (small supporting role) 2006: Lassemajas Detektivbyrå (supporting role) 2010: Prinsessan Lillifee (voice actress, leading role) 2012: Prinsessan Lillifee 2: Den Lilla Enhörningen (voice actress, leading role) 2012: Modig (voice actress, leading role) 2013: Liv och Maddie (voice actress,leading role) 2015: Min Lilla Syster (major supporting role) 2016: Biet Maya(voice actress, leading role) Official website Amy Deasismont at IMDb

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method designed to detect forged sender addresses in email (email spoofing), a technique often used in phishing and email spam. DKIM allows the receiver to check that an email that claimed to have come from a specific domain was indeed authorized by the owner of that domain. It achieves this by affixing a digital signature, linked to a domain name, to each outgoing email message. The recipient system can verify this by looking up the sender's public key published in the DNS. A valid signature also guarantees that some parts of the email (possibly including attachments) have not been modified since the signature was affixed. Usually, DKIM signatures are not visible to end-users, and are affixed or verified by the infrastructure rather than the message's authors and recipients. DKIM is an Internet Standard. It is defined in RFC 6376, dated September 2011, with updates in RFC 8301 and RFC 8463. Overview The need for email validated identification arises because forged addresses and content are otherwise easily created—and widely used in spam, phishing and other email-based fraud. For example, a fraudster may send a message claiming to be from sender@example.com, with the goal of convincing the recipient to accept and to read the email—and it is difficult for recipients to establish whether to trust this message. System administrators also have to deal with complaints about malicious email that appears to have originated from their systems, but did not.DKIM provides the ability to sign a message, and allows the signer (author organization) to communicate which email it considers legitimate. It does not directly prevent or disclose abusive behavior. DKIM also provides a process for verifying a signed message. Verifying modules typically act on behalf of the receiver organization, possibly at each hop. All of this is independent of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) routing aspects, in that it operates on the RFC 5322 message—the transported mail's header and body—not the SMTP "envelope" defined in RFC 5321. Hence, DKIM signatures survive basic relaying across multiple MTAs. Technical details Signing The signing organization can be a direct handler of the message, such as the author, the submission site or a further intermediary along the transit path, or an indirect handler such as an independent service that is providing assistance to a direct handler. Signing modules insert one or more DKIM-Signature: header fields, possibly on behalf of the author organization or the originating service provider. The specification allows signers to choose which header fields they sign, but the From: field must always be signed. The resulting header field consists of a list of tag=value parts as in the example below: where the tags used are: The most relevant ones are b for the actual digital signature of the contents (headers and body) of the mail message, bh for the body hash (optionally limited to the first l octets of the body), d for the signing domain, and s for the selector. An Agent or User Identifier (AUID) can optionally be included. The format is an email address with an optional local-part. The domain must be equal to, or a subdomain of, the signing domain. The semantics of the AUID are intentionally left undefined, and may be used by the signing domain to establish a more fine-grained sphere of responsibility. Both header and body contribute to the signature. First, the message body is hashed, always from the beginning, possibly truncated to a given length l (which may be zero). Second, selected header fields are hashed, in the order given by h. Repeated field names are matched from the bottom of the header upward, which is the order in which Received: fields are inserted in the header. A non-existing field matches the empty string, so that adding a field with that name will break the signature. The DKIM-Signature: field of the signature being created, with bh equal to the computed body hash and b equal to the empty string, is implicitly added to the second hash, albeit its name must not appear in h — if it does, it refers to another, preexisting signature. For both hashes, text is canonicalized according to the relevant c algorithms. The result, after encryption with the signer's private key and encoding using Base64, is b. In addition to the list of header fields listed in h, a list of header fields (including both field name and value) present at the time of signing may be provided in z. This list need not match the list of headers in h. Algorithms, fields, and body length are meant to be chosen so as to assure unambiguous message identification while still allowing signatures to survive the unavoidable changes which are going to occur in transit. No end-to-end data integrity is implied. Verification A receiving SMTP server wanting to verify uses the domain name and the selector to perform a DNS lookup. For example, given the example signature above: the d tag gives the author domain to be verified against, example.net ; the s tag the selector, brisbane. The string _domainkey is a fixed part of the specification. This gives the TXT resource record to be looked up as: brisbane._domainkey.example.net Note that the selector and the domain name can be UTF-8 in internationalized email. In that case the label must be encoded according to IDNA before lookup. The data returned from the query of this record is also a list of tag-value pairs. It includes the domain's public key, along with other key usage tokens and flags (e.g. from a command line: nslookup -q=TXT brisbane._domainkey.example.net) as in this example: "k=rsa; t=s; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDDmzRmJRQxLEuyYiyMg4suA2Sy MwR5MGHpP9diNT1hRiwUd/mZp1ro7kIDTKS8ttkI6z6eTRW9e9dDOxzSxNuXmume60Cjbu08gOyhPG3 GfWdg7QkdN6kR4V75MFlw624VY35DaXBvnlTJTgRg/EW72O1DiYVThkyCgpSYS8nmEQIDAQAB" A CNAME record can also be used to point at a different TXT record, for example when one organization sends email on behalf of another. The receiver can use the public key (value of the p tag) to then validate the signature on the hash value in the header field, and check it against the hash value for the mail message (headers and body) that was received. If the two values match, this cryptographically proves that the mail was signed by the indicated domain and has not been tampered with in transit. Signature verification failure does not force rejection of the message. Instead, the precise reasons why the authenticity of the message could not be proven should be made available to downstream and upstream processes. Methods for doing so may include sending back an FBL message, or adding an Authentication-Results header field to the message as described in RFC 7001. Patent Although DomainKeys is covered U.S. Patent 6,986,049, Yahoo! has licensed its patent claims under a dual license scheme: the DomainKeys Patent License Agreement v1.2, or GNU General Public License v2.0 (and no other version). Relationship to SPF and DMARC In essence, both DKIM and SPF provide different measures of email authenticity. DMARC provides the ability for an organisation to publish a policy that specifies which mechanism (DKIM, SPF, or both) is employed when sending email from that domain; how to check the From: field presented to end users; how the receiver should deal with failures—and a reporting mechanism for actions performed under those policies. Advantages The primary advantage of this system for e-mail recipients is in allowing the signing domain to reliably identify a stream of legitimate email, thereby allowing domain-based blacklists and whitelists to be more effective. This is also likely to make certain kinds of phishing attacks easier to detect. There are some incentives for mail senders to sign outgoing e-mail: It allows a great reduction in abuse desk work for DKIM-enabled domains if e-mail receivers use the DKIM system to identify forged e-mail messages claiming to be from that domain. The domain owner can then focus its abuse team energies on its own users who actually are making inappropriate use of that domain. Use with spam filtering DKIM is a method of labeling a message, and it does not itself filter or identify spam. However, widespread use of DKIM can prevent spammers from forging the source address of their messages, a technique they commonly employ today. If spammers are forced to show a correct source domain, other filtering techniques can work more effectively. In particular, the source domain can feed into a reputation system to better identify spam. Conversely, DKIM can make it easier to identify mail that is known not to be spam and need not be filtered. If a receiving system has a whitelist of known good sending domains, either locally maintained or from third party certifiers, it can skip the filtering on signed mail from those domains, and perhaps filter the remaining mail more aggressively. Anti-phishing DKIM can be useful as an anti-phishing technology. Mailers in heavily phished domains can sign their mail to show that it is genuine. Recipients can take the absence of a valid signature on mail from those domains to be an indication that the mail is probably forged. The best way to determine the set of domains that merit this degree of scrutiny remains an open question. DKIM used to have an optional feature called ADSP that lets authors that sign all their mail self-identify, but it was demoted to historic status in November 2013. Instead, DMARC can be used for the same purpose and allows domains to self-publish which techniques (including SPF and DKIM) they employ, which makes it easier for the receiver to make an informed decision whether a certain mail is spam or not. For example, using DMARC, eBay and PayPal both publish policies that all of their mail is authenticated, and requesting that any receiving system, such as Gmail, should reject any that is not. Compatibility Because it is implemented using DNS records and an added RFC 5322 header field, DKIM is compatible with the existing e-mail infrastructure. In particular, it is transparent to existing e-mail systems that lack DKIM support.This design approach also is compatible with other, related services, such as the S/MIME and OpenPGP content-protection standards. DKIM is compatible with the DNSSEC standard and with SPF. Computation overhead DKIM requires cryptographic checksums to be generated for each message sent through a mail server, which results in computational overhead not otherwise required for e-mail delivery. This additional computational overhead is a hallmark of digital postmarks, making sending bulk spam more (computationally) expensive. This facet of DKIM may look similar to hashcash, except that the receiver side verification is a negligible amount of work, while a typical hashcash algorithm would require far more work. Non-repudiability DKIM's non-repudiation feature prevents senders (such as spammers) from credibly denying having sent an email. It has proven useful to news media sources such as WikiLeaks, which has been able to leverage DKIM body signatures to prove that leaked emails were genuine and not tampered with.Many consider non-repudiation a non-wanted feature of DKIM, forced by behaviors such as those just described. Indeed, DKIM protocol provides for expiration. There is an optional x= tag on each signature, which establishes a formal expiration time; however, verifiers can ignore it. In addition, domain owners can revoke a public key by removing its cryptographic data from the record, thereby preventing signature verification unless someone saved the public key data beforehand. DKIM key rotation is often recommended just to minimize the impact of compromised keys. However, in order to definitely disable non-repudiation, expired secret keys can be published, thereby allowing everyone to produce fake signatures, thus voiding the significance of original ones. Weaknesses The RFC itself identifies a number of potential attack vectors.DKIM signatures do not encompass the message envelope, which holds the return-path and message recipients. Since DKIM does not attempt to protect against mis-addressing, this does not affect its utility. A number of concerns were raised and refuted in 2013 at the time of the standardization.A concern for any cryptographic solution would be message replay abuse, which bypasses techniques that currently limit the level of abuse from larger domains. Replay can be inferred by using per-message public keys, tracking the DNS queries for those keys and filtering out the high number of queries due to e-mail being sent to large mailing lists or malicious queries by bad actors. For a comparison of different methods also addressing this problem see e-mail authentication. Arbitrary forwarding As mentioned above, authentication is not the same as abuse prevention. An evil email user of a reputable domain can compose a bad message and have it DKIM-signed and sent from that domain to any mailbox from where they can retrieve it as a file, so as to obtain a signed copy of the message. Use of the l tag in signatures makes doctoring such messages even easier. The signed copy can then be forwarded to a million recipients, for example through a botnet, without control. The email provider who signed the message can block the offending user, but cannot stop the diffusion of already-signed messages. The validity of signatures in such messages can be limited by always including an expiration time tag in signatures, or by revoking a public key periodically or upon a notification of an incident. Effectiveness of the scenario can hardly be limited by filtering outgoing mail, as that implies the ability to detect if a message might potentially be useful to spammers. Content modification DKIM currently features two canonicalization algorithms, simple and relaxed, neither of which is MIME-aware. Mail servers can legitimately convert to a different character set, and often document this with X-MIME-Autoconverted header fields. In addition, servers in certain circumstances have to rewrite the MIME structure, thereby altering the preamble, the epilogue, and entity boundaries, any of which breaks DKIM signatures. Only plain text messages written in us-ascii, provided that MIME header fields are not signed, enjoy the robustness that end-to-end integrity requires. The OpenDKIM Project organized a data collection involving 21 mail servers and millions of messages. 92.3% of observed signatures were successfully verified, a success rate that drops slightly (90.5%) when only mailing list traffic is considered. Annotations by mailing lists The problems might be exacerbated when filtering or relaying software makes changes to a message. Without specific precaution implemented by the sender, the footer addition operated by most mailing lists and many central antivirus solutions will break the DKIM signature. A possible mitigation is to sign only designated number of bytes of the message body. It is indicated by l tag in DKIM-Signature header. Anything added beyond the specified length of the message body is not taken into account while calculating DKIM signature. This won't work for MIME messages.Another workaround is to whitelist known forwarders; e.g., by SPF. For yet another workaround, it was proposed that forwarders verify the signature, modify the email, and then re-sign the message with a Sender: header. However, this solution has its risk with forwarded third party signed messages received at SMTP receivers supporting the RFC 5617 ADSP protocol. Thus, in practice, the receiving server still has to whitelist known message streams. The Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) is an email authentication system designed to allow an intermediate mail server like a mailing list or forwarding service to sign an email's original authentication results. This allows a receiving service to validate an email when the email's SPF and DKIM records are rendered invalid by an intermediate server's processing. ARC is defined in RFC 8617, published in July 2019, as "Experimental". Short key vulnerability In October 2012, Wired reported that mathematician Zach Harris detected and demonstrated an email source spoofing vulnerability with short DKIM keys for the google.com corporate domain, as well as several other high-profile domains. He stated that authentication with 384-bit keys can be factored in as little as 24 hours "on my laptop," and 512-bit keys, in about 72 hours with cloud computing resources. Harris found that many organizations sign email with such short keys; he factored them all and notified the organizations of the vulnerability. He states that 768-bit keys could be factored with access to very large amounts of computing power, so he suggests that DKIM signing should use key lengths greater than 1,024. Wired stated that Harris reported, and Google confirmed, that they began using new longer keys soon after his disclosure. According to RFC 6376 the receiving party must be able to validate signatures with keys ranging from 512 bits to 2048 bits, thus usage of keys shorter than 512 bits might be incompatible and shall be avoided. RFC 6376 also states that signers must use keys of at least 1024 bits for long-lived keys, though long-livingness is not specified there. History DKIM resulted in 2004 from merging two similar efforts, "enhanced DomainKeys" from Yahoo and "Identified Internet Mail" from Cisco. This merged specification has been the basis for a series of IETF standards-track specifications and support documents which eventually resulted in STD 76, currently RFC 6376. "Identified Internet Mail" was proposed by Cisco as a signature-based mail authentication standard, while DomainKeys was designed by Yahoo to verify the DNS domain of an e-mail sender and the message integrity. Aspects of DomainKeys, along with parts of Identified Internet Mail, were combined to create DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). Trendsetting providers implementing DKIM include Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and FastMail. Any mail from these organizations should carry a DKIM signature.Discussions about DKIM signatures passing through indirect mail flows, formally in the DMARC working group, took place right after the first adoptions of the new protocol wreaked havoc on regular mailing list use. However, none of the proposed DKIM changes passed. Instead, mailing list software was changed.In 2017, another working group was launched, DKIM Crypto Update (dcrup), with the specific restriction to review signing techniques. RFC 8301 was issued in January 2018. It bans SHA-1 and updates key sizes (from 512-2048 to 1024-4096). RFC 8463 was issued in September 2018. It adds an elliptic curve algorithm to the existing RSA. The added key type, k=ed25519 is adequately strong while featuring short public keys, more easily publishable in DNS. Development The original DomainKeys was designed by Mark Delany of Yahoo! and enhanced through comments from many others since 2004. It is specified in Historic RFC 4870, superseded by Standards Track RFC 4871, DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures; both published in May 2007. A number of clarifications and conceptualizations were collected thereafter and specified in RFC 5672, August 2009, in the form of corrections to the existing specification. In September 2011, RFC 6376 merged and updated the latter two documents, while preserving the substance of the DKIM protocol. Public key compatibility with the earlier DomainKeys is also possible. DKIM was initially produced by an informal industry consortium and was then submitted for enhancement and standardization by the IETF DKIM Working Group, chaired by Barry Leiba and Stephen Farrell, with Eric Allman of sendmail, Jon Callas of PGP Corporation, Mark Delany and Miles Libbey of Yahoo!, and Jim Fenton and Michael Thomas of Cisco Systems attributed as primary authors. Source code development of one common library is led by The OpenDKIM Project, following the most recent protocol additions, and licensing under the New BSD License. See also Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) Author Domain Signing Practices Bounce message Context filtering DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) DomainKeys Email authentication OpenPGP S/MIME Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Vouch by Reference 50. Why do I need to set DKIM when my DMARC can pass basis the SPF alone? Further reading RFC 4686 Analysis of Threats Motivating DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) RFC 4871 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures Proposed Standard RFC 5617 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Author Domain Signing Practices (ADSP) RFC 5585 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Service Overview RFC 5672 RFC 4871 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures—Update RFC 5863 DKIM Development, Deployment, and Operations RFC 6376 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures Draft Standard RFC 6377 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Mailing Lists RFC 8301 Cryptographic Algorithm and Key Usage Update to DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) RFC 8463 A New Cryptographic Signature Method for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names (identification strings) assigned to each of the associated entities. Most prominently, it translates readily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for locating and identifying computer services and devices with the underlying network protocols. The Domain Name System has been an essential component of the functionality of the Internet since 1985. The Domain Name System delegates the responsibility of assigning domain names and mapping those names to Internet resources by designating authoritative name servers for each domain. Network administrators may delegate authority over sub-domains of their allocated name space to other name servers. This mechanism provides distributed and fault-tolerant service and was designed to avoid a single large central database. The Domain Name System also specifies the technical functionality of the database service that is at its core. It defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures and data communication exchanges used in the DNS, as part of the Internet protocol suite. The Internet maintains two principal namespaces, the domain name hierarchy and the IP address spaces. The Domain Name System maintains the domain name hierarchy and provides translation services between it and the address spaces. Internet name servers and a communication protocol implement the Domain Name System. A DNS name server is a server that stores the DNS records for a domain; a DNS name server responds with answers to queries against its database. The most common types of records stored in the DNS database are for start of authority (SOA), IP addresses (A and AAAA), SMTP mail exchangers (MX), name servers (NS), pointers for reverse DNS lookups (PTR), and domain name aliases (CNAME). Although not intended to be a general purpose database, DNS has been expanded over time to store records for other types of data for either automatic lookups, such as DNSSEC records, or for human queries such as responsible person (RP) records. As a general purpose database, the DNS has also been used in combating unsolicited email (spam) by storing a real-time blackhole list (RBL). The DNS database is traditionally stored in a structured text file, the zone file, but other database systems are common. The Domain Name System originally used the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as transport over IP. Reliability, security, and privacy concerns spawned the use of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as well as numerous other protocol developments. Function An often-used analogy to explain the DNS is that it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, the hostname www.example.com within the domain name example.com translates to the addresses 93.184.216.34 (IPv4) and 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946 (IPv6). The DNS can be quickly and transparently updated, allowing a service's location on the network to change without affecting the end users, who continue to use the same hostname. Users take advantage of this when they use meaningful Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and e-mail addresses without having to know how the computer actually locates the services. An important and ubiquitous function of the DNS is its central role in distributed Internet services such as cloud services and content delivery networks. When a user accesses a distributed Internet service using a URL, the domain name of the URL is translated to the IP address of a server that is proximal to the user. The key functionality of the DNS exploited here is that different users can simultaneously receive different translations for the same domain name, a key point of divergence from a traditional phone-book view of the DNS. This process of using the DNS to assign proximal servers to users is key to providing faster and more reliable responses on the Internet and is widely used by most major Internet services.The DNS reflects the structure of administrative responsibility on the Internet. Each subdomain is a zone of administrative autonomy delegated to a manager. For zones operated by a registry, administrative information is often complemented by the registry's RDAP and WHOIS services. That data can be used to gain insight on, and track responsibility for, a given host on the Internet. History Using a simpler, more memorable name in place of a host's numerical address dates back to the ARPANET era. The Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) maintained a text file named HOSTS.TXT that mapped host names to the numerical addresses of computers on the ARPANET. Elizabeth Feinler developed and maintained the first ARPANET directory. Maintenance of numerical addresses, called the Assigned Numbers List, was handled by Jon Postel at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI), whose team worked closely with SRI.Addresses were assigned manually. Computers, including their hostnames and addresses, were added to the primary file by contacting the SRI Network Information Center (NIC), directed by Feinler, via telephone during business hours. Later, Feinler set up a WHOIS directory on a server in the NIC for retrieval of information about resources, contacts, and entities. She and her team developed the concept of domains. Feinler suggested that domains should be based on the location of the physical address of the computer. Computers at educational institutions would have the domain edu, for example. She and her team managed the Host Naming Registry from 1972 to 1989.By the early 1980s, maintaining a single, centralized host table had become slow and unwieldy and the emerging network required an automated naming system to address technical and personnel issues. Postel directed the task of forging a compromise between five competing proposals of solutions to Paul Mockapetris. Mockapetris instead created the Domain Name System in 1983 while at the University of Southern California.The Internet Engineering Task Force published the original specifications in RFC 882 and RFC 883 in November 1983. These were updated in RFC 973 in January 1986. In 1984, four UC Berkeley students, Douglas Terry, Mark Painter, David Riggle, and Songnian Zhou, wrote the first Unix name server implementation for the Berkeley Internet Name Domain, commonly referred to as BIND. In 1985, Kevin Dunlap of DEC substantially revised the DNS implementation. Mike Karels, Phil Almquist, and Paul Vixie then took over BIND maintenance. Internet Systems Consortium was founded in 1994 by Rick Adams, Paul Vixie, and Carl Malamud, expressly to provide a home for BIND development and maintenance. BIND versions from 4.9.3 onward were developed and maintained by ISC, with support provided by ISC's sponsors. As co-architects/programmers, Bob Halley and Paul Vixie released the first production-ready version of BIND version 8 in May 1997. Since 2000, over 43 different core developers have worked on BIND.In November 1987, RFC 1034 and RFC 1035 superseded the 1983 DNS specifications. Several additional Request for Comments have proposed extensions to the core DNS protocols. Structure Domain name space The domain name space consists of a tree data structure. Each node or leaf in the tree has a label and zero or more resource records (RR), which hold information associated with the domain name. The domain name itself consists of the label, concatenated with the name of its parent node on the right, separated by a dot.The tree sub-divides into zones beginning at the root zone. A DNS zone may consist of as many domains and sub domains as the zone manager chooses. DNS can also be partitioned according to class where the separate classes can be thought of as an array of parallel namespace trees. Administrative responsibility for any zone may be divided by creating additional zones. Authority over the new zone is said to be delegated to a designated name server. The parent zone ceases to be authoritative for the new zone. Domain name syntax, internationalization The definitive descriptions of the rules for forming domain names appear in RFC 1035, RFC 1123, RFC 2181, and RFC 5892. A domain name consists of one or more parts, technically called labels, that are conventionally concatenated, and delimited by dots, such as example.com. The right-most label conveys the top-level domain; for example, the domain name www.example.com belongs to the top-level domain com. The hierarchy of domains descends from right to left; each label to the left specifies a subdivision, or subdomain of the domain to the right. For example, the label example specifies a subdomain of the com domain, and www is a subdomain of example.com. This tree of subdivisions may have up to 127 levels.A label may contain zero to 63 characters. The null label, of length zero, is reserved for the root zone. The full domain name may not exceed the length of 253 characters in its textual representation. In the internal binary representation of the DNS the maximum length requires 255 octets of storage, as it also stores the length of the name.Although no technical limitation exists to prevent domain name labels using any character which is representable by an octet, hostnames use a preferred format and character set. The characters allowed in labels are a subset of the ASCII character set, consisting of characters a through z, A through Z, digits 0 through 9, and hyphen. This rule is known as the LDH rule (letters, digits, hyphen). Domain names are interpreted in case-independent manner. Labels may not start or end with a hyphen. An additional rule requires that top-level domain names should not be all-numeric.The limited set of ASCII characters permitted in the DNS prevented the representation of names and words of many languages in their native alphabets or scripts. To make this possible, ICANN approved the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) system, by which user applications, such as web browsers, map Unicode strings into the valid DNS character set using Punycode. In 2009 ICANN approved the installation of internationalized domain name country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). In addition, many registries of the existing top-level domain names (TLDs) have adopted the IDNA system, guided by RFC 5890, RFC 5891, RFC 5892, RFC 5893. Name servers The Domain Name System is maintained by a distributed database system, which uses the client–server model. The nodes of this database are the name servers. Each domain has at least one authoritative DNS server that publishes information about that domain and the name servers of any domains subordinate to it. The top of the hierarchy is served by the root name servers, the servers to query when looking up (resolving) a TLD. Authoritative name server An authoritative name server is a name server that only gives answers to DNS queries from data that have been configured by an original source, for example, the domain administrator or by dynamic DNS methods, in contrast to answers obtained via a query to another name server that only maintains a cache of data. An authoritative name server can either be a primary server or a secondary server. Historically the terms master/slave and primary/secondary were sometimes used interchangeably but the current practice is to use the latter form. A primary server is a server that stores the original copies of all zone records. A secondary server uses a special automatic updating mechanism in the DNS protocol in communication with its primary to maintain an identical copy of the primary records. Every DNS zone must be assigned a set of authoritative name servers. This set of servers is stored in the parent domain zone with name server (NS) records. An authoritative server indicates its status of supplying definitive answers, deemed authoritative, by setting a protocol flag, called the "Authoritative Answer" (AA) bit in its responses. This flag is usually reproduced prominently in the output of DNS administration query tools, such as dig, to indicate that the responding name server is an authority for the domain name in question.When a name server is designated as the authoritative server for a domain name for which it does not have authoritative data, it presents a type of error called a "lame delegation" or "lame response". Operation Address resolution mechanism Domain name resolvers determine the domain name servers responsible for the domain name in question by a sequence of queries starting with the right-most (top-level) domain label. For proper operation of its domain name resolver, a network host is configured with an initial cache (hints) of the known addresses of the root name servers. The hints are updated periodically by an administrator by retrieving a dataset from a reliable source. Assuming the resolver has no cached records to accelerate the process, the resolution process starts with a query to one of the root servers. In typical operation, the root servers do not answer directly, but respond with a referral to more authoritative servers, e.g., a query for "www.wikipedia.org" is referred to the org servers. The resolver now queries the servers referred to, and iteratively repeats this process until it receives an authoritative answer. The diagram illustrates this process for the host that is named by the fully qualified domain name "www.wikipedia.org". This mechanism would place a large traffic burden on the root servers, if every resolution on the Internet required starting at the root. In practice caching is used in DNS servers to off-load the root servers, and as a result, root name servers actually are involved in only a relatively small fraction of all requests. Recursive and caching name server In theory, authoritative name servers are sufficient for the operation of the Internet. However, with only authoritative name servers operating, every DNS query must start with recursive queries at the root zone of the Domain Name System and each user system would have to implement resolver software capable of recursive operation.To improve efficiency, reduce DNS traffic across the Internet, and increase performance in end-user applications, the Domain Name System supports DNS cache servers which store DNS query results for a period of time determined in the configuration (time-to-live) of the domain name record in question. Typically, such caching DNS servers also implement the recursive algorithm necessary to resolve a given name starting with the DNS root through to the authoritative name servers of the queried domain. With this function implemented in the name server, user applications gain efficiency in design and operation. The combination of DNS caching and recursive functions in a name server is not mandatory; the functions can be implemented independently in servers for special purposes. Internet service providers typically provide recursive and caching name servers for their customers. In addition, many home networking routers implement DNS caches and recursion to improve efficiency in the local network. DNS resolvers The client side of the DNS is called a DNS resolver. A resolver is responsible for initiating and sequencing the queries that ultimately lead to a full resolution (translation) of the resource sought, e.g., translation of a domain name into an IP address. DNS resolvers are classified by a variety of query methods, such as recursive, non-recursive, and iterative. A resolution process may use a combination of these methods.In a non-recursive query, a DNS resolver queries a DNS server that provides a record either for which the server is authoritative, or it provides a partial result without querying other servers. In case of a caching DNS resolver, the non-recursive query of its local DNS cache delivers a result and reduces the load on upstream DNS servers by caching DNS resource records for a period of time after an initial response from upstream DNS servers. In a recursive query, a DNS resolver queries a single DNS server, which may in turn query other DNS servers on behalf of the requester. For example, a simple stub resolver running on a home router typically makes a recursive query to the DNS server run by the user's ISP. A recursive query is one for which the DNS server answers the query completely by querying other name servers as needed. In typical operation, a client issues a recursive query to a caching recursive DNS server, which subsequently issues non-recursive queries to determine the answer and send a single answer back to the client. The resolver, or another DNS server acting recursively on behalf of the resolver, negotiates use of recursive service using bits in the query headers. DNS servers are not required to support recursive queries. The iterative query procedure is a process in which a DNS resolver queries a chain of one or more DNS servers. Each server refers the client to the next server in the chain, until the current server can fully resolve the request. For example, a possible resolution of www.example.com would query a global root server, then a "com" server, and finally an "example.com" server. Circular dependencies and glue records Name servers in delegations are identified by name, rather than by IP address. This means that a resolving name server must issue another DNS request to find out the IP address of the server to which it has been referred. If the name given in the delegation is a subdomain of the domain for which the delegation is being provided, there is a circular dependency. In this case, the name server providing the delegation must also provide one or more IP addresses for the authoritative name server mentioned in the delegation. This information is called glue. The delegating name server provides this glue in the form of records in the additional section of the DNS response, and provides the delegation in the authority section of the response. A glue record is a combination of the name server and IP address. For example, if the authoritative name server for example.org is ns1.example.org, a computer trying to resolve www.example.org first resolves ns1.example.org. As ns1 is contained in example.org, this requires resolving example.org first, which presents a circular dependency. To break the dependency, the name server for the top level domain org includes glue along with the delegation for example.org. The glue records are address records that provide IP addresses for ns1.example.org. The resolver uses one or more of these IP addresses to query one of the domain's authoritative servers, which allows it to complete the DNS query. Record caching A standard practice in implementing name resolution in applications is to reduce the load on the Domain Name System servers by caching results locally, or in intermediate resolver hosts. Results obtained from a DNS request are always associated with the time to live (TTL), an expiration time after which the results must be discarded or refreshed. The TTL is set by the administrator of the authoritative DNS server. The period of validity may vary from a few seconds to days or even weeks.As a result of this distributed caching architecture, changes to DNS records do not propagate throughout the network immediately, but require all caches to expire and to be refreshed after the TTL. RFC 1912 conveys basic rules for determining appropriate TTL values. Some resolvers may override TTL values, as the protocol supports caching for up to sixty-eight years or no caching at all. Negative caching, i.e. the caching of the fact of non-existence of a record, is determined by name servers authoritative for a zone which must include the Start of Authority (SOA) record when reporting no data of the requested type exists. The value of the minimum field of the SOA record and the TTL of the SOA itself is used to establish the TTL for the negative answer. Reverse lookup A reverse DNS lookup is a query of the DNS for domain names when the IP address is known. Multiple domain names may be associated with an IP address. The DNS stores IP addresses in the form of domain names as specially formatted names in pointer (PTR) records within the infrastructure top-level domain arpa. For IPv4, the domain is in-addr.arpa. For IPv6, the reverse lookup domain is ip6.arpa. The IP address is represented as a name in reverse-ordered octet representation for IPv4, and reverse-ordered nibble representation for IPv6. When performing a reverse lookup, the DNS client converts the address into these formats before querying the name for a PTR record following the delegation chain as for any DNS query. For example, assuming the IPv4 address 208.80.152.2 is assigned to Wikimedia, it is represented as a DNS name in reverse order: 2.152.80.208.in-addr.arpa. When the DNS resolver gets a pointer (PTR) request, it begins by querying the root servers, which point to the servers of American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for the 208.in-addr.arpa zone. ARIN's servers delegate 152.80.208.in-addr.arpa to Wikimedia to which the resolver sends another query for 2.152.80.208.in-addr.arpa, which results in an authoritative response. Client lookup Users generally do not communicate directly with a DNS resolver. Instead DNS resolution takes place transparently in applications such as web browsers, e-mail clients, and other Internet applications. When an application makes a request that requires a domain name lookup, such programs send a resolution request to the DNS resolver in the local operating system, which in turn handles the communications required. The DNS resolver will almost invariably have a cache (see above) containing recent lookups. If the cache can provide the answer to the request, the resolver will return the value in the cache to the program that made the request. If the cache does not contain the answer, the resolver will send the request to one or more designated DNS servers. In the case of most home users, the Internet service provider to which the machine connects will usually supply this DNS server: such a user will either have configured that server's address manually or allowed DHCP to set it; however, where systems administrators have configured systems to use their own DNS servers, their DNS resolvers point to separately maintained name servers of the organization. In any event, the name server thus queried will follow the process outlined above, until it either successfully finds a result or does not. It then returns its results to the DNS resolver; assuming it has found a result, the resolver duly caches that result for future use, and hands the result back to the software which initiated the request. Broken resolvers Some large ISPs have configured their DNS servers to violate rules, such as by disobeying TTLs, or by indicating that a domain name does not exist just because one of its name servers does not respond.Some applications such as web browsers maintain an internal DNS cache to avoid repeated lookups via the network. This practice can add extra difficulty when debugging DNS issues as it obscures the history of such data. These caches typically use very short caching times on the order of one minute.Internet Explorer represents a notable exception: versions up to IE 3.x cache DNS records for 24 hours by default. Internet Explorer 4.x and later versions (up to IE 8) decrease the default timeout value to half an hour, which may be changed by modifying the default configuration.When Google Chrome detects issues with the DNS server it displays a specific error message. Other applications The Domain Name System includes several other functions and features. Hostnames and IP addresses are not required to match in a one-to-one relationship. Multiple hostnames may correspond to a single IP address, which is useful in virtual hosting, in which many web sites are served from a single host. Alternatively, a single hostname may resolve to many IP addresses to facilitate fault tolerance and load distribution to multiple server instances across an enterprise or the global Internet. DNS serves other purposes in addition to translating names to IP addresses. For instance, mail transfer agents use DNS to find the best mail server to deliver e-mail: An MX record provides a mapping between a domain and a mail exchanger; this can provide an additional layer of fault tolerance and load distribution. The DNS is used for efficient storage and distribution of IP addresses of blacklisted email hosts. A common method is to place the IP address of the subject host into the sub-domain of a higher level domain name, and to resolve that name to a record that indicates a positive or a negative indication. For example: The address 102.3.4.5 is blacklisted. It points to 5.4.3.102.blacklist.example, which resolves to 127.0.0.1. The address 102.3.4.6 is not blacklisted and points to 6.4.3.102.blacklist.example. This hostname is either not configured, or resolves to 127.0.0.2.E-mail servers can query blacklist.example to find out if a specific host connecting to them is in the blacklist. Many of such blacklists, either subscription-based or free of cost, are available for use by email administrators and anti-spam software. To provide resilience in the event of computer or network failure, multiple DNS servers are usually provided for coverage of each domain. At the top level of global DNS, thirteen groups of root name servers exist, with additional "copies" of them distributed worldwide via anycast addressing. Dynamic DNS (DDNS) updates a DNS server with a client IP address on-the-fly, for example, when moving between ISPs or mobile hot spots, or when the IP address changes administratively. DNS message format The DNS protocol uses two types of DNS messages, queries and replies; both have the same format. Each message consists of a header and four sections: question, answer, authority, and an additional space. A header field (flags) controls the content of these four sections.The header section consists of the following fields: Identification, Flags, Number of questions, Number of answers, Number of authority resource records (RRs), and Number of additional RRs. Each field is 16 bits long, and appears in the order given. The identification field is used to match responses with queries. The flag field consists of sub-fields as follows: After the flag, the header ends with four 16-bit integers which contain the number of records in each of the sections that follow, in the same order. Question section The question section has a simpler format than the resource record format used in the other sections. Each question record (there is usually just one in the section) contains the following fields: The domain name is broken into discrete labels which are concatenated; each label is prefixed by the length of that label. Resource records The Domain Name System specifies a database of information elements for network resources. The types of information elements are categorized and organized with a list of DNS record types, the resource records (RRs). Each record has a type (name and number), an expiration time (time to live), a class, and type-specific data. Resource records of the same type are described as a resource record set (RRset), having no special ordering. DNS resolvers return the entire set upon query, but servers may implement round-robin ordering to achieve load balancing. In contrast, the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) work on the complete set of resource record in canonical order. When sent over an Internet Protocol network, all records use the common format specified in RFC 1035: NAME is the fully qualified domain name of the node in the tree. On the wire, the name may be shortened using label compression where ends of domain names mentioned earlier in the packet can be substituted for the end of the current domain name. TYPE is the record type. It indicates the format of the data and it gives a hint of its intended use. For example, the A record is used to translate from a domain name to an IPv4 address, the NS record lists which name servers can answer lookups on a DNS zone, and the MX record specifies the mail server used to handle mail for a domain specified in an e-mail address. RDATA is data of type-specific relevance, such as the IP address for address records, or the priority and hostname for MX records. Well known record types may use label compression in the RDATA field, but "unknown" record types must not (RFC 3597). The CLASS of a record is set to IN (for Internet) for common DNS records involving Internet hostnames, servers, or IP addresses. In addition, the classes Chaos (CH) and Hesiod (HS) exist. Each class is an independent name space with potentially different delegations of DNS zones. In addition to resource records defined in a zone file, the domain name system also defines several request types that are used only in communication with other DNS nodes (on the wire), such as when performing zone transfers (AXFR/IXFR) or for EDNS (OPT). Wildcard records The domain name system supports wildcard DNS records which specify names that start with the asterisk label, '*', e.g., *.example. DNS records belonging to wildcard domain names specify rules for generating resource records within a single DNS zone by substituting whole labels with matching components of the query name, including any specified descendants. For example, in the following configuration, the DNS zone x.example specifies that all subdomains, including subdomains of subdomains, of x.example use the mail exchanger (MX) a.x.example. The A record for a.x.example is needed to specify the mail exchanger IP address. As this has the result of excluding this domain name and its subdomains from the wildcard matches, an additional MX record for the subdomain a.x.example, as well as a wildcarded MX record for all of its subdomains, must also be defined in the DNS zone. The role of wildcard records was refined in RFC 4592, because the original definition in RFC 1034 was incomplete and resulted in misinterpretations by implementers. Protocol extensions The original DNS protocol had limited provisions for extension with new features. In 1999, Paul Vixie published in RFC 2671 (superseded by RFC 6891) an extension mechanism, called Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) that introduced optional protocol elements without increasing overhead when not in use. This was accomplished through the OPT pseudo-resource record that only exists in wire transmissions of the protocol, but not in any zone files. Initial extensions were also suggested (EDNS0), such as increasing the DNS message size in UDP datagrams. Dynamic zone updates Dynamic DNS updates use the UPDATE DNS opcode to add or remove resource records dynamically from a zone database maintained on an authoritative DNS server. The feature is described in RFC 2136. This facility is useful to register network clients into the DNS when they boot or become otherwise available on the network. As a booting client may be assigned a different IP address each time from a DHCP server, it is not possible to provide static DNS assignments for such clients. Transport protocols From the time of its origin in 1983 the DNS has used the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for transport over IP. Its limitations have motivated numerous protocol developments for reliability, security, privacy, and other criteria, in the following decades. DNS over UDP/53 (Do53) UDP reserves port number 53 for servers listening to queries. Such queries consist of a clear-text request sent in a single UDP packet from the client, responded to with a clear-text reply sent in a single UDP packet from the server. When the length of the answer exceeds 512 bytes and both client and server support Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS), larger UDP packets may be used. Use of DNS over UDP is limited by, among other things, its lack of transport-layer encryption, authentication, reliable delivery, and message length.DNS over TCP/53 (Do53/TCP) In 1989, RFC 1123 specified optional Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) transport for DNS queries, replies and, particularly, zone transfers. Via fragmentation of long replies, TCP allows longer responses, reliable delivery, and re-use of long-lived connections between clients and servers.DNS over TLS (DoT) DNS over TLS emerged as an IETF standard for encrypted DNS in 2016, utilizing Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect the entire connection, rather than just the DNS payload. DoT servers listen on TCP port 853. RFC 7858 specifies that opportunistic encryption and authenticated encryption may be supported, but did not make either server or client authentication mandatory.DNS over HTTPS (DoH) DNS over HTTPS was developed as a competing standard for DNS query transport in 2018, tunneling DNS query data over HTTPS, which transports HTTP over TLS. DoH was promoted as a more web-friendly alternative to DNS since, like DNSCrypt, it uses TCP port 443, and thus looks similar to web traffic, though they are easily differentiable in practice.Oblivious DNS (ODNS) and Oblivious DoH (ODoH) Oblivious DNS (ODNS) was invented and implemented by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Chicago as an extension to unencrypted DNS, before DoH was standardized and widely deployed. Apple and Cloudflare subsequently deployed the technology in the context of DoH, as Oblivious DoH (ODoH). ODoH combines ingress/egress separation (invented in ODNS) with DoH's HTTPS tunneling and TLS transport-layer encryption in a single protocol.DNS over TOR DNS may be run over virtual private networks (VPNs) and tunneling protocols. A use which has become common since 2019 to warrant its own frequently used acronym is DNS over Tor. The privacy gains of Oblivious DNS can be garnered through the use of the preexisting Tor network of ingress and egress nodes, paired with the transport-layer encryption provided by TLS.DNS over QUIC (DoQ) RFC 9250 by the Internet Engineering Task Force describes DNS over QUIC.DNSCrypt The DNSCrypt protocol, which was developed in 2011 outside the IETF standards framework, introduced DNS encryption on the downstream side of recursive resolvers, wherein clients encrypt query payloads using servers' public keys, which are published in the DNS (rather than relying upon third-party certificate authorities) and which may in turn be protected by DNSSEC signatures. DNSCrypt uses either TCP or UDP port 443, the same port as HTTPS encrypted web traffic. This introduced not only privacy regarding the content of the query, but also a significant measure of firewall-traversal capability. In 2019, DNSCrypt was further extended to support an "anonymized" mode, similar to the proposed "Oblivious DNS," in which an ingress node receives a query which has been encrypted with the public key of a different server, and relays it to that server, which acts as an egress node, performing the recursive resolution. Privacy of user/query pairs is created, since the ingress node does not know the content of the query, while the egress nodes does not know the identity of the client. DNSCrypt was first implemented in production by OpenDNS in December 2011. There are several free and open source software implementations that additionally integrate ODoH. It is available for a variety of operating systems, including Unix, Apple iOS, Linux, Android, and MS Windows. Security issues Originally, security concerns were not major design considerations for DNS software or any software for deployment on the early Internet, as the network was not open for participation by the general public. However, the expansion of the Internet into the commercial sector in the 1990s changed the requirements for security measures to protect data integrity and user authentication. Several vulnerability issues were discovered and exploited by malicious users. One such issue is DNS cache poisoning, in which data is distributed to caching resolvers under the pretense of being an authoritative origin server, thereby polluting the data store with potentially false information and long expiration times (time-to-live). Subsequently, legitimate application requests may be redirected to network hosts operated with malicious intent. DNS responses traditionally do not have a cryptographic signature, leading to many attack possibilities; the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) modify DNS to add support for cryptographically signed responses. DNSCurve has been proposed as an alternative to DNSSEC. Other extensions, such as TSIG, add support for cryptographic authentication between trusted peers and are commonly used to authorize zone transfer or dynamic update operations. Some domain names may be used to achieve spoofing effects. For example, paypal.com and paypa1.com are different names, yet users may be unable to distinguish them in a graphical user interface depending on the user's chosen typeface. In many fonts the letter l and the numeral 1 look very similar or even identical. This problem, known as the IDN homograph attack, is acute in systems that support internationalized domain names, as many character codes in ISO 10646 may appear identical on typical computer screens. This vulnerability is occasionally exploited in phishing.Techniques such as forward-confirmed reverse DNS can also be used to help validate DNS results. DNS can also "leak" from otherwise secure or private connections, if attention is not paid to their configuration, and at times DNS has been used to bypass firewalls by malicious persons, and exfiltrate data, since it is often seen as innocuous. Privacy and tracking issues Originally designed as a public, hierarchical, distributed and heavily cached database, DNS protocol has no confidentiality controls. User queries and nameserver responses are being sent unencrypted which enables network packet sniffing, DNS hijacking, DNS cache poisoning and man-in-the-middle attacks. This deficiency is commonly used by cybercriminals and network operators for marketing purposes, user authentication on captive portals and censorship.User privacy is further exposed by proposals for increasing the level of client IP information in DNS queries (RFC 7871) for the benefit of Content Delivery Networks. The main approaches that are in use to counter privacy issues with DNS: VPNs, which move DNS resolution to the VPN operator and hide user traffic from local ISP, Tor, which replaces traditional DNS resolution with anonymous .onion domains, hiding both name resolution and user traffic behind onion routing counter-surveillance, Proxies and public DNS servers, which move the actual DNS resolution to a third-party provider, who usually promises little or no request logging and optional added features, such as DNS-level advertisement or pornography blocking. Public DNS servers can be queried using traditional DNS protocol, in which case they provide no protection from local surveillance, or DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS and DNSCrypt, which do provide such protectionSolutions preventing DNS inspection by local network operator are criticized for thwarting corporate network security policies and Internet censorship. They are also criticized from a privacy point of view, as giving away the DNS resolution to the hands of a small number of companies known for monetizing user traffic and for centralizing DNS name resolution, which is generally perceived as harmful for the Internet. Google is the dominant provider of the platform in Android, the browser in Chrome, and the DNS resolver in the 8.8.8.8 service. Would this scenario be a case of a single corporate entity being in a position of overarching control of the entire namespace of the Internet? Netflix already fielded an app that used its own DNS resolution mechanism independent of the platform upon which the app was running. What if the Facebook app included DoH? What if Apple's iOS used a DoH-resolution mechanism to bypass local DNS resolution and steer all DNS queries from Apple's platforms to a set of Apple-operated name resolvers? Domain name registration The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or other organizations such as OpenNIC, that are charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by an administrative organization, operating a registry. A registry is responsible for operating the database of names within its authoritative zone, although the term is most often used for TLDs. A registrant is a person or organization who asked for domain registration. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar, which is authorized (accredited) to assign names in the corresponding zone and publishes the information using the WHOIS protocol. As of 2015, usage of RDAP is being considered.ICANN publishes the complete list of TLDs, TLD registries, and domain name registrars. Registrant information associated with domain names is maintained in an online database accessible with the WHOIS service. For most of the more than 290 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), the domain registries maintain the WHOIS (Registrant, name servers, expiration dates, etc.) information. For instance, DENIC, Germany NIC, holds the DE domain data. From about 2001, most Generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries have adopted this so-called thick registry approach, i.e. keeping the WHOIS data in central registries instead of registrar databases. For top-level domains on COM and NET, a thin registry model is used. The domain registry (e.g., GoDaddy, BigRock and PDR, VeriSign, etc., etc.) holds basic WHOIS data (i.e., registrar and name servers, etc.). Organizations, or registrants using ORG on the other hand, are on the Public Interest Registry exclusively. Some domain name registries, often called network information centers (NIC), also function as registrars to end-users, in addition to providing access to the WHOIS datasets. The top-level domain registries, such as for the domains COM, NET, and ORG use a registry-registrar model consisting of many domain name registrars. In this method of management, the registry only manages the domain name database and the relationship with the registrars. The registrants (users of a domain name) are customers of the registrar, in some cases through additional subcontracting of resellers. RFC documents The Domain Name System is defined by Request for Comments (RFC) documents published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (Internet standards). The following is a list of RFCs that define the DNS protocol. Standards track RFC 1034, Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities RFC 1035, Domain Names - Implementation and Specification RFC 1123, Requirements for Internet Hosts—Application and Support RFC 1995, Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS RFC 1996, A Mechanism for Prompt Notification of Zone Changes (DNS NOTIFY) RFC 2136, Dynamic Updates in the domain name system (DNS UPDATE) RFC 2181, Clarifications to the DNS Specification RFC 2308, Negative Caching of DNS Queries (DNS NCACHE) RFC 2672, Non-Terminal DNS Name Redirection RFC 2845, Secret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS (TSIG) RFC 3225, Indicating Resolver Support of DNSSEC RFC 3226, DNSSEC and IPv6 A6 aware server/resolver message size requirements RFC 3596, DNS Extensions to Support IP Version 6 RFC 3597, Handling of Unknown DNS Resource Record (RR) Types RFC 4343, Domain Name System (DNS) Case Insensitivity Clarification RFC 4592, The Role of Wildcards in the Domain Name System RFC 4635, HMAC SHA TSIG Algorithm Identifiers RFC 5001, DNS Name Server Identifier (NSID) Option RFC 5011, Automated Updates of DNS Security (DNSSEC) Trust Anchors RFC 5452, Measures for Making DNS More Resilient against Forged Answers RFC 5890, Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA):Definitions and Document Framework RFC 5891, Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA): Protocol RFC 5892, The Unicode Code Points and Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA) RFC 5893, Right-to-Left Scripts for Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA) RFC 6891, Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS0) RFC 7766, DNS Transport over TCP - Implementation Requirements Proposed security standards RFC 4033, DNS Security Introduction and Requirements RFC 4034, Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions RFC 4035, Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security Extensions RFC 4509, Use of SHA-256 in DNSSEC Delegation Signer (DS) Resource Records RFC 4470, Minimally Covering NSEC Records and DNSSEC On-line Signing RFC 5155, DNS Security (DNSSEC) Hashed Authenticated Denial of Existence RFC 5702, Use of SHA-2 Algorithms with RSA in DNSKEY and RRSIG Resource Records for DNSSEC RFC 5910, Domain Name System (DNS) Security Extensions Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) RFC 5933, Use of GOST Signature Algorithms in DNSKEY and RRSIG Resource Records for DNSSEC RFC 7830, The EDNS(0) Padding Option RFC 7858, Specification for DNS over Transport Layer Security (TLS) RFC 8310, Usage Profiles for DNS over TLS and DNS over DTLS RFC 8484, DNS Queries over HTTPS (DoH) Experimental RFCs RFC 1183, New DNS RR Definitions Best Current Practices RFC 2182, Selection and Operation of Secondary DNS Servers (BCP 16) RFC 2317, Classless IN-ADDR.ARPA delegation (BCP 20) RFC 5625, DNS Proxy Implementation Guidelines (BCP 152) RFC 6895, Domain Name System (DNS) IANA Considerations (BCP 42) RFC 7720, DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment Requirements (BCP 40) Informational RFCs These RFCs are advisory in nature, but may provide useful information despite defining neither a standard or BCP. (RFC 1796) RFC 1178, Choosing a Name for Your Computer (FYI 5) RFC 1591, Domain Name System Structure and Delegation RFC 1912, Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors RFC 2100, The Naming of Hosts RFC 3696, Application Techniques for Checking and Transformation of Names RFC 3833. Threat Analysis of the Domain Name System (DNS) RFC 4892, Requirements for a Mechanism Identifying a Name Server Instance RFC 5894, Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA):Background, Explanation, and Rationale RFC 5895, Mapping Characters for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) 2008 RFC 7626, DNS Privacy Considerations RFC 7706, Decreasing Access Time to Root Servers by Running One on Loopback RFC 7816, DNS Query Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy RFC 8499, DNS Terminology Unknown These RFCs have an official status of Unknown, but due to their age are not clearly labeled as such. RFC 920, Domain Requirements – Specified original top-level domains RFC 1032, Domain Administrators Guide RFC 1033, Domain Administrators Operations Guide RFC 1101, DNS Encodings of Network Names and Other Types See also Evans, Claire L. (2018). Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet. New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN 9780735211759. Vixie, Paul (2007-05-04). "DNS Complexity". ACM Queue. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Zytrax.com, Open Source Guide – DNS for Rocket Scientists. Internet Governance and the Domain Name System: Issues for Congress Congressional Research Service Ball, James (28 February 2014). "Meet the seven people who hold the keys to worldwide internet security". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 28 February 2014. Mess with DNS – site where you can do experiments with DNS.

The Old Yue language (Chinese: 古越語; pinyin: Gu Yueyu; Jyutping: Gu2 Jyut6 Jyu5; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kó͘-oa̍t-gí / Kó͘-oa̍t-gír / Kó͘-oa̍t-gú) is an unknown unclassified language, or group of languages, spoken in ancient China circa 700s BCE or later. It can refer to Yue, which was spoken in the realm of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. It can also refer to the variety of different languages spoken by the Baiyue. Possible languages spoken by them may have been of Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, Austronesian, Austroasiatic and other origins. Knowledge of Yue speech is limited to fragmentary references and possible loanwords in other languages, principally Chinese. The longest attestation is the Song of the Yue Boatman, a short song transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC and included, with a Chinese version, in the Garden of Stories compiled by Liu Xiang five centuries later.Native Nanyue people likely spoke Old Yue, while Han settlers and government officials spoke Old Chinese. Some suggest that the descendants of the Nanyue spoke Austroasiatic languages. Others suggest a language related to the modern Zhuang people. It is plausible to say that the Yue spoke more than one language. Old Chinese in the region was likely much influenced by Yue speech (and vice versa), and many Old Yue loanwords in Chinese have been identified by modern scholars. Classification theories There is some disagreement about the languages the Yue spoke, with candidates drawn from the non-Sinitic language families still represented in areas of southern China to this day, which includes Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic languages; as Chinese, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and the Vietic branch of Austroasiatic have similar tone systems, syllable structure, grammatical features and lack of inflection, but these features are believed to have spread by means of diffusion across the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, rather than indicating common descent. Scholars in China often assume that the Yue spoke an early form of Kra–Dai. According to Sagart (2008), this is far from self-evident, because the core of the Kra–Dai area geographically is located in Hainan and the China-Vietnam border region, which is beyond the extreme southern end of the Yue area. The linguist Wei Qingwen gave a rendering of the "Song of the Yue boatman" in Standard Zhuang. Zhengzhang Shangfang proposed an interpretation of the song in written Thai (dating from the late 13th century) as the closest available approximation to the original language, but his interpretation remains controversial. Peiros (2011) shows with his analysis that the homeland of Austroasiatic is somewhere near the Yangtze. He suggests southern Sichuan or slightly west from it, as the likely homeland of proto-Austroasiatic speakers before they migrated to other parts of China and then into Southeast Asia. He further suggests that the family must be as old as proto-Austronesian and proto-Sino-Tibetan or even older. The linguists Sagart (2011) and Bellwood (2013) support the theory of an origin of Austroasiatic along the Yangtze river in southern China. Sagart (2008) suggests that the Old Yue language, together with the proto-Austronesian language, was descended from the language or languages of the Tánshíshān‑Xītóu culture complex (modern-day Fujian province of China), making the Old Yue language a sister language to proto-Austronesian, which Sagart sees as the origin of the Kra–Dai languages.Behr (2009) also notes that the Chǔ dialect of Old Chinese was influenced by several substrata, predominantly Kra-Dai, but also possibly Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Hmong-Mien. Kra–Dai arguments The proto-Kra–Dai language has been hypothesized to originate in the Lower Yangtze valleys. Ancient Chinese texts refer to non-Sinitic languages spoken across this substantial region and their speakers as "Yue". Although those languages are extinct, traces of their existence could be found in unearthed inscriptional materials, ancient Chinese historical texts and non-Han substrata in various Southern Chinese dialects. Thai, one of the Tai languages and the most-spoken language in the Kra–Dai language family, has been used extensively in historical-comparative linguistics to identify the origins of language(s) spoken in the ancient region of South China. One of the very few direct records of non-Sinitic speech in pre-Qin and Han times having been preserved so far is the "Song of the Yue Boatman" (Yueren Ge 越人歌), which was transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC, and found in the 善说 Shanshuo chapter of the Shuoyuan 说苑 or 'Garden of Persuasions'. Willeam Meacham (1996) reports that Chinese linguists have shown strong evidence of Tai vestiges in former Yue areas: Lin (1990) found Tai elements in some Min dialects, Zhenzhang (1990) has proposed Tai etymologies and interpretations for certain place names in the former states of Wu and Yue, and Wei (1982) found similarities in the words, combinations and rhyming scheme between the "Song of the Yue Boatman" and the Kam–Tai languages.James R. Chamberlain (2016) proposes that the Kra-Dai language family was formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin, coinciding roughly with the establishment of the Chu state and the beginning of the Zhou dynasty. Following the southward migrations of Kra and Hlai (Rei/Li) peoples around the 8th century BCE, the Yue (Be-Tai people) started to break away and move to the east coast in the present-day Zhejiang province, in the 6th century BCE, forming the state of Yue and conquering the state of Wu shortly thereafter. According to Chamberlain, Yue people (Be-Tai) began to migrate southwards along the east coast of China to what are now Guangxi, Guizhou and northern Vietnam, after Yue was conquered by Chu around 333 BCE. There the Yue (Be-Tai) formed the polities Xi Ou, which became the Northern Tai and the Luo Yue, which became the Central-Southwestern Tai. However, Pittayaporn (2014), after examining layers of Chinese loanwords in proto-Southwestern Tai and other historical evidence, proposes that the southwestward migration of southwestern Tai-speaking tribes from the modern Guangxi to the mainland of Southeast Asia must have taken place only sometime between the 8th–10th centuries CE, long after 44 CE, when Chinese sources last mentioned Luo Yue in the Red River Delta. Ancient textual evidence In the early 1980s, Zhuang linguist, Wei Qingwen (韦庆稳), electrified the scholarly community in Guangxi by identifying the language in the "Song of the Yue Boatman" as a language ancestral to Zhuang. Wei used reconstructed Old Chinese for the characters and discovered that the resulting vocabulary showed strong resemblance to modern Zhuang. Later, Zhengzhang Shangfang (1991) followed Wei’s insight but used Thai script for comparison, since this orthography dates from the 13th century and preserves archaisms relative to the modern pronunciation. Zhengzhang notes that 'evening, night, dark' bears the C tone in Wuming Zhuang xamC2 and ɣamC2 'night'. The item raa normally means 'we inclusive' but in some places, e.g. Tai Lue and White Tai 'I'. However, Laurent criticizes Zhengzhang's interpretation as anachronistic, because however archaic that Thai script is, Thai language was only written 2000 years after the song had been recorded; even if the Proto-Kam-Tai might have emerged by 6th century BCE, its pronunciation would have been substantially different from Thai. The following is a simplified interpretation of the "Song of the Yue Boatman" by Zhengzhang Shangfang quoted by David Holm (2013) with Thai script and Chinese glosses being omitted: Some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, the Mu Tianzi Zhuan (Chinese: 穆天子傳) (4th c. B.C.) and the Yuejue shu (Chinese: 越絕書) (1st c. A.D.), can be compared to lexical items in Kra-Dai languages. These two texts are only preserved in corrupt versions and share a rather convoluted editorial history. Wolfgang Behr (2002) makes an attempt to identify the origins of those words: "吳謂善「伊」, 謂稻道「緩」, 號從中國, 名從主人。"“The Wú say yī for ‘good’ and huăn for ‘way’, i.e. in their titles they follow the central kingdoms, but in their names they follow their own lords.” 伊 yī < ʔjij < *bq(l)ij ← Siamese diiA1, Longzhou dai1, Bo'ai nii1 Daiya li1, Sipsongpanna di1, Dehong li6 < proto-Tai *ʔdɛiA1 | Sui ʔdaai1, Kam laai1, Maonan ʔdaai1, Mak ʔdaai6 < proto-Kam-Sui/proto-Kam-Tai *ʔdaai1 'good' 緩 [huăn] < hwanX < *awan ← Siamese honA1, Bo'ai hɔn1, Dioi thon1 < proto-Tai *xronA1| Sui khwən1-i, Kam khwən1, Maonan khun1-i, Mulam khwən1-i < proto-Kam-Sui *khwən1 'road, way' | proto-Hlai *kuun1 || proto-Austronesian *Zalan (Thurgood 1994:353) yuè jué shū 越絕書 (The Book of Yuè Records), 1st c. A.D.絕 jué < dzjwet < *bdzot ← Siamese codD1 'to record, mark' (Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999:8) "姑中山者越銅官之山也, 越人謂之銅, 「姑[沽]瀆」。"“The Middle mountains of Gū are the mountains of the Yuè’s bronze office, the Yuè people call them ‘Bronze gū[gū]dú.” 「姑[沽]瀆」 gūdú < ku=duwk < *aka=alok ← Siamese kʰauA1 'horn', Daiya xau5, Sipsongpanna xau1, Dehong xau1, Lü xău1, Dioi kaou1 'mountain, hill' < proto-Tai *kʰauA2; Siamese luukD2l 'classifier for mountains', Siamese kʰauA1-luukD2l 'mountain' || cf. OC 谷 gǔ < kuwk << *ak-lok/luwk < *akə-lok/yowk < *blok 'valley' "越人謂船爲「須盧」。""... The Yuè people call a boat xūlú. (‘beard’ & ‘cottage’)" 須 xū < sju < *bs(n)o ? ← Siamese saʔ 'noun prefix' 盧 lú < lu < *bra ← Siamese rɯaA2, Longzhou lɯɯ2, Bo'ai luu2, Daiya hə2, Dehong hə2 'boat' < proto-Tai *drɯ[a,o] | Sui lwa1/ʔda1, Kam lo1/lwa1, Be zoa < proto-Kam-Sui *s-lwa(n)A1 'boat' "[劉]賈築吳市西城, 名曰「定錯」城。""[Líu] Jiă (the king of Jīng 荆) built the western wall, it was called dìngcuò ['settle(d)' & 'grindstone'] wall." 定 dìng < dengH < *adeng-s ← Siamese diaaŋA1, Daiya tʂhəŋ2, Sipsongpanna tseŋ2, Malay (Austronesian) dindiŋ2, Tagalog diŋdiŋ2 wall' 錯 cuò < tshak < *atshak ? ← Siamese tokD1s 'to set→sunset→west' (tawan-tok 'sun-set' = 'west'); Longzhou tuk7, Bo'ai tɔk7, Daiya tok7, Sipsongpanna tok7 < proto-Tai *tokD1s ǀ Sui tok7, Mak tok7, Maonan tɔk < proto-Kam-Sui *tɔkD1 Substrate in modern Chinese languages Besides a limited number of lexical items left in Chinese historical texts, remnants of language(s) spoken by the ancient Yue can be found in non-Han substrata in Southern Chinese dialects, e.g.: Wu, Min, Hakka, Yue, etc. Robert Bauer (1987) identifies twenty seven lexical items in Yue, Hakka and Min varieties, which share Kra–Dai roots. The following are some examples cited from Bauer (1987): to beat, whip: Yue-Guangzhou faak7a ← Wuming Zhuang fa:k8, Siamese faatD2L, Longzhou faat, Po-ai faat. to beat, pound: Yue-Guangzhou tap8 ← Siamese thup4/top2, Longzhou tupD1, Po-ai tup3/tɔpD1, Mak/Dong tapD2, Tai Nuea top5, Sui-Lingam tjăpD2, Sui-Jungchiang tjăpD2, Sui-Pyo tjăpD2, T'en tjapD2, White Tai tup4, Red Tai tup3, Shan thup5, Lao Nong Khai thip3, Lue Moeng Yawng tup5, Leiping-Zhuang thop5/top4, Western Nung tup4, Yay tup5, Saek thap6, Tai Lo thup3, Tai Maw thup3, Tai No top5, Wuming Zhuang tup8, Li-Jiamao tap8. to bite: Yue-Guangzhou khap8 ← Siamese khop2, Longzhou khoop5, Po-ai hap3, Ahom khup, Shan khop4, Lü khop, White Tai khop2, Nung khôp, Hsi-lin hapD2S, Wuming-Zhuang hap8, T'ien-pao hap, Black Tai khop2, Red Tai khop3, Lao Nong Khai khop1, Western Nung khap6, etc. to burn: Yue-Guangzhou naat7a, Hakka nat8 ← Wuming Zhuang na:t8, Po-ai naatD1L "hot". child: Min-Chaozhou noŋ1 kiā3 "child", Min-Suixi nuŋ3 kia3, Mandarin-Chengdu nɑŋ1 pɑ1 kər1 "youngest sibling", Min-Fuzhou nauŋ6 "young, immature" ← Siamese nɔɔŋ4, Tai Lo lɔŋ3, Tai Maw nɔŋ3, Tai No nɔŋ3 "younger sibing", Wuming Zhuang tak8 nu:ŋ4, Longzhou no:ŋ4 ba:u5, Buyi nuaŋ4, Dai-Xishuangbanna nɔŋ4 tsa:i2, Dai-Dehong lɔŋ4 tsa:i2, etc. correct, precisely, just now: Yue-Guangzhou ŋaam1 "correct", ŋaam1 ŋaam1 "just now", Hakka-Meixian ŋam5 ŋam5 "precisely", Hakka-Youding ŋaŋ1 ŋaŋ1 "just right", Min-Suixi ŋam1 "fit", Min-Chaozhou ŋam1, Min-Hainan ŋam1 ŋam1 "good" ← Wuming Zhuang ŋa:m1 "proper" / ŋa:m3 "precisely, appropriate" / ŋa:m5 "exactly", Longzhou ŋa:m5 vəi6. to cover (1): Yue-Guangzhou hom6/ham6 ← Siamese hom2, Longzhou hum5, Po-ai hɔmB1, Lao hom, Ahom hum, Shan hom2, Lü hum, White Tai hum2, Black Tai hoom2, Red Tai hom3, Nung hôm, Tay hôm, Tho hoom, T'ien-pao ham, Dioi hom, Hsi-lin hɔm, T'ien-chow hɔm, Lao Nong Khai hom3, Western Nung ham2, etc. to cover (2): Yue-Guangzhou khap7, Yue-Yangjiang kap7a, Hakka-Meixian khɛp7, Min-Xiamen kaˀ7, Min-Quanzhou kaˀ7, Min-Zhangzhou kaˀ7 "to cover" ← Wuming-Zhuang kop8 "to cover", Li-Jiamao khɔp7, Li-Baocheng khɔp7, Li-Qiandui khop9, Li-Tongshi khop7 "to cover". to lash, whip, thrash: Yue-Guangzhou fit7 ← Wuming Zhuang fit8, Li-Baoding fi:t7. monkey: Yue-Guangzhou ma4 lau1 ← Wuming Zhuang ma4 lau2, Mulao mə6 lau2. to slip off, fall off, lose: Yue-Guangzhou lat7, Hakka lut7, Hakka-Yongding lut7, Min-Dongshandao lut7, Min-Suixi lak8, Min-Chaozhou luk7 ← Siamese lutD1S, Longzhou luut, Po-ai loot, Wiming-Zhuang lo:t7. to stamp foot, trample: Yue-Guangzhou tam6, Hakka tem5 ← Wuming Zhuang tam6, Po-ai tamB2, Lao tham, Lü tam, Nung tam. stupid: Yue-Guangzhou ŋɔŋ6, Hakka-Meixian ŋɔŋ5, Hakka-Yongfing ŋɔŋ5, Min-Dongshandao goŋ6, Min-Suixi ŋɔŋ1, Min-Fuzhou ŋouŋ6 ← Be-Lingao ŋən2, Wuming Zhuang ŋu:ŋ6, Li-Baoding ŋaŋ2, Li-Zhongsha ŋaŋ2, Li-Xifan ŋaŋ2, Li-Yuanmen ŋaŋ4, Li-Qiaodui ŋaŋ4, Li-Tongshi ŋaŋ4, Li-Baocheng ŋa:ŋ2, Li-Jiamao ŋa:ŋ2. to tear, pinch, peel, nip: Yue-Guangzhou mit7 "tear, break off, pinch, peel off with finger", Hakka met7 "pluck, pull out, peel" ← Be-Lingao mit5 "rip, tear", Longzhou bitD1S, Po-ai mit, Nung bêt, Tay bit "pick, pluck, nip off", Wuming Zhuang bit7 "tear off, twist, peel, pinch, squeeze, press", Li-Tongshi mi:t7, Li-Baoding mi:t7 "pinch, squeeze, press". Substrate in Cantonese Yue-Hashimoto describes the Yue Chinese languages spoken in Guangdong as having a Tai influence. Robert Bauer (1996) points out twenty nine possible cognates between Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou and Kra–Dai, of which seven cognates are confirmed to originate from Kra–Dai sources: Cantonese kɐj1 hɔ:ŋ2 ← Wuming Zhuang kai5 ha:ŋ6 "young chicken which has not laid eggs" Cantonese ja:ŋ5 ← Siamese jâ:ŋ "to step on, tread" Cantonese kɐm6 ← Wuming Zhuang kam6, Siamese kʰòm, Be-Lingao xɔm4 "to press down" Cantonese kɐp7b na:3 ← Wuming Zhuang kop7, Siamese kòp "frog" Cantonese khɐp8 ← Siamese kʰòp "to bite" Cantonese lɐm5 ← Siamese lóm, Maonan lam5 "to collapse, to topple, to fall down (building)" Cantonese tɐm5 ← Wuming Zhuang tam5, Siamese tàm "to hang down, be low" Substrate in Wu Chinese Li Hui (2001) finds 126 Kra-Dai cognates in Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed. According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of the Old Yue language. The two tables below show lexical comparisons between Maqiao Wu dialect and Kra-Dai languages quoted from Li Hui (2001). He notes that, in Wu dialect, final consonants such as -m, -ɯ, -i, ụ, etc don't exist, and therefore, -m in Maqiao dialect tends to become -ŋ or -n, or it's simply absent, and in some cases -m even becomes final glottal stop. Austroasiatic arguments Jerry Norman and Mei Tsu-Lin presented evidence that at least some Yue spoke an Austroasiatic language: A well-known loanword into Sino-Tibetan is k-la for tiger (Hanzi: 虎; Old Chinese (ZS): *qʰlaːʔ > Mandarin pinyin: hǔ, Sino-Vietnamese hổ) from Proto-Austroasiatic *kalaʔ (compare Vietic *k-haːlʔ > kʰaːlʔ > Vietnamese khái and Muong khảl). The early Chinese name for the Yangtze (Chinese: 江; pinyin: jiāng; EMC: kœ:ŋ; OC: *kroŋ; Cantonese: "kong") was later extended to a general word for "river" in south China. Norman and Mei suggest that the word is cognate with Vietnamese sông (from *krong) and Mon kruŋ "river".They also provide evidence of an Austroasiatic substrate in the vocabulary of Min Chinese. For example: -dəŋA "shaman" may be compared with Vietnamese đồng (/ɗoŋ2/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" and Mon doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession". kiɑnB 囝 "son" appears to be related to Vietnamese con (/kɔn/) and Mon kon "child".Norman and Mei's hypothesis has been criticized by Laurent Sagart, who demonstrates that many of the supposed loan words can be better explained as archaic Chinese words, or even loans from Austronesian languages; he also argues that the Vietic cradle must be located farther south in current north Vietnam. Norman & Mei also compares Min verb "to know, to recognize" 捌 (Proto-Min *pat; whence Fuzhou /paiʔ˨˦/ & Amoy /pat̚˧˨/) to Vietnamese biết, also meaning "to know, to recognize". However, Sagart contends that the Min & Vietnamese sense "to know, to recognize" is semantically extended from well-attested Chinese verb 別 "to distinguish, discriminate, differentiate" ((Mandarin: bié; MC: /bˠiɛt̚/; OC: *bred); thus Sagart considers Vietnamese biết as a loanword from Chinese. According to the Shuowen Jiezi (100 AD), "In Nanyue, the word for dog is (Chinese: 撓獀; pinyin: náosōu; EMC: nuw-ʂuw)", possibly related to other Austroasiatic terms. Sōu is "hunt" in modern Chinese. However, in Shuowen Jiezi, the word for dog is also recorded as 獶獀 with its most probable pronunciation around 100 CE must have been *ou-sou, which resembles proto-Austronesian *asu, *u‑asu 'dog' than it resembles the palatal‑initialed Austroasiatic monosyllable Vietnamese chó, Old Mon clüw, etc. Zheng Xuan (127–200 AD) wrote that 扎 (Middle Chinese: /t͡ʃˠat̚/, modern Mandarin Chinese zā, modern Sino-Vietnamese: "trát") was the word used by the Yue people (越人) to mean "die". Norman and Mei reconstruct this word as OC *tsət and relate it to Austroasiatic words with the same meaning, such as Vietnamese chết and Mon chɒt. However, Laurent Sagart points out that 扎 is a well‑attested Chinese word also meaning "to die", which is overlooked by Norman and Mei. That this word occurred in the Old Yue language in Han times could be because the Old Yue language borrowed it from Chinese. Therefore, the resemblance of this Chinese word to an Austroasiatic word is probably accidental. According to Sagart, the resemblance between the Min word *-dəŋA "shaman" or "spirit healer" and the Vietnamese term đồng is undoubtedly by chance.Moreover, Chamberlain (1998) posits that the Austroasiatic predecessor of the modern Vietnamese language originated in modern-day Bolikhamsai Province and Khammouane Province in Laos as well as parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam, rather than in the region north of the Red River Delta. However, Ferlus (2009) showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the Đông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic (Việt–Mường) and Central Vietic (Cuoi-Toum). The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Đông Sơn culture. Thus, Ferlus concludes that the Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong) speakers are the "most direct heirs" of the Dongsonians, who have resided in Southern part of Red River Delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC. In addition, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the Dong Son period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data from Phùng Nguyên culture's burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE) at Mán Bạc (in present-day Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam) have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers, while "mixed genetics" from Đông Sơn culture's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "Dai from China, Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the Kinh"; these results indicated that significant contact happened between Tai speakers and Vietic speakers.Ye (2014) identified a few Austroasiatic loanwords in Ancient Chu dialect of Old Chinese. Writing system There is no known evidence of a writing system among the Yue peoples of the Lingnan region in pre-Qin times, and the Chinese conquest of the region is believed to have introduced writing to the area. However, Liang Tingwang, a professor from the Central University of Nationalities, said that the ancient Zhuang had their own proto-writing system but had to give it up because of the Qinshi Emperor's tough policy and to adopt the Han Chinese writing system, which ultimately developed into the old Zhuang demotic script alongside the classical Chinese writing system, during the Tang dynasty (618–907).

Wang Zhiwen (Chinese: 王志文; pinyin: Wáng Zhìwén, born June 25, 1966) is a Chinese actor born in Shanghai, China. He was selected by for his acting abilities at an early age and began to pursue a career in acting that has flourished in recent years, culminating in his role in Chen Kaige's Together. He also starred in the 2006 film A Battle of Wits as the King of Liang and the 2004 film Ai Zuozhan where he played Wah. Selected filmography Wang Zhiwen at IMDb Wang Zhiwen at the Chinese Movie Database

Huang Kuo-chang (Chinese: 黃國昌; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: N̂g Kok-chhiong, born (1973-08-19)19 August 1973) is a Taiwanese politician, activist, legal scholar, researcher and writer. He is one of the lead figures of the Sunflower Student Movement and joined the New Power Party shortly afterwards. He served as leader of the party from 2015 to 2019, and represented New Taipei City of Xizhi District in the Legislative Yuan on behalf of the NPP between 2016 and 2020. Early life Huang Kuo-chang was born into a traditional farming family in Xizhi Township, Taipei County. He graduated from National Taiwan University in 1995, and he continued his education at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for a master's degree and a doctorate. Political career One of the lead figures of the Sunflower Student Movement, Huang joined the New Power Party in May 2015, and was named acting chairperson in July. That same month, Huang announced that he would enter the legislative election in 2016 as a New Power Party candidate for the 12th constituency of New Taipei City. The constituency, which includes Xizhi, Ruifang, Jinshan, Wanli, Pingxi, Shuangxi and Gongliao, was represented by incumbent Kuomintang legislator Lee Ching-hua. In September, the NPP announced that Huang would serve on a seven-member committee of party leaders, which included Freddy Lim and Neil Peng. As the Democratic Progressive Party did not fill in candidates in the constituency, in order to support Huang. In the elections held on 16 January 2016, Huang beat the incumbent Lee and won the seat in the legislature. After taking office, Huang was assigned to the Finance Committee.Court proceedings against 21 protesters began in June 2016. First to be charged with various offenses included Chen Wei-ting, Huang Kuo-chang, and Lin Fei-fan. In a March 2017 Taipei District Court decision, Chen, Huang and Lin were acquitted of incitement charges.On 16 December 2017, a recall election was held against Huang over his support for same-sex marriage. Votes in favor of the recall outnumbered those against, but fell short of the required threshold, one-fourth of the district's total electorate. Huang stepped down as chairman of the New Power Party in January 2019. In June 2019, Huang stated that he would leave the New Power Party if it became a "sidekick" of the Democratic Progressive Party, but he denied that he was forming a new political party. Huang stated in August 2019 that he would support the 2020 legislative campaign of Lai Chia-lun, who sought to succeed Huang as the legislator representing New Taipei 12. Huang was offered a position on the New Power proportional representation party list. Though the party backed his return to the Legislative Yuan, it later explored drafting Huang to contest the 2020 Taiwan presidential election. Huang refused to stand in the election, and the New Power Party later announced that it would not nominate a presidential candidate. Huang was ranked fourth on the New Power Party list of at-large legislative candidates. The NPP won over seven percent of the party list vote, allowing only three at-large legislative candidates to take office. Publications Journal Articles Kuo-Chang Huang, Kong-Pin Chen, Chang-Ching Lin, 2015, "Party Capability versus Court Preference: Why do the "Haves" Come Out Ahead?－An Empirical Lesson from the Taiwan Supreme Court", JOURNAL OF LAW ECONOMICS & ORGANIZATION, 31(1), 93–126. (SSCI) (IF: 1.036; SSCI ranking: 37.7%,30.5%) Kuo-Chang Huang, Chang-Ching Lin, & Kong-Pin Chen, 2014, "Do Rich and Poor Behave Similarly in Seeking Legal Advice? Lessons from Taiwan in Comparative Perspective", LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, 48(1), 193–223. (SSCI) (IF: 1.31; SSCI ranking: 22.1%,21.2%) Kuo-Chang Huang & Chang-Ching Lin, 2014, "Mock Jury Trials in Taiwan—Paving theGround for Introducing Lay Participation", LAW AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR, 38(4), 367–377. (SSCI) (IF: 2.153; SSCI ranking: 7.6%,16.7%) Book Chapters Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "The Effect of Stakes on Settlement—An Empirical Lesson from Taiwan", editor(s): THEODORE EISENBERG, GIOVANNI BATTISTA RAMELLO EDS, RESEARCH HANDBOOKS IN COMPARATIVE LAW AND ECONOMICS, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "Using Associations as a Vehicle for Class Action—The Case of Taiwan", editor(s): Deborah Hensler, CHRIST HODGE EDS, CLASS ACTION IN CONTEXT, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Conference Papers Kuo-Chang Huang, 2014, "The Impacts of Judicial Reform in Taiwan", paper presented at 4th Brazilian Jurimetrics Conference, Brazil: Brazilian Jurimetrics Association, 2014-05-12 ~ 2014-05-16. Huang Kuo-chang on Facebook (in Chinese)

"Round Round" is a song performed by British girl group Sugababes. It was written by group members Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena, and Heidi Range, as well as Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, Tim Powell, Nick Coler, and Lisa Cowling. Produced by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby, the song was released as the second single from the group's second studio album, Angels with Dirty Faces (2002). Following its release on 12 August 2002, "Round Round" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the group's second number-one single domestically. In August 2022, it was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Round Round" also reached the top 10 in Austria, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand, among other countries. In 2003, it became the group's first single to chart in the United States, peaking at number seven on the Billboard Dance Singles Sales chart. Alongside "Sound of the Underground" by Girls Aloud, this song has been credited in reshaping British pop music for the 2000s. Background "Round Round" was written by Brian Higgins, Miranda Cooper, Lisa Cowling, Tim Powell, Nick Coler, Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena, and Heidi Range. Due to the inclusion of a sample from "Tango Forte" by German production team Dublex Inc., Florian Pflueger, Felix Stecher, Robin Hofmann, and Rino Spadavecchia are also credited as songwriters. In turn, "Tango Forte" is based around an uncredited sample from "Whatever Lola Wants" performed by American composer Les Baxter. Production on "Round Round" was helmed by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby for Manna Productions based on an original track Higgins and Powell had created for Xenomania Records, while Jeremy Wheatley provided additional production and handled the mixing. Guitar recording and programming were overseen by Yoad Nevo for 247 Arists.Musically, "Round Round" was actually built up of a number of different songs. On the BBC2 series Secrets of the Pop Song, Brian Higgins described the genesis of the song: "We had a drum track which was just stunning and so I sat down with Miranda [Cooper] on the one day we had the Sugababes in the studio and said 'Right, you know, this is a hit, this piece of music is a hit. I haven't got anything on it, we don't have any song attached to it. So what are we gonna do about that? You've got three hours to come up with something'." Subsequently, Cooper went through her catalogue of unused tracks that she had written over the last two or three years and sung the chorus of every single song against Higgins' piece of drumming. Three hours later, she sang the lyrics 'round round baby round round' to Higgins, who said "that's it, that's amazing." Chart performance "Round Round" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart and remained at the top spot for a week, giving the Sugababes their second consecutive UK number one single following "Freak like Me". The song was eventually certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). As of August 2020, the song has sold 277,000 copies in the UK. "Round Round" was also a success worldwide, reaching number two in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The song also reached number three in Denmark and number four in Norway, Romania, and Switzerland. In Australia, "Round Round" debuted at number 21 and rose to a peak of number 13, giving the group their first Australian top-20 hit. It was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), making it the Sugababes' best-selling Australian single up until the release of their 2005 single "Push the Button", which reached number three and was certified Platinum. Music video The music video for "Round Round" was directed by Phil Griffin. It has the group performing on a rotating platform, while being surrounded by a tornado with dust and rubble accumulating in it. There is a rusty caged wall with an audience watching, a pair of sunglasses and a ring get sucked into the tornado from them. When Heidi's verse comes up, everything moves in slow-motion, including the tornado, before speeding up again. The girls slowly walk around three male dancers in the middle, and for the end chorus it appears the tornado has dissipated. Cover versions The song was covered by Hong Kong singer Emme Wong in Cantonese in 2003. It was Wong's first single after her record label Universal Music modified her image for a sexier direction. The song quickly became a hit, due to its sexually explicit lyrics and dance moves, as well as the TV-banned video. The song reached the top of several music charts across Southeast China. In the year end, it won a number of awards, including "Best Covered Song", "Best Dance Record", and "Best Stage Performance". Track listings ^a denotes additional producer(s) ^b denotes original producer(s) Personnel Personnel are adapted from the liner notes of Angels with Dirty Faces. Charts Certifications Release history

Oxo or OXO may refer to: Astronomy Oxo (crater), an impact crater located in dwarf planet Ceres Business Oxo (food), a brand of food products in the UK, South Africa and Canada Oxo Tower, a London landmark formerly owned by the makers of Oxo food products OXO (kitchen utensils brand), a US-based manufacturer of ergonomic handheld kitchen utensils Chemistry Oxo ligand, a divalent ligand oxo-, a prefix in the formal IUPAC nomenclature for the functional group '=O' (a substituent oxygen atom connected to another atom by a double bond) Hydroformylation, an industrial process for the production of aldehydes from alkenes Oxo Biodegradable, degradation resulting from oxidative and cell-mediated phenomena, either simultaneously or successively Oxo alcohol, alcohols that are prepared by adding carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen Computing OXO (video game), the first digital graphical computer game, a version of tic-tac-toe from 1951 Music OXO (band), an 80s New Wave pop band "OXO", a 2015, number one US dance song, by Olivia Somerlyn Sports Oxo (horse), a racehorse, winner of the 1959 Grand National Other uses Tic-tac-toe (OXO, and various other synonyms) a pen-and-pencil game See also Tic Tac Toe (disambiguation) Noughts and crosses (disambiguation)

BLEU (bilingual evaluation understudy) is an algorithm for evaluating the quality of text which has been machine-translated from one natural language to another. Quality is considered to be the correspondence between a machine's output and that of a human: "the closer a machine translation is to a professional human translation, the better it is" – this is the central idea behind BLEU.[1] Invented at IBM in 2001, BLEU was one of the first metrics to claim a high correlation with human judgements of quality,[2][3] and remains one of the most popular automated and inexpensive metrics. Scores are calculated for individual translated segments—generally sentences—by comparing them with a set of good quality reference translations. Those scores are then averaged over the whole corpus to reach an estimate of the translation's overall quality. Intelligibility or grammatical correctness are not taken into account. BLEU's output is always a number between 0 and 1. This value indicates how similar the candidate text is to the reference texts, with values closer to 1 representing more similar texts. Few human translations will attain a score of 1, since this would indicate that the candidate is identical to one of the reference translations. For this reason, it is not necessary to attain a score of 1. Because there are more opportunities to match, adding additional reference translations will increase the BLEU score.[4] Mathematical definition Basic setup A basic, first attempt at defining the BLEU score would take two arguments: a candidate string y ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}} and a list of reference strings ( y ( 1 ) , . . . , y ( N ) ) {\displaystyle (y^{(1)},...,y^{(N)})} . The idea is that B L E U ( y ^ ; y ( 1 ) , . . . , y ( N ) ) {\displaystyle BLEU({\hat {y}};y^{(1)},...,y^{(N)})} should be close to 1 when y ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}} is similar to y ( 1 ) , . . . , y ( N ) {\displaystyle y^{(1)},...,y^{(N)}} , and close to 0 if not. As an analogy, the BLEU score is like a language teacher trying to score the quality of a student translation y ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}} by checking how closely it follows the reference answers y ( 1 ) , . . . , y ( N ) {\displaystyle y^{(1)},...,y^{(N)}} . Since in natural language processing, one should evaluate a large set of candidate strings, one must generalize the BLEU score to the case where one has a list of M candidate strings (called a "corpus") ( y ^ ( 1 ) , ⋯ , y ^ ( M ) ) {\displaystyle ({\hat {y}}^{(1)},\cdots ,{\hat {y}}^{(M)})} , and for each candidate string y ^ ( i ) {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}^{(i)}} , a list of reference candidate strings S i := ( y ( i , 1 ) , . . . , y ( i , N i ) ) {\displaystyle S_{i}:=(y^{(i,1)},...,y^{(i,N_{i})})} . Given any string y = y 1 y 2 ⋯ y K {\displaystyle y=y_{1}y_{2}\cdots y_{K}} , and any integer n ≥ 1 {\displaystyle n\geq 1} , we define the set of its n-grams to be Note that it is a set of unique elements, not a multiset allowing redundant elements, so that, for example, G 2 ( a b a b ) = { a b , b a } {\displaystyle G_{2}(abab)=\{ab,ba\}} . Given any two strings s , y {\displaystyle s,y} , define the substring count C ( s , y ) {\displaystyle C(s,y)} to be the number of appearances of s {\displaystyle s} as a substring of y {\displaystyle y} . For example, C ( a b , a b c b a b ) = 2 {\displaystyle C(ab,abcbab)=2} . Now, fix a candidate corpus S ^ := ( y ^ ( 1 ) , ⋯ , y ^ ( M ) ) {\displaystyle {\hat {S}}:=({\hat {y}}^{(1)},\cdots ,{\hat {y}}^{(M)})} , and reference candidate corpus S = ( S 1 , ⋯ , S M ) {\displaystyle S=(S_{1},\cdots ,S_{M})} , where each S i := ( y ( i , 1 ) , . . . , y ( i , N i ) ) {\displaystyle S_{i}:=(y^{(i,1)},...,y^{(i,N_{i})})} . Modified n-gram precision Define the modified n-gram precision function to be The modified n-gram, which looks complicated, is merely a straightforward generalization of the prototypical case: one candidate sentence and one reference sentence. In this case, it is To work up to this expression, we start with the most obvious n-gram count summation: This quantity measures how many n-grams in the reference sentence are reproduced by the candidate sentence. Note that we count the n-substrings, not n-grams. For example, when y ^ = a b a , y = a b a b a b a , n = 2 {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}=aba,y=abababa,n=2} , all the 2-substrings in y ^ {\displaystyle {\hat {y}}} (ab and ba) appear in y {\displaystyle y} 3 times each, so the count is 6, not 2. In the above situation, however, the candidate string is too short. Instead of 3 appearances of a b {\displaystyle ab} it contains only one, so we add a minimum function to correct for that: This count summation cannot be used to compare between sentences, since it is not normalized. If both the reference and the candidate sentences are long, the count could be big, even if the candidate is of very poor quality. So we normalize it The normalization is such that it is always a number in [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle [0,1]} , allowing meaningful comparisons between corpuses. It is zero iff none of the n-substrings in candidate is in reference. It is one iff every n-gram in the candidate appears in reference, for at least as many times as in candidate. In particular, if the candidate is a substring of the reference, then it is one. Brevity penalty The modified n-gram precision unduly gives a high score for candidate strings that are "telegraphic", that is, containing all the n-grams of the reference strings, but for as few times as possible. In order to punish candidate strings that are too short, define the brevity penalty to be where ( r / c − 1 ) + = max ( 0 , r / c − 1 ) {\displaystyle (r/c-1)^{+}=\max(0,r/c-1)} is the positive part of r / c − 1 {\displaystyle r/c-1} . When r ≤ c {\displaystyle r\leq c} , the brevity penalty B P = 1 {\displaystyle BP=1} , meaning that we don't punish long candidates, and only punish short candidates. When r > c {\displaystyle r>c} , the brevity penalty B P = e 1 − r / c {\displaystyle BP=e^{1-r/c}} c {\displaystyle c} is the length of the candidate corpus, that is,where | y | {\displaystyle |y|} is the length of y {\displaystyle y} . r {\displaystyle r} is the effective reference corpus length, that is, where y ( i , j ) = arg ⁡ min y ∈ S i | | y | − | y ^ ( i ) | | {\displaystyle y^{(i,j)}=\arg \min _{y\in S_{i}}||y|-|{\hat {y}}^{(i)}||} , that is, the sentence from S i {\displaystyle S_{i}} whose length is as close to | y ^ ( i ) | {\displaystyle |{\hat {y}}^{(i)}|} as possible. Final definition of BLEU There is not a single definition of BLEU, but a whole family of them, parametrized by the weighting vector w := ( w 1 , w 2 , ⋯ ) {\displaystyle w:=(w_{1},w_{2},\cdots )} . It is a probability distribution on { 1 , 2 , 3 , ⋯ } {\displaystyle \{1,2,3,\cdots \}} , that is, ∑ i = 1 ∞ w i = 1 {\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{\infty }w_{i}=1} , and ∀ i ∈ { 1 , 2 , 3 , ⋯ } , w i ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle \forall i\in \{1,2,3,\cdots \},w_{i}\in [0,1]} . With a choice of w {\displaystyle w} , the BLEU score isIn words, it is a weighted geometric mean of all the modified n-gram precisions, multiplied by the brevity penalty. We use the weighted geometric mean, rather than the weighted arithmetic mean, to strongly favor candidate corpuses that are simultaneously good according to multiple n-gram precisions. The most typical choice, the one recommended in the original paper, is w 1 = ⋯ = w 4 = 1 4 {\displaystyle w_{1}=\cdots =w_{4}={\frac {1}{4}}} . Algorithm This is illustrated in the following example from Papineni et al. (2002): Of the seven words in the candidate translation, all of them appear in the reference translations. Thus the candidate text is given a unigram precision of, P = m w t = 7 7 = 1 {\displaystyle P={\frac {m}{w_{t}}}={\frac {7}{7}}=1} where m {\displaystyle ~m} is number of words from the candidate that are found in the reference, and w t {\displaystyle ~w_{t}} is the total number of words in the candidate. This is a perfect score, despite the fact that the candidate translation above retains little of the content of either of the references. The modification that BLEU makes is fairly straightforward. For each word in the candidate translation, the algorithm takes its maximum total count, m m a x {\displaystyle ~m_{max}} , in any of the reference translations. In the example above, the word "the" appears twice in reference 1, and once in reference 2. Thus m m a x = 2 {\displaystyle ~m_{max}=2} . For the candidate translation, the count m w {\displaystyle m_{w}} of each word is clipped to a maximum of m m a x {\displaystyle m_{max}} for that word. In this case, "the" has m w = 7 {\displaystyle ~m_{w}=7} and m m a x = 2 {\displaystyle ~m_{max}=2} , thus m w {\displaystyle ~m_{w}} is clipped to 2. These clipped counts m w {\displaystyle ~m_{w}} are then summed over all distinct words in the candidate. This sum is then divided by the total number of unigrams in the candidate translation. In the above example, the modified unigram precision score would be: P = 2 7 {\displaystyle P={\frac {2}{7}}} In practice, however, using individual words as the unit of comparison is not optimal. Instead, BLEU computes the same modified precision metric using n-grams. The length which has the "highest correlation with monolingual human judgements"[5] was found to be four. The unigram scores are found to account for the adequacy of the translation, how much information is retained. The longer n-gram scores account for the fluency of the translation, or to what extent it reads like "good English". An example of a candidate translation for the same references as above might be: the catIn this example, the modified unigram precision would be, P = 1 2 + 1 2 = 2 2 {\displaystyle P={\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{2}}={\frac {2}{2}}} as the word 'the' and the word 'cat' appear once each in the candidate, and the total number of words is two. The modified bigram precision would be 1 / 1 {\displaystyle 1/1} as the bigram, "the cat" appears once in the candidate. It has been pointed out that precision is usually twinned with recall to overcome this problem [6], as the unigram recall of this example would be 3 / 6 {\displaystyle 3/6} or 2 / 7 {\displaystyle 2/7} . The problem being that as there are multiple reference translations, a bad translation could easily have an inflated recall, such as a translation which consisted of all the words in each of the references.[7]To produce a score for the whole corpus, the modified precision scores for the segments are combined using the geometric mean multiplied by a brevity penalty to prevent very short candidates from receiving too high a score. Let r be the total length of the reference corpus, and c the total length of the translation corpus. If c ≤ r {\displaystyle c\leq r} , the brevity penalty applies, defined to be e ( 1 − r / c ) {\displaystyle e^{(1-r/c)}} . (In the case of multiple reference sentences, r is taken to be the sum of the lengths of the sentences whose lengths are closest to the lengths of the candidate sentences. However, in the version of the metric used by NIST evaluations prior to 2009, the shortest reference sentence had been used instead.) iBLEU is an interactive version of BLEU that allows a user to visually examine the BLEU scores obtained by the candidate translations. It also allows comparing two different systems in a visual and interactive manner which is useful for system development.[8] Performance BLEU has frequently been reported as correlating well with human judgement,[9][10][11] and remains a benchmark for the assessment of any new evaluation metric. There are however a number of criticisms that have been voiced. It has been noted that, although in principle capable of evaluating translations of any language, BLEU cannot, in its present form, deal with languages lacking word boundaries.[12] Designed to be used for several reference translation, in practice it's used with only the single one. BLEU is infamously dependent on the tokenization technique, and scores achieved with different ones are incomparable (which is often overlooked); in order to improve reproducibility and comparability, SacreBLEU variant was designed.It has been argued that although BLEU has significant advantages, there is no guarantee that an increase in BLEU score is an indicator of improved translation quality.[13] See also F-Measure NIST (metric) METEOR ROUGE (metric) Word Error Rate (WER) LEPOR Bibliography BLEU – Bilingual Evaluation Understudy lecture of Machine Translation course by Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Coursera

Amusic is the record label of East Asia Record Production Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Paciwood Music & Entertainment Ltd. It was founded by businessman Peter Lam and singer Leon Lai on 28 July 2004. Its purpose is developing artists with potential and strength to produce music with quality and diversity so as to reward music lovers. Its sister company is East Asia Record Group Co., Ltd.The first artist to be signed by the company was Leon Lai and the first album, "Dawn" was released by the company in 2004.On 20 December 2005, Amusic released a Christmas compilation album consisting of songs of Leon Lai, Janice Vidal, Charles Ying, Jill Vidal and Chapman To. The album purpose was to promote Jill and let the people to know more about her. At the same time, Leon participated in the vocals of Chapman R&B style song "Joy till dawn".In November 2006, Amusic caused a stir when it announced it would release 4 new albums on the same day, 21 November. The albums were by Leon Lai, Janice Vidal, her twin sister Jill Vidal, and Chapman To. Artists Amusic The artists currently under the record labels are: Current Leon Lai (2004–present) JC (2016–present) Michael Wong (2005–present) Kwon Bo Young (2007–present) Aarif Rahman (2009–present) Former Janice Vidal (2004–2015) Jill Vidal (2005–2009) Emily Wong (2004–2015) Charles Ying (2005–2014) Miriam Yeung (2007–2009) Janice Man (2009–2014) JW (2010–2015) East Asia Music The artists currently under its sister company are: Andy Lau (2007 – present) Sammi Cheng (2005 – present) Andy Hui (2006 – present) Denise Ho (2004 – present) Wilfred Lau (2007 – 2010) Ivana Wong (2007 – present) Richie Ren (2008 – present) Bosco Wong Josie Ho Charmaine Fong (2006 – present) Stephanie Cheng (2006 – 2007) Monie Dong Alex Lau Vincent Wang Rene Liu Yu Xian Zhong Soler (2005 – present) Ivan Wang (2006 – present) Sandy Lam (2007 – present) Joey Tang (2005 – present)In late 2008, eSun Holdings bought Capital Artists, and renamed Amusic. It has now been turned into Amusic + Capital Artists. Capital Artists closed down in 2001, due to financial problems, and was said not to produce music. In the early of 2009, it opens back and produces music again. Miriam Yeung was the first singer to sign back to Capital Artists in 2010. Capital Artists Miriam Yeung (2010 – present) Wilfred Lau (2010 – present) William So (2011–present) See also List of record labels Official website

Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ) is a letter in the Old English, Old Norse, Old Swedish and modern Icelandic alphabets, as well as modern transliterations of the Gothic alphabet, Middle Scots, and some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with the digraph th, except in Iceland, where it survives. The letter originated from the rune ᚦ in the Elder Fuþark and was called thorn in the Anglo-Saxon and thorn or thurs in the Scandinavian rune poems. It is similar in appearance to the archaic Greek letter sho (ϸ), although the two are historically unrelated. The only language in which þ is currently in use is Icelandic.It is pronounced as either a voiceless dental fricative [θ] or its voiced counterpart [ð]. However, in modern Icelandic, it is pronounced as a laminal voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative [θ̠], similar to th as in the English word thick, or a (usually apical) voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative [ð̠], similar to th as in the English word the. Modern Icelandic usage generally excludes the latter, which is instead represented with the letter eth ⟨Ð, ð⟩; however, [ð̠] may occur as an allophone of /θ̠/, and written ⟨þ⟩, when it appears in an unstressed pronoun or adverb after a voiced sound.In typography, the lowercase thorn character is unusual in that it has both an ascender and a descender (other examples are the lowercase Cyrillic ф, and, in some [especially italic] fonts, the Latin letters f and ſ [long s]). Uses English Old English The letter thorn was used for writing Old English very early on, as was ð, called eth. Unlike eth, thorn remained in common use through most of the Middle English period. Both letters were used for the phoneme /θ/, sometimes by the same scribe. This sound was regularly realised in Old English as the voiced fricative [ð] between voiced sounds, but either letter could be used to write it; the modern use of [ð] in phonetic alphabets is not the same as the Old English orthographic use. A thorn with the ascender crossed (Ꝥ) was a popular abbreviation for the word that. Middle and Early Modern English The modern digraph th began to grow in popularity during the 14th century; at the same time, the shape of ⟨Þ⟩ grew less distinctive, with the letter losing its ascender (becoming similar in appearance to the old wynn (⟨Ƿ⟩, ⟨ƿ⟩), which had fallen out of use by 1300, and to ancient through modern ⟨P⟩, ⟨p⟩). By this stage, th was predominant and the use of ⟨Þ⟩ was largely restricted to certain common words and abbreviations. This was the longest-lived use, though with the arrival of movable type printing, the substitution of ⟨y⟩ for ⟨Þ⟩ became ubiquitous, leading to the common "ye", as in 'Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'. One major reason for this was that ⟨Y⟩ existed in the printer's types that were imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, while ⟨Þ⟩ did not. The word was never pronounced as /j/, as in ⟨yes⟩, though, even when so written. The first printing of the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 used ye for "the" in places such as Job 1:9, John 15:1, and Romans 15:29. It also used yt as an abbreviation for "that", in places such as 2 Corinthians 13:7. All were replaced in later printings by the or that, respectively. Abbreviations The following were scribal abbreviations during Middle and Early Modern English using the letter thorn: (þͤ) – a Middle English abbreviation for the word the (þͭ) – a Middle English abbreviation for the word that (þͧ) – a rare Middle English abbreviation for the word thou (which was written early on as þu or þou)In later printed texts, given the lack of a sort for the glyph, printers substituted the (visually similar) letter y for the thorn: yᷤ – an Early Modern English abbreviation for the word this (yͤ) – an Early Modern English abbreviation for the word the (yͭ) – an Early Modern English abbreviation for the word that Modern English Thorn in the form of a "Y" survives in pseudo-archaic uses, particularly the stock prefix "ye olde". The definite article spelt with "Y" for thorn is often jocularly or mistakenly pronounced /jiː/ ("yee") or mistaken for the archaic nominative case of the second person plural pronoun, "ye", as in "hear ye!". Khmer Þþ is sometimes used in Khmer romanization to represent ធ thô. Icelandic Icelandic is the only living language to keep the letter thorn (in Icelandic; þ, pronounced þoddn, [θ̠ɔtn̥] or þorn [θ̠ɔrn̥]). The letter is the 30th in the Icelandic alphabet, modelled after Old Norse alphabet in the 19th century; it is transliterated to th when it cannot be reproduced and never appears at the end of a word. For example, the name of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is anglicised as Hafthor. Its pronunciation has not varied much, but before the introduction of the eth character, þ was used to represent the sound [ð], as in the word "verþa", which is now spelt verða (meaning "to become") in modern Icelandic or normalized orthography. Þ was originally taken from the runic alphabet and is described in the First Grammatical Treatise from the 12th-century: Computing codes Variants Various forms of thorn were used for medieval scribal abbreviations: U+A764 Ꝥ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE U+A765 ꝥ LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE U+A766 Ꝧ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER U+A767 ꝧ LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER U+A7D3 ꟓ LATIN SMALL LETTER DOUBLE THORN was used in the Middle English Ormulum See also Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩ Sho (letter), Ϸ, a similar letter in the Greek alphabet used to write the Bactrian language Yogh, Ȝ, a letter used in Middle English and Older Scots Wynn, Ƿ, another runic letter used in Old English Eth, Ð, another Old English and Icelandic letter Bibliography Freeborn, Dennis (1992) From Old English to Standard English. London: Macmillan Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4. Pétursson, Magnus (1971), "Étude de la réalisation des consonnes islandaises þ, ð, s, dans la prononciation d'un sujet islandais à partir de la radiocinématographie", Phonetica, 33 (4): 203–216, doi:10.1159/000259344, S2CID 145316121

Xu Jilin (born 1957; Chinese: 许纪霖; pinyin: Xú Jìlín) is a Chinese historian. He is a professor of history at East China Normal University, and specializes in 20th century Chinese intellectual history. Early life Born in 1957 in Shanghai, Xu Jilin dropped out of school and became a librarian because of the Cultural Revolution. As time passed, he eventually decided to pursue further education after passing National Higher Education Entrance Examination. He studied policy at East China Normal University. Career In 1982 Xu graduated with a Bachelor's degree. He became a university lecturer. From 1997 to 2003, Xu Jilin traveled to three universities as a visiting professor and visiting scholar: the Harvard–Yenching Institute, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Tokyo. In 2003, he returned to the East China Normal University where he continued his career.Xu Jilin serves on the editorial board of the journal Twenty-First Century Bimonthly, published by Chinese University of Hong Kong. Views Xu is a liberal who disavows what he terms the political extremes. He believes in "small government, big society", and criticized the statist, conservative intellectual current of the Chinese New Left. Selected works in English Xu, Jilin (2000). Translated by Barmé, Geremie R.; Davies, Gloria. "The Fate of an Enlightenment: Twenty Years in the Chinese Intellectual Sphere (1978–98)" (PDF). East Asian History (20): 169–186. ——— (2004). Translated by Black, Michael. "What Future for Public Intellectuals?: The specialisation of knowledge, the commercialisation of culture and the emergence of post-modernism characterise China in the 1990s". China Perspectives (52): 18–30. ——— (2012). "Social Darwinism in modern China". Journal of Modern Chinese History. 6 (2): 182–197. doi:10.1080/17535654.2012.718605. ——— (2018). Rethinking China's Rise: A Liberal Critique. Translated by Ownby, David. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1108470759.

Jason Thomas Mraz (; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", that peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His second studio album Mr. A-Z (2005) peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. His third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008) peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was certified four times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's lead single "I'm Yours", reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, while spending a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100, and was certified Diamond by the RIAA. The album also spawned the Grammy Award winning singles "Make It Mine", and "Lucky" with Colbie Caillat. His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word (2012), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "I Won't Give Up", which became his second top ten hit on the Hot 100. He went on to release the top ten albums Yes! (2014) and Know. (2018). After signing a three-album agreement with BMG in 2020, he released the albums Look for the Good (2020) and Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023). Along with receiving two Grammy Award wins, Mraz is also the recipient of two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums, and over 11.5 million in digital singles. Early life Mraz was born and raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He is of Czech descent through his paternal grandfather, who moved to the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1915. His surname is Mraz (Czech for 'frost'; mráz, [ˈmraːs]). His parents, Tom (Tomáš [tomaːʃ]) Mraz and June Tomes, divorced when he was five years old, leaving Mraz to live with his father while his sister lived with his mother. His father is a postal worker, and his mother is vice president at a branch of Bank of America.While attending Lee-Davis High School, Mraz was a member of the cheerleading squad, school chorus, and drama club. He starred as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and as Snoopy in a play about the Peanuts characters. During this period of his life, he struggled with his sexuality at times, wondering if he was gay. Mraz graduated in 1995.After high school, Mraz attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City for about a year and a half, originally to work in musical theater. When his roommates played guitar he would provide the vocals. Eventually, a friend gave him a guitar that was about to be thrown away and Mraz learned to play and write his own music. Mraz credits an early girlfriend as being one of the influences that drove him to songwriting. She encouraged him to write his thoughts on paper which helped him get "all of the voices in my head to shut up" and "become something I could follow."Mraz moved to the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, where he took a series of odd jobs, including elementary-school janitor, and joined the Ashland Stage Company. Mraz then enrolled at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, on a scholarship. Instead of attending classes, he headed west on a road trip that ultimately brought him to San Diego, where he decided to stay. Music career 1999–2001: Career beginnings Soon after moving to San Diego in 1999, Mraz became a roadie for the band Elgin Park. He met future band member Toca Rivera at Java Joe's, a coffee house in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego known for being formative in the careers of Jewel and Steve Poltz. Mraz performed once a week for nearly three years, building a following in San Diego and online.Mraz self-published the albums A Jason Mraz Demonstration (1999), From the Cutting Room Floor (2001) and Oh Love, In Sadness (The E Minor EP in F) (2001). In 2001, Mraz released the live acoustic album Live at Java Joe's, performing with percussionist Rivera and bassist Ian Sheridan. The album featured several songs he would later re-release, including "1000 Things", "You and I Both" and "Halfway Home." The album was later released on iTunes on March 11, 2008, under the title Jason Mraz: Live & Acoustic 2001. Mraz returned to perform at Java Joe's for the 15th anniversary of the album on January 29, 2016. Mraz' last self-released album was Sold Out (In Stereo) on March 21, 2002. 2002–2004: Waiting for My Rocket to Come In late 2001, Mraz signed a recording contract with Elektra Records and moved to Los Angeles. In 2002, he opened for Jewel on her tour. On October 15, 2002, Mraz released his first major label debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which peaked at number 55 on the Billboard 200. The day after the album's release, Mraz played on "The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn". "You & I Both" was released as a promotional single prior to the album's release, but received minimal airplay.In early 2003, Mraz released his first commercial single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)." The track was co-written by music production team The Matrix, and became Mraz's first top-40 single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 15. The song was inspired by a high school friend who was diagnosed with cancer. At the time of the album's release, Mraz said that he did not like "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" and had not wanted it on the album. In June 2003, "You & I Both" was released commercially as the second single from the album. Waiting for My Rocket to Come was certified Platinum in May 2005 for selling 1 million units.Mraz opened for Tracy Chapman in 2003 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2004, while on tour, Mraz released a live album with an accompanying DVD, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom. He performed with his touring band, including drummer Adam King, Rivera, Sheridan and keyboardist Eric Hinojosa, along with a guest appearance from Blues Traveler frontman John Popper. 2005–2007: Mr. A–Z On July 26, 2005, Mraz released his second major label album, Mr. A–Z, produced by Steve Lillywhite for Atlantic Records. The album's lead single, "Wordplay", was produced by Kevin Kadish, and entered the Billboard 200 at number 5. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while Lillywhite received a nomination for Producer of the Year.Mraz began a long-running tour in support of Mr. A–Z at the San Diego Music Awards on September 12, 2005. The tour featured several opening acts, including Bushwalla and Tristan Prettyman, with whom he had written the duet "Shy That Way" in 2002. Mraz opened for Alanis Morissette during her 2005 Jagged Little Pill Acoustic tour, and for the Rolling Stones on five dates during their 2005–06 world tour. In March 2006, he performed in Singapore as part of the annual Mosaic Music Festival. That May, he toured mostly small venues and music festivals in the U.S., along with a few shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland where he supported James Blunt. The tour included a May 6, 2006 acoustic show with P.O.D., Better Than Ezra, Live, and The Presidents of the United States of America. Mraz was featured as a headlining guest of St. Louis's annual Fair St. Louis and performed a free concert at the base of the Gateway Arch on July 1, 2006. During this time, Mraz was also the opening act at several dates for Rob Thomas' Something to Be Tour. In 2005, Mraz was one of many singers featured in the fall advertisement campaign for The Gap campaign "Favorites", singing a cover of Bob Marley's "One Love". 2006 saw the release of Selections for Friends, the live, online-only album recorded during the Songs for Friends Tour. In 2007, "The Beauty in Ugly", an earlier track penned by Mraz originally titled "Plain Jane", was rewritten for the ABC television show Ugly Betty. The song was featured as a part of ABC's "Be Ugly in '07" campaign. 2008–2011: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. On May 13, 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified quadruple platinum. It broke into the top 10 of many international music charts. Mraz said that the album title was taken from the work of Scottish artist David Shrigley. Prior to its release, Mraz released three EPs, each with acoustic versions of songs from the album.The album's lead single, "I'm Yours", was written in August 2004 and was initially released in demo form on the limited edition EP Extra Credit in 2005. Through Mraz's live performances of the song, it gained in popularity with fans. "I'm Yours" became Mraz's first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #6 on September 20, 2008. It ultimately spent 76 weeks on the Hot 100, longer than any other song in the magazine's 51-year history (a record since broken by Imagine Dragons with "Radioactive" in 2014). It was a major commercial success in the US and was certified 7x multi-Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over seven million. The song was also successful internationally, topping the charts in New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, and peaking in the top ten on the charts in 11 other countries. By May 2012, it had gained over 125,000,000 hits on YouTube. It was the first song to top the charts in four different radio formats: Mainstream Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40 and Triple A. "Make It Mine" was released as the second single from the album but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. "Lucky" with Colbie Caillat was released as the third single from the album and peaked at number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100.At the 2009 Grammy Awards, "I'm Yours" was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2009, Mraz was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2010, Mraz won two Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance ("Make It Mine") and Best Pop Collaboration ("Lucky" with Colbie Caillat). "I'm Yours" was also named ASCAP's 2010 Song of the Year.Mraz's 2008 world tour traveled across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His personal photo travelogue from the world tour was published as a book, titled A Thousand Things (2008). The book was launched with a photo exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in New York City at the end of 2008. Also in 2008, Mraz played with Eric Clapton to a crowd of 45,000 in Hyde Park, London, sold out London's Royal Albert Hall, and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo. That year, he embarked on the Music, Magic & Make Peace Tour with Bushwalla, The Makepeace Brothers, and magician Justin Willman.In 2009, Mraz recorded "The Way Is Love", an unreleased Roy Orbison song, as a duet with Willie Nelson. In November 2009, he released the live CD/DVD Jason Mraz's Beautiful Mess: Live on Earth, recorded in Chicago during the Gratitude Café tour. The following year, he went to Brazil to record "Simplesmente Todo" with Milton Nascimento, who sings in Portuguese while Mraz sings in English. He also did some writing with Dido and recorded new material with producer Martin Terefe. Mraz released the live EP, Life Is Good on October 5, 2010. 2012–2013: Love Is A Four Letter Word Mraz released the live EP, Live Is A Four Letter Word, on February 28, 2012. His fourth studio album, Love Is a Four Letter Word was released on April 13, 2012. It reached number 2 on the Billboard 200, and the top 20 in 10 other countries. The album's lead single, "I Won't Give Up", debuted at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 1 on the Digital Songs chart. It charted in 15 countries in total, and in October 2013 was certified 4x multi-platinum, for selling in excess of 4 million units. Further singles from the album were "93 Million Miles" and "The Woman I Love", but these releases were not as successful. Love Is a Four Letter Word was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2012, he played sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Madison Square Garden in New York and the O2 Arena in London, and performed at President Barack Obama and family's lighting of the national Christmas tree at the White House; a noted Obama supporter, he has also performed at numerous other events involving Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Also in 2012, he performed "You Did It" at the presentation ceremony for the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, won that year by Ellen DeGeneres.In September 2013, Mraz was featured on the Hunter Hayes song "Everybody's Got Somebody but Me", which was later certified Gold. The same month, he was featured on the Travie McCoy single "Rough Water". That year, Mraz won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Artist. 2014–2019: Yes! and Know. Mraz's fifth studio album, Yes!, was released on July 15, 2014. It was recorded with all-female folk rock band Raining Jane, with whom Mraz had previously collaborated on the track "A Beautiful Mess" for his 2008 album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The album's lead single, "Love Someone", was released on May 19, 2014; Mraz performed the song for Time. On June 20, 2014, he released We Can Take the Long Way, a music video trilogy for the first three songs on Yes!, which premiered on the USA Today website.In 2015, Mraz was featured on "Bad Idea" and "You Matter to Me" on the Sara Bareilles album What's Inside: Songs From Waitress. On September 27, 2017, it was announced that Mraz would make his Broadway debut in the musical Waitress. He took on the role of Dr. Pomatter from November 3, 2017 until February 11, 2018.On August 10, 2018, Mraz released his sixth studio album, Know.. He referred to the new album as "bright and shiny" and a "classic-sounding pop acoustic, vocally driven record with positive lyrics and love songs." The album was preceded by the release of two singles: "Have It All" was released on April 27, 2018 and was inspired by a blessing he received from a Buddhist monk during a trip to Myanmar in 2012. It was accompanied by a video filmed with performing arts students from his hometown of Richmond. The album's second single, "Unlonely", was released in June. In July 2018, Mraz shared the lyric video for the song "More Than Friends", a duet with Meghan Trainor. On August 7, 2018, he partnered with Fathom Events for the one-night-only release of Jason Mraz - Have It All The Movie, a concert film and behind the scenes footage of the making of the "Have It All" video, in 600 movie theaters throughout North America. In 2019, he was featured on the album The Secret by Alan Parsons as lead vocalist on the song "Miracle". On August 13, 2019, Mraz was named the first-ever District Advocate Ambassador to continue the fight for music creators' rights. 2020–present: Look for the Good and Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride In June 2020, Jason Mraz signed a three-album agreement with BMG led by Vice President of A&R Jaime Neely, Executive Vice President of Repertoire & Marketing Thomas Scherer, Vice President of Marketing and Recorded Music Cyndi Lynott, and Vice President of Creative Synch Jonathan Palmer. Jason also founded Interrabang Records, through which his 2020 album, Look for the Good, was released, as well as singer-songwriter Gregory Page's eighteenth album, One Hell of a Memory. On February 15, 2023, Mraz released the single "I Feel Like Dancing" for his upcoming album Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride. The album was released on June 23rd, 2023, which was also Mraz’s 46th birthday. Personal life Mraz lives a health-conscious lifestyle and has said that he eats mostly raw vegan foods. His vegan diet has also influenced his music. He owns a five-and-a-half acre avocado farm in Oceanside, California. He is an investor at Café Gratitude, a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, and named his 2011 tour Gratitude Café in its honor. His hobbies include surfing, yoga and photography. Relationships and sexuality Mraz married Sheridan Edley in 2001. They divorced the following year.Mraz was engaged to singer-songwriter and long-time close friend Tristan Prettyman on Christmas Eve 2010; they broke off the engagement six months later.On October 25, 2015, Mraz married his girlfriend, Christina Carano, in a private ceremony in his hometown of Mechanicsville, Virginia.In June 2018, Mraz penned a "love letter" to the LGBT community, as part of a Billboard feature during gay pride month. A line in the poem, "I am bi your side. / All ways" led some media reports to state that the poem represented Mraz's coming out as bisexual. In an article published on July 19, 2018, by Billboard, Mraz said he has had previous experiences with men, even while dating Carano. Mraz said Carano defined him as a "two-spirit", a description that was criticized by some as misappropriating a word originally designed solely for the native population, and for distorting the term's meaning.At an event celebrating his latest album release at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on June 22, 2023, Mraz announced that he and Carano had recently divorced. Social activism and philanthropy Mraz is a social activist whose philanthropic efforts span wide-ranging issues, including environmentalism, human rights, and LGBT equality. In 2003, after learning one of his beer bottles was listed for sale on eBay, Mraz was inspired to auction off items of his wardrobe online, raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation.During early tours, he encouraged his fans to drop off food items as they arrived at the venue, an effort to support local food banks.In 2009, he participated in a rescue mission to Ghana with members of Free the Slaves, a global nonprofit working to liberate children sold into slavery. In 2012, he was featured as the first-ever straight man on the cover of Instinct magazine in recognition of his efforts in support of LGBT rights.The Jason Mraz Foundation was established in 2011, with a mission to support charities in the areas of human equality, environment preservation and education. Organizations supported by the foundation include VH1's Save The Music Foundation, MusiCares, Surfrider Foundation, Free the Children, Life Rolls On, the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the True Colors Fund, which promotes LGBT equality.Mraz was named the 2010 Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) Humanitarian of the Year. He also received the Clean Water Award in 2010 from the Surfrider Foundation, for helping to preserve the world's oceans and beaches. That same year, he teamed up with The Nature Conservancy and created a PSA using his song "I'm Yours" to raise awareness about the nonprofit organization's efforts to protect the earth.On December 16, 2012, Mraz headlined the Milestone Concert in Myanmar to raise awareness about human trafficking, making him the first foreign artist to play an open-air concert in Myanmar. The concert was organized by MTV EXIT and held in the People's Square in Yangon, with over 70,000 people in attendance, as part of an initiative to raise awareness about human trafficking in Myanmar. Also in 2012, Mraz spent a week in Antarctica with a group of environmentalists, scientists and researchers on a mission led by Al Gore, to learn about the effects of climate change.Mraz is a continued supporter of WhyHunger, a grassroots support organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty in the United States. The organization was founded by late musician Harry Chapin and Radio DJ Bill Ayres in 1975.On June 19, 2020, Mraz announced he would be donating all profits from his album Look for the Good to Black Lives Matter and other organizations working toward equality and justice. Politics On October 24, 2019, Mraz endorsed Bernie Sanders for President in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries stating, "Bernie is the perfect candidate to follow Trump & continue to shake up the system for the benefit of true American values: Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness". Discography Studio albums Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002) Mr. A–Z (2005) We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008) Love Is a Four Letter Word (2012) Yes! (2014) Know. (2018) Look for the Good (2020) Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023) Awards and nominations Other awards Bibliography A Thousand Things (2008, I Love Books) Filmography Film Television appearances (selected) Official website Jason Mraz at IMDb Jason Mraz at AllMusic Jason Mraz collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive Playlist: Jason Mraz – Nightline 07/17/09 – Reggae to rock, Mraz reveals his musical influences. Jason Mraz Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection

The Fame is the debut studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining KonLive Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop record that displays influences from 1980s music. Lyrically, it visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity. The album was primarily promoted through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances, and was reissued as a deluxe edition with The Fame Monster on November 18, 2009. The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who commended its lyrical content, Gaga's musicianship and vocal ability. It was a commercial success, topping the charts in several countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and Switzerland. It peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200, and also topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 175 non-consecutive weeks, the most time on top in history. It has since been certified six-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The Fame became the fifth best-selling album of 2009, and has sold over 4.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2019. Combined with The Fame Monster, the album had sold over 18 million copies worldwide as of August 2019. The first two singles off the album, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" gained international success, topping the charts in several countries worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The subsequent singles "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi" were commercial successes as well, charting within the top-ten of over ten countries worldwide. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" had a limited single release, while "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" served as a promotional single. The Fame has won multiple awards since its release. The album was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It won Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for its single "Poker Face", and also won Best International Album at the 2010 Brit Awards. In 2013 and 2022, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All-Time". As of 2023, it is the 12th biggest album of all time on the US Billboard 200. Background and development While establishing herself as an artist and working her way up through the New York underground club scene, Lady Gaga released her debut studio album, The Fame. Speaking about the title and concept of the album, Gaga explained: "The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous. ... Pop culture is art. It doesn't make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it's a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle." Gaga stated in an interview with MTV UK that she had been working on the album for two and a half years and completed half of it during the first week of January 2008. As well as writing the lyrics, Gaga worked on the melodies and synth work of the album, with record producer RedOne. According to Gaga, the first track "Just Dance" is a joyous, heart-themed song, which appeals to people going through tough times in their life. "LoveGame", the second track, was inspired by Gaga's sexual crush on a stranger in a night club to whom she said, "I wanna ride on your disco stick". It was written in four minutes based on the disco stick hook. "Paparazzi" has been interpreted with different meanings. However Gaga explained in an interview with About.com, that the song was inspired by her struggles and hunger for fame and love. Essentially a love song, "Paparazzi" dealt with enticing the media and asked the question, whether one can have both fame and love. "Poker Face" was inspired by Gaga's boyfriends who enjoyed gambling, and also dealt with her personal experience of bisexuality; her fantasies about women while having sex with men, thus representing her 'poker face'." "Boys Boys Boys" was inspired by the similarly titled Mötley Crüe song "Girls, Girls, Girls". Gaga explained that she wanted a female version of the song that rockers would like too. "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" summed up her time of self-discovery, living in the Lower East Side and dabbling in drugs and the party scene. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" was about breaking up with a boyfriend and finding someone new. "Brown Eyes" was inspired by the British rock band Queen and, according to Gaga, is the most vulnerable song on the album.Gaga further clarified the ideas behind The Fame, and her inspirations and visions for the album. She believed that the most important thing missing from contemporary pop music was the combination of the visual imagery of the artist with the music. Gaga incorporated theatrics in her live performances of the songs from the album. Hence she hoped that people would take notice of the performance art, which she was trying to bring back with the album and its music; according to her, the music put the lifestyle in front of it. "I just feel like this record is really different- you[']ve got club bangers to more 70s glam to more singer-songwriter records to rock music. ... The Fame is not about who you are—it's about how everybody wants to know who you are! Buy it and listen to it before you go out or in the car. ... I think you've really got to allow artists' creativity to marinate. It took me a while but really delving into myself I finally got it. I couldn't be more proud of it. It's not just a record[,] it's a whole pop art movement[.] It's not just about one song." Composition Musically, the album combines electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop, while drawing influences from 1980s music. Songs like "Poker Face", "Just Dance" and "LoveGame" are uptempo dance songs, with "Poker Face" carrying a dark sound with clear vocals on the chorus and a pop hook. "Just Dance" is synth-based while "LoveGame" has a more dance-oriented beat, and "Money Honey" has a moderate techno groove. All of them combined synths of clipped marching beats, sawing electronics and contained mild R&B-infused beats. "Paparazzi" carried a sultry beat while "Summerboy" had influences of the music of Blondie. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" is credited as a ballad compared to the rest of the dance-fueled tracks from The Fame. The song has a 1980s synth-pop feel to it, while incorporating the "Eh, Eh" hook from Rihanna's single "Umbrella" (2007).Lyrically, the songs on The Fame talk about being famous and achieving popularity; "Poker Face" is about sexual innuendo and teasing. Gaga explained to the Daily Star that the lyrics carry a bit of an undertone of confusion about love and sex. According to the BBC, the "Mum-mum-mum-mah" hook used in the song is sampled from Boney M.'s 1977 hit "Ma Baker". "Just Dance" talks about being intoxicated in a party, with lyrics like "What's going on on the floor? / I love this record, baby but I can't see straight anymore". "LoveGame" portrays a message about love, fame and sexuality. "Paparazzi" portrays a stalker who is following somebody being their biggest fan. The lyrics also portray the desire of capturing the attention of the camera as well as achieving fame. Gaga explained that, "This idea of The Fame runs through and through. Basically, if you have nothing—no money, no fame—you can still feel beautiful and dirty rich. It's about making choices, and having references—things you pull from your life that you believe in. It's about self-discovery and being creative. The record is slightly focused, but it's also eclectic. ... The music is intended to inspire people to feel a certain way about themselves, so they'll be able to encompass, in their own lives, a sense of inner fame that they can project to the world, and the carefree nature of the album is a reflection of that aura. I like to funnel interesting ideas to the rest of the world through a pop lens." Promotion Singles "Just Dance" was released as the album's lead single commercially worldwide on June 17, 2008, through digital distribution. The song was critically acclaimed with reviewers complimenting its club anthem-like nature and the synth-pop associated with it. It achieved commercial success by topping charts in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as reaching the top 10 in 16 other countries. The song received a Grammy nomination in the Best Dance Recording category but lost to electronic duo Daft Punk for their song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"."Poker Face" was released as the second single from the album. It was also well received by critics, most of whom have praised the robotic hook and the chorus. The single achieved greater success than "Just Dance" by topping the charts in almost all the countries it was released to. "Poker Face" became Gaga's second consecutive number one on the Hot 100. On December 2, 2009, "Poker Face" received three Grammy nominations in the categories of Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and won for Best Dance Recording."Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" was the album's third single in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Denmark and fourth in France. The song received mixed reviews. Some critics compared it to nineties Europop while the others criticized it for bringing the party-like nature of the album to a halt. It failed to match the success of the previous singles in Australia and New Zealand by reaching 15 and nine, respectively. It peaked at two in Sweden and at seven in France."LoveGame" was released as the third single in the United States, Canada and some European nations. It was the fourth single in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The song was critically appreciated for its catchy tune and the "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" hook. The song has reached the top 10 in countries such as the United States, Australia and Canada and the top 20 in others."Paparazzi" was announced as the third single in the United Kingdom and Ireland with a release date of July 6, 2009, the fourth single in the United States, and the fifth single overall. The song has reached the top five in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It also reached the top 10 in the United States. The song has received critical acclaim for its fun-filled, club-friendly nature and is deemed the most memorable and telling song from the album. The associated music video for the song was shot as a mini-movie with Gaga starring as a doomed starlet who is almost killed by her boyfriend, but in the end takes her revenge and reclaims her fame and popularity. Live performances and media appearances To promote the album, Gaga did several performances worldwide. Her first televised appearance was on Logo's NewNowNext Awards on June 7, 2008. She also performed on Michalsky StyleNite at Berlin Fashion Week, So You Think You Can Dance, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, as well as in Vietnam for the 57th Miss Universe beauty pageant during the swimsuit competition. On January 31, 2009, she performed on television in Ireland on RTÉ One's show Tubridy Tonight. Three songs from The Fame were used in the second season of The CW's series Gossip Girl: "Paparazzi" in the episode "Summer, Kind of Wonderful", "Poker Face" in "The Serena Also Rises", and "Money Honey" in "Remains of the J". Gaga also performed "Poker Face" on American Idol on April 1, 2009. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the singer performed "Paparazzi". Her gig involved choreographed dance moves, playing on the piano, theatrical blood dripping from her ribcage, and ended with the singer hung lifeless with one hand rising above her dancers and blood smeared on her face. It is widely considered to be one of Gaga's greatest performances to date, and according to Billboard's Ashley Laderer, "this was the performance that really made Lady Gaga. It proved she was more than just a superficial pop star—she was an artist".To celebrate the launch of the show Dirty Sexy Money, ABC created a music video of Gaga's song "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich", directed by Melina Matsoukas. It was initially announced as Gaga's second single, but "Poker Face" was chosen instead, with "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" being released as a promotional single. There were two videos released for the song – the first was composed of clips from Dirty Sexy Money, and the second was the actual music video. The song charted on the UK Singles Chart due to digital downloads and peaked at number 83. Tour The album received further promotion from her first headlining concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which started on March 12, 2009, in San Diego, California. It was Gaga's first concert tour with North American shows in March, followed by dates in Oceania and a solo trek through Europe. Dates in Asia soon followed, as well as two performances at England's V Festival and two shows in North America that had been postponed from April. Gaga described the tour as a traveling museum show incorporating artist Andy Warhol's pop-performance art concept. Tickets were distributed for charity also. Alternate versions of the show with minimal variations were planned by Gaga to accommodate different venues.The show consisted of four segments, with each segment being followed by a video interlude to the next segment, and it ended with an encore. The set list consisted of songs from The Fame only. Gaga appeared on the stage in new costumes including an innovative dress made entirely of plastic bubbles and premiered an unreleased song called "Future Love". An alternate set list with minor changes was performed for European dates. The show received positive critical appreciation with critics complimenting Gaga's vocal clarity and fashion sense as well as her ability to pull off theatrics like a professional artist. Critical reception The Fame received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on 13 reviews. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album "music that sounds thickly sexy with its stainless steel synths and dark disco rhythms", and wrote that it is "glorious pop trash and a wicked parody of it." Nicole Powers of URB complimented its "irony-laden lyrics, delivered in a style that owes a little something to Gwen Stefani," as well as the album's "deluxe ditties". Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly called it "remarkably (and exhaustingly) pure in its vision of a world in which nothing trumps being beautiful, dirty, and rich. In this economy, though, her high-times escapism has its charms".Alexis Petridis of The Guardian found it "packing an immensely addictive melody or an inescapable hook, virtually everything sounds like another hit single", and predicted that it "certainly sounds like it could be big." Daniel Brockman from The Boston Phoenix wrote that "Gaga ups the ante in terms of catchy songwriting and sheer high-in-the-club-banging-to-the-beat abandon." Ben Hogwood of musicOMH praised Gaga's "blend of sassy attitude, metallic beats and sharp, incisive songwriting", elements which he felt are integral to "creating pop music".Although he panned "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", "Paper Gangsta", and "Brown Eyes", Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called The Fame "a solid dance album" and wrote that "much of the album's success can be attributed to rising club producer RedOne." Joey Guerra from the Houston Chronicle felt that although the songs present in the album are not innovative, Gaga deserved credit for bringing real dance music to the mass. Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club felt that the "whole point" of the album is "glitter-laced, dance-inciting energy that bodes well for extended club play". Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani viewed that Gaga's lyrics veer between "cheap" and "nonsensical drivel", while her singing is "uneven at best". He added that the highlights such as "Poker Face", "Starstruck", "Paper Gangsta", and "Summerboy" rely "almost solely on their snappy production and sing-along hooks."Freedom du Lac from The Washington Post criticized the album for lacking originality. MSN Music's Robert Christgau gave the album an "honorable mention" and quippedly referred to it as "shallowness at its most principled." The Fame garnered five Grammy nominations at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on December 2, 2009. The album itself was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Electronic/Dance Album. It also won Best International Album at the 2010 Brit Awards. In 2013 and 2022, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All-Time". Commercial performance In the United States, The Fame debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 24,000 on the issue dated November 15, 2008. After fluctuating down the charts, the album reached number 10 on the issue dated March 7, 2009. The album also topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart; it has stayed at the number-one spot for 175 non-consecutive weeks, as of week of November 5, 2022, and holds the record for the most time on top in the chart's history. In March 2020, the album was certified six-times Platinum for shipments of six million copies, by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With the release of The Fame Monster, which was also combined with The Fame as a deluxe edition, the album jumped from 34 to 6 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 151,000. It reached its highest sales week on the issue dated January 9, 2010 with 169,000 copies sold. On the issue dated January 16, 2010, The Fame moved to a new peak of two on the Billboard 200 after being on the charts for 62 weeks. By the end of 2009, The Fame became the fifth best-selling album of the year.The Fame has sold 4.9 million copies in the United States as of March 2019 and is the seventh best-selling digital album, selling 1.086 million digital copies. Including equivalent album units, The Fame has sold 8.8 million in the country. It was ranked at number 12 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums of All Time list. Following Gaga's Super Bowl LI halftime show performance, The Fame re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 6, selling 17,000 copies and 38,000 total album-equivalent units. It has spent over 300 weeks on the chart.In Canada, the album reached number-one, and has been certified seven times platinum by Music Canada for shipment of 560,000 copies. It had sold 476,000 copies as of March 2011. The album debuted at number six, and peaked at number two in New Zealand as well as being certified double platinum. In Australia, the album debuted at number 12 and peaked at number three. The album has been certified sextuple platinum in Australia, by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 420,000 copies.The Fame debuted in the United Kingdom at number three with first week sales of 25,228 copies. After spending 10 weeks in the top 10, it replaced Ronan Keating's Songs for My Mother at the top position. Since then, the album spent four consecutive weeks at the number-one spot. It has since been certified eleven-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and has sold 3 million copies as of October 2018. It also became the first album to reach the platinum certification based on digital sales after selling 300,000 units in the UK. The album is the ninth best-selling album in the UK of the 21st century, and the 31st best-selling album in UK chart history.In France, The Fame debuted at number 73 and peaked at number two for five weeks. It has been certified diamond status by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) and, as of February 2012, has sold 630,000 copies. In Ireland, the album entered the charts at number-eight, and in its fifth week climbed to number-one for two consecutive weeks. In mainland Europe, the album peaked at number one on the European Top 100 Albums, the Austrian Albums Chart and the German Album Chart. In Germany, it became the fourth most downloaded album ever. It also reached the top 20 in Mexico, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland. Combined with its reissue, The Fame Monster, the album has sold over 18 million copies worldwide. Legacy and impact With the release of The Fame, Gaga was credited for reviving electronic dance music during the late 2000s on radio. Jonathan Bogart from The Atlantic stated, "EDM came in by no back door but right through the front gate, with Lady Gaga's 'Just Dance' in 2008" and that "the sound didn't take long to spread". DJ Tommie Sunshine told MTV that "there wouldn't be a David Guetta top 10 hit... there wouldn't be this Black Eyed Peas record, if it wasn't for The Fame. The influence of that record is epic, and we are hearing talking about all of this because of that." St. Louis Post-Dispatch's journalist Kevin C. Johnson with his article "Lady Gaga helps bring EDM to the masses", acknowledges the impact. In the article, Rob Lemon said Gaga "definitely has had influence" and that she "is exposing people to the music, and anybody exposing people to it is part of the machine." Radio personality Zane Lowe and record producer/DJ Calvin Harris, addressed the impact of the album in a Beats 1 radio interview. Lowe stated: "Mike Skinner told me this, cause we were having a debate about Lady Gaga and he was like 'One thing you gotta remember about Lady Gaga, she put four-on-the-floor back on American radio'" and that "up until that moment there was nothing resembling four-on-the-floor in pop music." Harris added: "A 100%. They even had a hip-hop version of 'Poker Face', for radio" and that "it was the 4/4 one that hit, and then it just went ridiculous." In 2020, Stephen Daw from Billboard stated that "The Fame not only changed the course of Gaga's career, but corrected the course of modern pop music for generations to come." The Fame Monster The Fame Monster is a reissue of The Fame, released on November 18, 2009. Initially planned solely as a part of the deluxe edition of The Fame, Interscope later decided to release the eight new songs as a standalone EP in select territories. The decision was also due to Gaga believing the re-release was too expensive and that the albums were conceptually different, describing them as yin and yang. The deluxe edition of the album contains The Fame in its entirety along with The Fame Monster. The album deals with the darker side of fame, as experienced by Gaga over the course of 2008–09 while travelling around the world, and are expressed through a monster metaphor. Cover artwork was done by Hedi Slimane and has a gothic look which Gaga had to convince her record company to allow her to shoot. The composition takes its inspiration from Gothic music and fashion shows. Contemporary critics gave mostly positive reviews of the album, with the majority of them complimenting the songs "Bad Romance", "Telephone", "Dance in the Dark", and "Monster". In some countries the album charted together with The Fame while in others like the United States, Canada and Japan, it charted as a separate album. It has reached top 10 in most of the major markets. She announced The Monster Ball Tour supporting the album, which started on November 27, 2009, in Montreal, Canada, and finished on May 6, 2011, in Mexico City, Mexico. Track listing Original version Revised version ^a signifies an additional co-producer ^b signifies an additional co-producer and remixer The original Canadian and international releases of The Fame feature earlier mixes of "LoveGame" and "Money Honey". Personnel Personnel adapted from The Fame liner notes. Charts Certifications and sales Release history See also The Fame – Ten Years Archived January 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine at LadyGaga.com

The Fame Monster is a reissue of American singer Lady Gaga's debut studio album, The Fame (2008), and was released on November 18, 2009, through Interscope Records. Initially planned solely as a deluxe edition reissue of The Fame, Interscope later decided to release the eight new songs as a standalone EP in some territories. The decision was also because Gaga believed the re-release was too expensive and that the albums were conceptually different, describing them as yin and yang. The deluxe edition is a double album featuring the eight new songs on the first disc and The Fame on the second disc. A super deluxe edition was released on December 15, 2009, holding additional merchandise, including a lock from Gaga's wig. An electropop record, The Fame Monster has influences of disco, glam rock, and synth-pop music of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as industrial and gothic music. The album was also inspired by fashion shows and runways. According to Gaga, the album deals with the darker side of fame, with its theme lyrically expressed through a monster metaphor. The cover artwork, shot by Hedi Slimane, has a Gothic theme and was declined for release by her record company, but Gaga persuaded them. The Fame Monster received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album charted as The Fame in some countries, and topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, and Poland. In the United States, the EP reached number five on the Billboard 200 and topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart. It has since been certified five-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album has won multiple awards since its release. It was nominated in a total of six categories at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, including Gaga's second consecutive Album of the Year nomination. It won three, including Best Pop Vocal Album. "Bad Romance", the album's lead single, was a commercial success, topping the charts in more than twenty countries and reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The next two singles, "Telephone" and "Alejandro", reached the top ten in multiple countries worldwide. "Dance in the Dark" was released as a single only in select territories, achieving moderate chart success. To promote the album, Gaga embarked on The Monster Ball Tour (2009–2011), which became the highest-grossing tour in history by a debut headlining artist. Background and development Lady Gaga released her debut studio album, The Fame, in 2008. Consisting of electropop and synthpop songs, the album offered a commentary on fame, duality between celebrity and fan base, as well as a wealthy person's life. After the worldwide success of The Fame, the idea of a re-release arose. However, Gaga felt that re-releases were a disservice to music artists because "it's artists sneaking singles onto an already finished piece of work in an effort to keep the album afloat." Her label, Interscope Records, initially wanted three songs for the project, titled as The Fame Monster. Gaga had already composed a song, "Monster", by March 2009. She sought for a darker and edgier concept than she had previously done, and cited her love of horror films and "the decay of the celebrity and the way that fame is a monster in society" as creative inspirations for The Fame Monster. Gaga explained in an interview with Daily Star: I have an obsession with death and sex. Those two things are also the nexus of horror films, which I've been obsessing over lately. I’ve been watching horror movies and 1950s science fiction movies. My re-release is called The Fame Monster so I've just been sort of bulimically eating and regurgitating monster movies and all things scary. I've just been noticing a resurgence of this idea of monster, of fantasy, but in a very real way. If you notice in those films, there's always a juxtaposition of sex with death. Unlike her debut album, the new record was inspired by the singer's personal experiences. The early musical direction was also shaped by Gaga's touring experiences with The Fame Ball Tour, during which she allegedly encountered "several monsters" that encapsulated her biggest fears. These fears were divided into various monster metaphors, such as the "Fear of Sex Monster", "Fear of Love Monster", "Fear of Alcohol Monster", and so forth. "I spent a lot of nights in Eastern Europe," the singer said. "And this album is a pop experimentation with industrial/Goth beats, 90's dance melodies, an obsession with the lyrical genius of 80's melancholic pop, and the runway". In an interview with MTV News, Gaga said that The Fame and The Fame Monster were like yin and yang because of their contrasting styles and concepts. Themes and composition The final cut of The Fame Monster contains eight tracks on the standard edition. The record showcases Gaga's taste for pastiche, drawing on "Seventies arena glam, perky ABBA disco, and sugary throwbacks like Stacey Q", according to Rolling Stone. Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph felt that while not as thematically unified as its predecessor, The Fame Monster had engaging songs composed by virtue of Gaga's "vivacious energy, bold melodies and almost comically relentless sensationalism". The lyrics contain zombie metaphors in songs like "Monster" ("He ate my heart..."), the Cossack like music in "Teeth" ("Take a bite of my bad-girl meat..."), and "Dance in the Dark" ("Silicone, saline, poison, inject me..."). The last of those lyrics also refer to famous people who met a tragic end: Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, Princess Diana, Liberace, and JonBenét Ramsey. Recording sessions were held in Los Angeles, London, Osaka, and Amsterdam. Four of the songs were primarily produced by RedOne, with additional productions on the other songs by Ron Fair, Fernando Garibay, Tal Herzberg, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Teddy Riley, and Space Cowboy. Gaga was the co-producer on all the tracks. The Fame Monster begins with the track "Bad Romance", which Simon Price from The Independent felt set the tone for the album. He added that the track contained a "dominant atmosphere and a Gothic aesthetic, from the monochrome cover artwork of the single version to the crucifix logo". For Paul Lester from BBC, the refrain of "Bad Romance" has sonic similarities to songs by Boney M, and the composition is reminiscent of Depeche Mode's fifth studio album, Black Celebration (1986). A "catchy" chorus and a club-like beat is the crux of the song, talking about how love hurts in both good and bad ways. There is a sing-along hook—"Rah, rah, ah, ah, ah/Roma, roma ma/Gaga, ooh la la"—present in between the verses. Second track, "Alejandro", incorporates elements from music of ABBA and Ace of Base, with the lyrics talking about Gaga fending off a harem of Latino men. The lyrics were also interpreted as bidding farewell to a lover, accompanied by RedOne's production. "Monster" consists of stuttering synths and instrumentation from heavy drums. The intro contains a double four-square beat and Auto-Tune on Gaga's vocals as she sings the lyrics with a Don Juan womanizer metaphor. The fourth track is the ballad "Speechless", a 1970s rock-inspired number that discusses abusive relationships with lyrics like "I can't believe how you slurred at me with your half-wired broken jaw". It consists of vocal harmonies and guitar riffs, which according to PopMatters, is comparable to the work of Freddie Mercury and Queen. Gaga's inspiration for the track was her father's heart condition. She recalls how her father used to call after having few drinks, but the singer was speechless in her response, fearing for his death. Produced by Ron Fair, "Speechless" was recorded with all live instruments such as drums, guitars, bass and piano played by Gaga. The album's fifth track, "Dance in the Dark", talks about a girl who likes to have sex with the lights off as she is ashamed of her body. Gaga has "resolute" vocals in the song, and the synths ultimately lead to the chorus where she belts, "Baby loves to Dance in the Dark, 'Cause when he's looking she falls apart"."Telephone" was originally written by Gaga for singer Britney Spears's sixth studio album, Circus (2008), but Spears' label rejected it. Gaga later recorded it as a collaboration with Beyoncé for The Fame Monster. The song talks about the singer preferring the dance floor rather than answering her lover's call, with the verses sung in a rapid-fire way, accompanied by double beats. Gaga explained that the song deals with her fear of suffocation, "fear [of] never being able to enjoy myself. 'Cause I love my work so much, I find it really hard to go out and have a good time." In "So Happy I Could Die", Gaga presents an ode to sexual feeling and actions, stating, "I love that lavender blonde, The way she moves the way she walks, I touch myself, can't get enough." The object of affection in the track becomes Gaga herself as she sings about drinking, dancing, observing, and touching herself, in a sedated, Auto-Tuned voice. The Fame Monster ends with the song "Teeth", which has a gospel style composition. Release and artwork Gaga confirmed that the eight new songs would be released in North America as a standalone extended play (EP). She felt that The Fame Monster should be treated as her sophomore release and did not want to "add, nor take away any songs from this EP. It is a complete conceptual and musical body of work that can stand on its own two feet". The EP was released in North America on November 23, 2009. The deluxe edition double album featuring the eight new songs on the first disc and The Fame on the second disc—was launched the same day. The limited edition, which included a lock of her wig, followed three weeks later. Interscope had planned to release only a double-disc deluxe edition of The Fame, but Gaga fought with the record label arguing that her fans who already purchased The Fame should be able to purchase only the new tracks. So in countries like the United States, The Fame Monster was also released as a separate standard EP. On May 3, 2010, The Fame Monster Limited Edition USB flash drive was released. It included the explicit version of the tracks, as well as nine remixes, eight music videos, a digital booklet, single cover artworks, and a photo gallery.Two covers were created for The Fame Monster, both of which were shot by French photographer Hedi Slimane. The first cover artwork features Gaga sporting a blond wig and a sleek, angular black coat, the collar of which covers the lower half of her face. The angular obscuring of her face was a reference to the similar cover art for The Fame, but was relegated as "sleek" by Andrew Unterberger from Billboard. He added that "there's a danger in Gaga's eyes this time out, and the feeling of greater depth in its austerity: A star, but one with a lot to say." The second cover artwork is reminiscent of Gaga's appearance as "Stefani" before she became famous and developed her image. In this photo, Gaga is draped in thick brown hair similar in style and color to her natural hair with heavy, streamy black eyeliner running down her face to represent tears. In interviews, Gaga explained that the two album covers are part of the "yin and yang" concept depicting who she was before and after achieving fame. A vinyl picture disc edition of The Fame Monster features the "blonde" cover on the A-side and "brunette" cover on the B-side.Gaga initially had a dispute with her record label over the artwork; Interscope found the brunette cover to be too dark and gothic for a mainstream release. However, Gaga convinced them by explaining that both would be suitable with the yin and yang concept of the album. The font used on the cover is the sans-serif letterform used by Christian Dior in their campaigns. Promotion Singles The album's lead single, "Bad Romance", was released for digital download on October 23, 2009. The song topped numerous record charts, as well as reaching a peak of number two in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, and Switzerland, ultimately selling 12 million copies worldwide. The accompanying music video, featuring Gaga inside a surreal white bathhouse, garnered acclaim from critics, who praised the risqué and symbolic nature of the plot, as well as its artistic direction and vivid imagery. In 2011, the music video was voted the best video of the 2000s (decade) by readers of Billboard."Telephone" was released as the album's second single on January 26, 2010. The track reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Gaga's second consecutive UK chart topper and fourth in total. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten. "Telephone" also reached number one on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, becoming Gaga's sixth consecutive number-one on the chart, tying with Mariah Carey for most number-ones since the chart's launch in 1992. The music video is a continuation of the clip for Gaga's previous single, "Paparazzi" (2010), with the plot showing Beyoncé bailing Gaga from jail and together going on a murder spree."Dance in the Dark" was intended by Gaga's record label to be the third single. However, Gaga chose "Alejandro" after a confrontation with her label and it was released on April 20, 2010. "Alejandro" reached the top five of the Australian and Canadian charts, as well as the top ten of the charts of other nations. In the United States, it reached number five, becoming her seventh consecutive top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100. "Dance in the Dark" was then released as the fourth and final single from The Fame Monster in France and Russia in the second half of 2010. It had minor chart placements, reaching number 24 in Australia and number 30 on the French Digital Charts. Performances Promotion for The Fame Monster began with a performance on Saturday Night Live, which contained segments of a piano version of "Bad Romance". Gaga also appeared on various talk shows, such as It's On with Alexa Chung and Germany's Wetten, dass..?. On November 16, 2009, Gaga performed "Speechless" at Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art's 30th Anniversary celebrations. She collaborated with artist Francesco Vezzolli and members of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Same day she performed "Bad Romance" on CW's Gossip Girl, during an episode titled "The Last Days of Disco Stick". Gaga also performed "Bad Romance" at the 2009 American Music Awards, The Jay Leno Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The X Factor UK. She then performed "Speechless" at the Royal Variety Performance.Gaga appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in January 2010, and performed a medley of "Monster", "Bad Romance", and "Speechless". At the 52nd Grammy Awards, the singer opened the show by performing a medley of "Poker Face", "Speechless", and "Your Song" with Elton John. At the 2010 Brit Awards, Gaga sang a ballad version of "Telephone" and then "Dance in the Dark", in memory of designer Alexander McQueen. In March 2010, "Bad Romance" and "Monster" were added as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series, along with "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" from The Fame. Gaga appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, and sang "Brown Eyes" (from The Fame) and "Telephone". The next month, she held a mini-concert in Japan for MAC Cosmetics, collaborating with Canadian performance artist, Terence Koh. Billed as "GagaKoh", the concert took place on a rotating stage where Koh had created a statue of a naked woman with rabbit ears. The singer performed "Speechless", "Alejandro", and "Bad Romance" in the event. Tour Gaga had initially planned to accompany rapper Kanye West on concert tour Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga. After his controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with Taylor Swift, West announced that he was taking a break from music. All the Fame Kills tour dates were immediately cancelled and Gaga confirmed that she was going on tour alone to promote The Fame Monster. Described by Gaga as "the first-ever pop electro opera", The Monster Ball Tour started from November 2009 and finished in May 2011. Gaga and her production team initially developed a stage that looked like a frame with the show fitted within it. The singer felt that the design would allow her creative control. Since the album dealt with the paranoias faced by Gaga over the year, the main theme of the show became evolution, with Gaga portraying growth as the show progressed. The set list consisted of songs from both The Fame and The Fame Monster.For the 2010 shows, Gaga felt that a revamp was needed as the original tour was constructed in a very short span of time. The new theme narrated a story where Gaga and her friends, traveling through New York, get lost while going to the Monster Ball. The show was divided into five segments with the last one being the encore. Each segment featured Gaga in a new dress and was followed by a video interlude to the next one. The tour grossed an estimated US$227.4 million from 200 reported shows attended by an audience of 2.5 million, making it the highest grossing tour by a debut headlining artist. A tour special was filmed by HBO during Gaga's February 2011 shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Critical reception The Fame Monster received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it received an average score of 78, based on 14 reviews. Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine felt that the album was not a huge leap forward for Gaga, but provided "small, if fleeting, glimpses behind the pretense." Simon Price of The Independent called it "a whole new piece of art in its own right." Kitty Empire from The Observer said that the album is "a lot more splendidly deranged" than the work of the Pussycat Dolls. MSN Music's Robert Christgau found it to be of "comparable quality" as The Fame and gave it a rating of A−, describing the tracks as "streamlined pop machines". Christgau further elaborated that "after being overwhelmed by the sheer visibility of her warp-speed relaunch did I realize how enjoyable and inescapable her hooks and snatches had turned out to be."NME's Ben Patashnik described The Fame Monster "as pristine as you'd expect, but has a sub-zero core of isolation and fear". She went on to call the album's release as "the moment Gaga cements herself as a real star". Evan Sawdey from PopMatters commended Gaga for being "willing to try new things" and felt that the album shows "she's not complacent with doing the same thing over again [...] Gaga is allowed to make a few mistakes on her way towards pop nirvana—and judging what she's aiming for with The Fame Monster, there's a good chance she's going to get there sooner than later." Mikael Wood from Los Angeles Times felt that The Fame Monster continued to demonstrate Gaga's creative ambition and stylistic range.Jon Dolan from Rolling Stone called the EP "largely on point," and gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. He also said that "half the disc is Madonna knock-offs, but that's part of the concept—fame monsters needn't concern themselves with originality." Edna Gundersen from USA Today observed that on The Fame Monster, "Gaga's icy aloofness and seeming aversion to a genuine human connection leave a disturbing void. With an avant-garde intellect, pop-electro eccentricities and freaky theatrics competing for attention, there's no room for heart."Ed Power reviewed the album for Ireland's Hot Press magazine where he complimented Gaga's ability to "always brings her A-game" in her musical outputs. Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph commented that the album has "an irrepressible quality that is given full rein. [...] Although not as thematically integrated as the original [The Fame], Gaga's vivacious energy, bold melodies and almost comically relentless sensationalism keeps things interesting." Josh Modell of Spin gave positive feedback regarding the fast-paced songs on the record, but felt that "When Gaga reaches for sincere balladry [...] she sounds lost". Writing for The Times, Sarah Hajibagheri criticized the album due to its "lack [of] the beat and bite that made us all go Gaga for the eccentric New Yorker". Commercial performance In the United States, the individual disc of The Fame Monster charted at number five on the Billboard 200 with sales of 174,000 copies while the double disc deluxe edition, including the original The Fame, moved up from number 34 to number 6 with sales of 151,000 copies. The album also topped the Digital Albums chart with sales of 65,000. Seven of the eight songs from the record also charted on the Hot Digital Songs chart, led by "Bad Romance" which held the top position for the second week with sales of 218,000 copies. In total Gaga had 11 songs that week charting on the Digital Songs. The Fame Monster topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, replacing The Fame and becoming Gaga's second number one album on the chart.In March 2020, the album was certified quintuple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of five million copies. As of February 2018, The Fame Monster has sold 1.65 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan. For the 2010 Billboard year end tabulation, The Fame Monster was ranked at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart. In Canada, the album debuted and peaked at number six on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart. It was the 23rd best selling album in the country for 2010.In Australia, The Fame Monster initially charted with The Fame, but was later considered as a standalone entry. It debuted at number 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart and in its 18th week, the record climbed to number one. It received a triple platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 210,000 copies of the album. In Japan, after being present on the Oricon Albums Chart for over 20 weeks, the album reached its peak position of number two in May 2010. By July 2011, the album had sold 548,000 copies in Japan and ranked at number 14 on the year end list for 2010.In the United Kingdom, The Fame Monster was only available as a deluxe edition, not as a standalone album, hence it charted as part of The Fame. After The Fame Monster's release, The Fame moved from number 55 to number 7 on the UK Albums Chart. All the new tracks from The Fame Monster charted within the top 200 of the UK Singles Chart. On the week ending March 6, 2010, The Fame reached the top of the chart. Because of its chart activity across the European markets, The Fame Monster peaked at number 13 on the European Top 100 Albums chart. It was certified triple platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for shipment of three million copies across the continent. Recognition In 2010, Gaga won the "Outstanding Music Artist" award for The Fame Monster, during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards. The album and its songs were nominated in six categories at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. The Fame Monster was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Pop Vocal Album. "Bad Romance" won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video, while "Telephone" and "Dance in the Dark" were nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Dance Recording, respectively.The album earned Best Album nominations at the 2010 International Dance Music Award and the Meteor Awards. It won the Best English Album at the Premios Oye! 2010 awards in Mexico. At the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, it earned an entry in the category for Top Electronic/Dance Album.Time magazine listed The Fame Monster in their "Top 10 Albums of 2009" list, noting that it demonstrates "a complete understanding of what dance audiences require and vocal talent that's easy to forget underneath all that platinum hair." Spin ranked the album at number 197 on their list of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years" and characterized it as Gaga's magnum opus and a "mini-masterpiece".In 2012, Complex listed it at rank six on their countdown of The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years. Dale Eisenger from the publication called both covers as "alluring and gorgeous", adding that Gaga's look was followed by a number of artists emulating it in later years. In 2015, Billboard included the standard album cover on their list of the "50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time". Andrew Unterberger from the publication wrote in a 2016 article that the cover arts were "much starker and more angular than the party-diva framing of [The Fame]. It's still very sleek, but there's a danger in Gaga's eyes this time out, and the feeling of greater depth in its austerity: A star, but one with a lot to say." In November 2016, Billboard named The Fame Monster Gaga's best album. Legacy and impact According to Billboard, as of 2022, The Fame Monster is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100. With the release of The Fame and The Fame Monster, Gaga was attributed to reviving electronic dance music in the late 2000s era of popular music by professional critics, DJs Tommie Sunshine and Calvin Harris, and radio personality Zane Lowe. Additionally, Andrew Unterberger of Billboard stated that "Gaga raised the standards for ambition in pop", concluding that she "took American mainstream music at one of its least-interesting and most star-power-deprived moments and made it bigger, weirder, more visual and infinitely more personality-driven – in other words, much more fun."Critics acknowledged that The Fame Monster also had an influence on the images of pop stars, beginning a trend of wearing bizarre and outrageous outfits. Tracie Egan Morrissey from Jezebel, said that 2011 MTV Video Music Awards's red carpet "reeks of Lady Gaga's influence", particularly noticing the effect on the attire of Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry at the show. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times in his article "Girl Pop's Lady Gaga Makeover" states: "It's Halloween-costume empowerment, sure, but her fingerprints are all over the revised images of Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Beyoncé; and on new artists like Kesha, Janelle Monáe and Nicki Minaj" and that "the work she's done since her 2008 debut album [...] has nudged loose conventional boundaries."In 2019, Pitchfork ranked the album number 151 in their "Best Albums of the 2010s" list, acknowledging that although it was officially released in November 2009, they made an exception as the album "cast such a long shadow over this decade". The Fame Monster placed at number 45 on Consequence's The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time, while at six on their Top 75 Albums of the Last 15 Years. The publication commented about its relevance since it was released, stating that the album "laid a certain groundwork for many women in pop to follow." Track listing ^a signifies a co-producer ^b While Bender and Teddy Riley are not credited as songwriters of "Teeth" in the album liner notes, they are listed as songwriters by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Fame Monster. Musicians Technical Artwork Julian Peploe Studio – art direction Hedi Slimane – photography Charts Certifications and sales Release history See also The Fame Monster at LadyGaga.com